Soy family leaders are in Des Moines, Iowa this week for the World Food Prize Symposium.

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 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world. Thirty-nine laureates have been recognized from Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Israel, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Nations and the United States.

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 hunger and food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.

This week's Thursday soy luncheon for around 1,100 people was sponsored by the United Soybean Board (USB), the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), The Soyfoods Council and the American Soybean Association/World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (ASA/WISHH) program.

On Friday, after the Borlaug symposium closes, a number of participants will tour Iowa farms, including ASA Director Dennis Bogards’.

Attending the events this week are, Wayne Fredericks, ASA director and president of Iowa Soybean Association (ISA); Rolland Schnell, president elect of ISA; Kirk Leeds, ISA CEO, John Becherer, USB CEO, Jim Hershey, executive director of the WISHH Program and Karey Claghorn, ISA COO.