Ag breakfast speaker: Iowa farmers can help end world hunger

 Roughly 30 percent of our food is wasted. More than 900 million people in the world are living with hunger.

Fortunately, Iowa farmers and scientists can help in the process to end hunger, according to an animal science professor emeritus at Iowa State University. 

World hunger and the future of agriculture were the topics of Dr. Maynard Hogberg’s speech at Wednesday morning’s Ag Appreciation Breakfast. 

“Back in 1800, we had farm families here that fed one other family,” Hogberg said. “We are now at about one farm family [feeding] another 144 families. We’ve made tremendous strides in our efficiency of production and our ability to produce food.”

Hogberg said even though almost one billion people are living with hunger, the number is 200 million less than 25 years ago. 

“We have some challenges,” Hogberg said. “Some of them are just producing more food; some of them are just logistics … if we want to look at a place where we can really improve efficiency, look at our food production system and how we can reduce that food waste, because I think it’s got a lot of opportunities for us there.”

Part of becoming more efficient is developing and using new technology, as well as working with scientists in other countries to help them become self-sufficient in agriculture. 

“I think we’re part of a bigger system,” Hogberg said. “It takes a large, complex system. The more  efficient we are, the more we adopt the technologies. Our producers here [in Iowa] are who really make those technologies work. As scientists, we learn from them. [Scientists say] ‘Ok, we have this new technology. Try it. Now, how do we need to tweak it to make it work and under what conditions?’ The environment in southwest Iowa is different than what it is up in Ames, where I live. We’re trying to see these in different environments and how they work.”

Hogberg said faculty members at the university are working in other countries to develop sustainable agriculture projects. Faculty is currently working with scientists in Uganda and developing Southeast Asian countries. 

The projects in these countries include how scientists and farmers there can implement certain technology and agricultural growth “so they can feed themselves, basically, and build themselves up into a better economic condition. 

Hogberg believes these projects will help end hunger throughout the world, leading to less unrest and war, noting population growth as a problem. 

The worldwide population is expected to continue to increase, with developing countries seeing the most significant growth. Hogberg notes the world has not found a solid solution to feed the increasing population. 

“Our solutions so far have come down to war, starvation and disease,” Hogberg said. He notes this is unacceptable and posed the question “how can we produce more food?”

Hogberg believes if farmers in Iowa continue to work with scientists to develop new technologies and ways to be efficient, they can become part of the solution to a global issue. 

“On the agronomics side, we’ll continue to grow more and more families [that can be fed], probably even greater than we will on the livestock side,” Hogberg said. “We’ll find more labor-saving technologies, probably, and things to better, more quickly identify problems or needs and we can do that with the technologies. So, science will give us instant readings on things, rather than having to wait to see what happens. I think we can easily hit that 200 [families fed per farm family]. I think that’s within reach.”

Following Dr. Hogberg’s address, three awards were given. 

The first award, Emerging Leader in Agriculture, was given to Alan Spencer, agricultural education instructor and Future Farmers of America advisor at Red Oak Community High School. 

The Farm Family of the Year award was presented to Tony and Delores Johnson and Bill Drey received the Service to Agriculture award.