Build on the ‘Borlaug legacy’

Branstad reflects on first year leading World Food Prize Foundation

By Emily Barske Wood

For one of his first orders of business as the president of the World Food Prize Foundation, Terry Branstad rented a bus. 

He wanted to take staff to the farm south of Cresco where the late Norman Borlaug grew up before becoming a world-renowned ag researcher and humanitarian. Only one employee had visited the site, and Branstad thought it was time that changed.

Borlaug’s research and advocacy eventually won him the Nobel Peace Prize, and he went on to create the World Food Prize with the goal to recognize those helping to fight food insecurity globally. 

Today, the World Food Prize Foundation celebrates those who put that mission into practice, facilitates conversations among global leaders about food and agriculture in Des Moines, and offers educational programming, among other things.

Like Borlaug, Branstad grew up on an Iowa farm, but his work has taken him around the world. Branstad maintains the record as the longest-serving governor in the country and was appointed the ambassador to China by former President Donald Trump. He never imagined leading the World Food Prize Foundation, but when approached about the opportunity – it just made sense, Branstad said. 

Branstad has been a supporter of the organization from the beginning. Borlaug brought the World Food Prize to Des Moines in 1990 with the sponsorship of businessman John Ruan II during Branstad’s first stint as Iowa’s governor, and the state supported the work. Then, in 2006, former Govs. Branstad, Robert Ray and Tom Vilsack served as honorary co-chairs when the foundation created the Iowa Hunger Summit, which would begin the next year. 

We recently caught up with Branstad to discuss how he’s using his career experience to lead the foundation and his goals for the organization. 

The following Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

You’ve been in the role about a year. I’m curious how you’ve been taking your background in policy and ag into this work. 

First of all, of course, I was governor when John Ruan, Sr. teamed up with Norman Borlaug to bring the World Food Prize here. So I’ve been familiar with the program from the time it came to Iowa in 1990. The state has had great bipartisan support. 

Of course, I grew up on a farm. I’ve always had an interest in agriculture. In my years as a state representative, lieutenant governor and governor, I had a close relationship with the commodity organizations, the Farm Bureau and all the ag groups. I was governor during the farm crisis in the 1980s. We were going through some very difficult, stressful times. We closed 38 banks, and land value dropped 63%. I worked really hard not only to help farmers, but also to add value to agriculture. That’s where we really started to focus on things like ethanol, biodiesel, wind energy and also food processing. 

As governor, I also did a lot of travel both domestically and internationally to attract food companies to Iowa. We had some success with companies like Barilla, Ajinomoto, Roquette, Boehringer Ingelheim and many others. Cargill, ADM, the list goes on. But so now being in this position at the World Food Prize, I have had a long history with the ag groups and with the food groups, and so it’s just natural to call on them. Part of the job of the president of the World Food Prize is to raise money to support the programs. Of course we are blessed to have the support of the Ruan family and the endowment that they created. 

But we do a lot of things. We do the youth leadership program, which was started at Iowa State and now we’re in 40 different states and several foreign countries. We also have the Iowa Hunger Summit. Borlaug said that no person should go to bed hungry or should starve in this world. Even in Iowa, where we’re such an abundant food-producing state, we still have people with hunger issues. The former Govs. Robert Ray, Tom Vilsack and I all initiated the idea of a Hunger Summit at the time that Chet Culver was governor. 

So when I was approached last January about this job, first of all, I never imagined it and this wasn’t something that I sought after. I was approached about it and I thought, gosh, this makes a lot of sense because I have been a strong supporter of the World Food Prize from the get-go. I know a lot of the key players in the agriculture community and then in the food industry. And you can’t run for governor without learning how to raise money, so I’ve learned how to do that as well. 

It’s been fun and it’s been a great group to work with here. Chief Operating Officer Mashal Husain has been here for 15 years. Of course, Ambassador Ken Quinn came back for four months on an interim basis to help us and he’s got so much institutional knowledge. I wanted to make sure that we were utilizing that. I’m pleased with the success we’ve had the first year. We had nearly 1,400 people from 83 countries that were here. That was a record number of countries represented. Heidi Kühn was the recipient of the 2023 World Food Prize; she’s got a great story and she’s got a great personality, and she’s done some wonderful things. (Kühn’s work has supported demining partners in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Croatia, Israel, Iraq, Palestinian areas, and Vietnam, allowing local farmers safe access to irrigation canals and arable land for cultivation. Her organization has also started working in Ukraine.) 

Tell me a little bit about when you all were involved in creating the Iowa Hunger Summit. What was it like when you all came together to start it?

The World Food Prize was already having the Borlaug Dialogue, and we decided that we ought to have some focus on addressing hunger in Iowa. It started as a luncheon at the Borlaug Dialogue in 2007 and it was a great success. (The luncheon had randomized cards for attendees to draw from that told them which level of income, from low to high, their meal represented.) You ate what they served you depending on which group you were in. But so it gave people a taste of what it is like in different circumstances. 

Now we’re doing the Iowa Hunger Summit separate from the Borlaug Dialogue. We did it this year here at the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates. We had Gov. Kim Reynolds, we had all three university presidents. We had Kelly Kennedy Garcia, who leads the state’s Health and Human Services department. All three of the universities now have food banks on each of their campuses now and we had people that were involved with that. A lot of the groups, the food pantries and the food banks and the nonprofits that are involved in helping, were here. 

We discussed addressing the issue in rural Iowa, where it’s really hard for grocery stores to stay in business. A lot of these smaller communities have a lot of elderly residents, and it’s really hard for them to get nutritious food. Rep. Brian Lohse and his wife started a grocery store in Bondurant and then recently sold it to Fareway. I have been working with him on the issue. The state of Kansas has done something to help these rural grocery stores stay in business. We are hoping to have legislation introduced to have a revolving loan program or something like that. I grew up in a small town; Leland, Iowa, has no grocery store anymore. They had two when I was a kid, and now they have none. A lot of smaller communities, maybe they’ve got a convenience store, or nothing at all. So that’s one of the challenges. But it’s really good to get people together to talk about food issues and talk about how we can combat hunger in a state that is such a huge producer of food, exporter of food — but we also need to take care of our own people.

On that topic, what role do you feel Iowa plays in solving food insecurity around the world? 

I think we play a very key role. The food banks and food pantries play a very important role that has really grown over the years, and it’s been critically important here in recent years, too. I remember talking to Miriam Erickson from Anderson Erickson; they donate a bunch of milk and products to the food banks and food pantries. A lot of the grocery industry is very involved in that as well. But it’s one of the things that we hope to coordinate and increase the collaboration and communication in addressing those issues.

I think for our audience, in particular, I’d love to hear your thoughts about how the business community plays a role. 

The business community has played a very important role, especially the companies that are involved in the food industry, in donating surplus food. If we have an event here, we’ll donate the food that’s not used to DMARC, the Young Women’s Resource Center or whoever is in need at the time. Food waste is a huge issue, too, that we need to try to address. We need the business community to look at the opportunity to donate financially or in-kind.

And what about the average individual? How would you say they can help? 

First of all, I think they look at how they can contribute to groups like the food banks or food pantries. A lot of the churches are very involved in this as well. Iowans, for the most part, are very generous people, and when they see a need are willing to pitch in and help, whether it’s refugees or whether it’s people that are just in need.

Tell me a little bit about your work with U.S.-China relations and how that’s tied into this work. 

Well, China is a huge country: 1.4 billion people, they’re the second largest economy in the world. My relationship with China goes way back. I signed a sister-state agreement my first year as governor with Hebei, which is a province surrounding Beijing. When I went there the first time, it was really a different place than it is today. I’ve been back several times and I was ambassador for three years and four months. The growth there can also be thought of from this perspective: They’re taking a lot of good farmland out of production. They already are short of enough land to feed themselves, so that’s why for a state like Iowa, China is a very important export market. When I was ambassador, they suffered the African swine fever, which really decimated their pork herd, and we helped them rebuild it. We export a lot of soybeans, pork, now corn, beef and chicken as well, to China. They’re an important market there. I’ve worked with commodity groups to build long-term relationships with the Chinese buyers. 

They’re an authoritarian communist system very much different than ours. They don’t have the freedom of speech and assembly that we have. They have significant surveillance of their own people. If you dare say something negative, about President Xi Jinping or the Communist Party, you may lose your rights, to ride on the high speed train, to go on an airplane, to get a visa. So people are very much in fear of saying anything critical. Unlike this country where people can say whatever they want to, in China, they don’t dare. (Branstad also described specific transgressions by the Chinese government against its citizens, such as religious persecution and attacks on the press.) 

In one sense, I love the Chinese people. The Chinese people are very nice. They have a very strong work ethic. They’re very entrepreneurial. They’re very committed to education. On a personal basis, I was the first governor to host Xi Jinping. He calls me an old friend because of the way we treated him in ‘85. (After a press conference when Branstad arrived in China as the new ambassador, Xi invited the Branstad family to have dinner with his wife and daughter.) And yet, from a policy perspective, we’ve been very disappointed with the direction he’s led China. We thought he would be a reformer but he has gone along with the hardliners and given the Communist Party more control, so that’s been a disappointment. Still, I don’t think we can give up on the relationship with China because they’re a big market. They’re important to us, and we’ve got to continue to work to try to eliminate some of the bad practices, such as stealing technology, or not recognizing intellectual property rights. But we did make progress with the Phase 1 trade agreement and it’s still in place, but it’s not perfect. It’s not been totally adhered to, but it was a very major step forward.

Tell me more about the issue of China not having enough farmland to feed their own population. 

They have so many mountains, deserts, and then they’ve overused chemicals and fertilizer. Some of their land can’t be used because of the pollution that’s caused. They have become more aware of the air pollution and are addressing that. We still have a long way to go, but it got better every year I was there when I was the ambassador. But they have a huge problem with soil and groundwater pollution that they haven’t addressed.

Do you see that as something that’s an issue outside of China, too, in terms of fighting food insecurity? 

Oh, yeah, it is. China is still building coal plants, not only in China, but throughout the world. The Chinese have the Belt and Road Initiative and they’ll come into these underdeveloped countries and they’ll build the infrastructure and they’ll put in power plants, but a lot of them are coal plants. There’s a lot of issues with that, too.

What have been some of your biggest goals since taking on this role at the World Food Prize Foundation? 

The first thing I wanted to do is put the focus back on the legacy of Norman Borlaug and John Ruan. (The Great Depression hit about the time Borlaug graduated from the University of Minnesota, and the job he’d lined up with the USDA and the Forestry Service fell through). 

Borlaug ended up getting his Ph.D. and became this great ag researcher. He did a lot of his research in Mexico, and one of his big accomplishments was he developed a strain of wheat, which was disease resistant and got higher yields and it didn’t fall over. He worked with the people in India, Pakistan, Iran – preventing many people from starvation. So that’s why he got the Nobel Peace Prize. 

(The Nobel Committee did not specifically have an award for food and agriculture.) But Borlaug wanted one for food and ag and the committee said, “Sorry, can’t do it.” So he said, “I’ll do it myself.” So he teamed up with the General Foods in New York, but then they got bought out and decided to discontinue it. Then he went to Des Moines and was able to get John Ruan to partner with him. Elaine Szymoniak, who was a Democratic state senator from here in Des Moines, became a real champion. I was governor, I supported it. We got bipartisan support and we got it here. Herman Kilpper ran it at first and then Ambassador Quinn retired from the State Department, and he took on the job and in 20 years he really built it. The organization went through a difficult time with COVID and they did some virtual things during that time, but we’re really building back now. That’s part of my mission is to build on the Borlaug legacy.

John Ruan II is the one who started the World Food Prize. His son, John Ruan III, is the one that had the vision to create this building, the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates, and of course he’s since passed away as well. But we raised money to fund a John Ruan III Lecture. So that’s part of what I’m trying to do is honor and recognize the Ruan family as well as the Borlaug family. 

I think our audience would be curious to know with all of the positions you’ve held, what would be your advice for other leaders?

My advice is whatever you’re doing, work hard at it. Excel, and other people will recognize it and it can open other opportunities.