Monsanto making donation to Food Prize Foundation
By JERRY PERKINS • REGISTER FARM EDITOR • February 15, 2008
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Monsanto Co. will announce today a $5 million gift to the World Food Prize Foundation to help transform the former Des Moines main library into the Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates.
Hugh Grant, chairman, president and chief executive officer of St. Louis-based Monsanto, is scheduled to present the $5 million donation to the foundation at a 10:30 a.m. ceremony in the rotunda of the 104-year-old riverfront building at 100 Locust St.
Borlaug, the Iowa farm boy who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting world hunger, is unable to attend because of ill health. Borlaug turns 94 next month and is suffering from lymphoma and other ailments.
His daughter, Jeanie Lauve, and granddaughter, Julie Borlaug, will represent the family.
The Monsanto gift means the World Food Prize Foundation has raised $19.3 million of its $23.8 million goal to refurbish the former home of the Des Moines main library and set up a $6 million endowment for upkeep of the building, said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize.
The foundation wants to turn the old library into a public museum to honor Borlaug and the World Food Prize laureates who have been honored each fall since 1986, when Borlaug founded the World Food Prize.
In 1990, Des Moines businessman John Ruan took over sponsorship of the prize and brought it to Des Moines.
Quinn said he hoped Monsanto's gift will encourage other donors.
Last week, DuPont, which owns Johnston-based Pioneer Hi-Bred, announced it has donated $1 million to the World Food Prize, contingent on it meeting certain fundraising goals during the next four years.
Quinn said the World Food Prize also has requested $5 million from Vision Iowa, an Iowa Department of Economic Development program that funds tourist attractions with a minimum cost of $20 million.
The Vision Iowa board will consider the request at its March 12 meeting at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.
"This gift is not just about the building," Quinn said. "The building also will be the home of our annual fall symposium, now known as the Borlaug Dialogue. The Monsanto gift will make sure the Dialogue will grow in stature and prestige."
Grant said Thursday in a telephone interview with The Des Moines Register that Monsanto is giving the money to the World Food Prize because it supports Borlaug's efforts to feed the world's hungry.
"Bricks and mortar of a lovely old building are important, but what's more important is supporting the spirit of Norman Borlaug and the vision he created," Grant said.
Borlaug, who was born on a farm near Cresco, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing high-yielding varieties of wheat credited with saving millions of lives in India and Pakistan in the 1960s.
Because of his pioneering plant breeding work and his efforts to boost food production, Borlaug became known as the "Father of the Green Revolution."
He is one of only five people to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. The others are Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela.
"This is not a business investment," Grant said. "Monsanto, as a company, is grounded in global agricultural science. It's a responsibility we have."
Grant, 49, said he was a university student in Scotland when he first learned of Borlaug's work to boost food production.
"He was a hero to me," Grant said. "But winning the Nobel Peace Prize was just the beginning for Borlaug. Since then, he's worked to advance food production and agriculture all over the world."
In October, Grant spoke at the World Food Prize symposium, now the Borlaug Dialogue.
Grant said he was impressed by the gathering, which attracted more than 700 participants from 65 countries.
"Hopefully, the Borlaug Dialogue will become a gathering, a coming together, that will expand the vision that Norman Borlaug created many years ago," he said.
Grant said he hoped the Dialogue will evolve into the global agricultural equivalent of the Davos World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of world business and government leaders held in Davos, Switzerland.
Farm Editor Jerry Perkins can be reached at (515) 284-8456 or
[email protected]
