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Laureates say progress against global hunger has stalled

Past recipients of the World Food Prize are calling for bold action on food security.

“Progress against hunger has come to a standstill,” said 2010 World Food Prize winner David Beckmann.

Speaking to reporters at the 2025 Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Beckmann said severe hunger has dramatically increased globally.

“Partly because violent conflict in the world has increased,” he said. “COVID was a huge setback. And also, climate change is a severe situation for farm families in the tropics.”

More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates have signed a letter warning that the world isn’t close to meeting future food needs, with an estimated 700 million people going hungry today and an additional 1.5 billion people to feed by 2050.

2024 laureate Cary Fowler says agrifood systems need so-called “moonshot” investments.

“I get a little frustrated when I hear people say ‘the world produces enough food. It’s just a problem of distribution.’ Well, the world doesn’t produce food. Farmers produce food, and they produce food where people need to eat the food,” Fowler said.

The laureates’ call for action comes in the context of the Borlaug Dialogue’s theme, which focuses on the importance of soil health and crop nutrition to ensure global stability and growth.