The World Food Prize Foundation hosts their event in Des Moines, and awards the prize — considered one of the highest honors in the field of food and agriculture — to a laureate who has made vital contributions to improving the quality and quantity of food throughout the world.
The 2024 World Food Prize was awarded to scientists Geoffrey Hawtin and Cary Fowler, who were instrumental in establishing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds 1.25 million seed samples of more than 6,000 plant species in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. Hawtin and Fowler talk about their decades-long efforts both individually and as collaborators in protecting the world's heritage of crop biodiversity.
This episode was originally produced on Oct. 28, 2024.
Guests:
- Geoffrey Hawtin, founding director and executive board member, Global Crop Diversity Trust
- Cary Fowler, U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, U.S. Department of State
