Charles City’s Forsyth attends World Food Prize GYI

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Bronson Forsyth, senior at Charles City and the Charles City FFA president, attended the 2019 World Food Prize Global Youth Institute (GYI) in Des Moines from Oct. 16-19.

The top high school students in the country and around the world were selected to attend the World Food Prize GYI during the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, which drew 1,000 people from 50 countries to discuss world hunger and food security issues.

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the youth education program welcoming over 460 students and teachers from 26 U.S. states or territories and 10 countries.

In order to be considered for participation, students identify a country of interest and research a topic affecting the global food system, then propose an evidence-based solution to improve the lives of families living within the country.

Students are selected to attend the conference by presenting their solutions at a regional youth institute or through an at-large selection process.

Forsyth wrote his paper on water scarcity in Chad, and his solutions were using smart crops, genetically modified to be drought tolerant and having rain collection systems to collect and store water during the rainy season.

At the three-day international symposium, students had the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of internationally renowned World Food Prize laureates and leaders in food, agriculture and international development.

The program began with a keynote address from the 2017 World Food Prize laureate and president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, and also featured the 2019 Africa Food Prize Laureate, Emma Naluyima.

Participants also viewed the 2019 World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony honoring Simon N. Groot of The Netherlands. He was recognized for his transformative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 60 countries to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefitting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets.

The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

The Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the World Food Prize has honored 49 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world.

The World Food Prize annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and a variety of youth education programs to help further the discussion on cutting-edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.