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World Food Prize laureates call on Biden to act on global hunger

World Food Prize Laureates are calling on the Biden administration to address global hunger and invest in solutions that will help transform food systems around the world.

Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and a 2018 Laureate, says transformation is needed.

“Our current food systems got us here and that’s where we need to look for change,” he says. “They need to be transformed—not a revamp, not a reboot, but a transformation. Food systems are a veritable one stop shop for addressing these threats to people, prosperity, and planet.”

He says the hunger efforts would cost around $1 billion each year for the next decade, but inaction would cost much more.

“How much would it cost if we do not act now—much, much more,” he says. “In the nutrition space, the economists tell us the ratio is 16 to 1. So, cutting domestic and international finance to food system transformation, hunger, malnutrition, and climate is the wrong thing to do and would place a set of really festering problems on the backs of the youngest and the most vulnerable.”

David Beckman, president emeritus of Bread for the World and a 2010 Laureate, says the U.S. must be a global leader in addressing hunger.

“We have seen over and over again how important American leadership is in sparking collaborative action,” he says.

Laureates are calling on the U.S. to play a leadership role in the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit. Gebisa Ejeta, director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security and a 2009 Laureate, says the world looks to the U.S. for investment and leadership.

“Now with President Biden committing to return to climate change negotiations in Paris, if he would also heed our call and commit to the UN food summit in September it would show the world that both agendas are important to the U.S,” he says.  

Also participating in a digital dialogue today were: Jan Low, principal scientist at the International Potato Center and a 2016 laureate; Rob Bertram, chief scientist for USAID’s bureau for resilience and food security, and Claudia Sadoff, executive management team convener and managing director, research delivery and impact with CGIAR.

The virtual event expanded on a letter that more than twenty World Food Prize Laureates sent to the Biden administration in February. The World Food Prize Laureates last came together for a global call to action 19 years ago. The World Food Prize Foundation says it supports its Laureates and echoes the need for U.S. leadership on global hunger.