Tippy Valley, Wawasee Students Among Six Hoosiers Going To World Food Conference
MENTONE — Two local high school students have been selected as Indiana Delegates to attend the prestigious World Food Prize Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa.
Mallory Bowers, a sophomore at Tippecanoe Valley High School, and Evan Coblentz, a senior at Wawasee High, both had to first compete at the Purdue Youth Institute to qualify for this event.
These two students wrote a research paper in which they selected a country currently experiencing food insecurity, researched causes of that food insecurity and then proposed a solution to improve food security. Students then presented these papers to a panel of experts at Purdue University, receiving constructive feedback.
Mallory focused her paper on improving micronutrient deficiencies in Malawi, exploring ways to utilize biofortification of Maize in conjunction with fertilizer subsidies, to increase Zinc consumption.
In her report, she wrote:
Malawi is comparable in size to Mississippi and Pennsylvania. According to the Food Security Index, Malawi is the 7th most food insecure country in the world. There are a multitude of factors that affect food security in Malawi including corruption, the lack of presence of food safety net programs, low diet diversification, inadequate protein quality, and poor micronutrient availability.
Asked about the nomination, Mallory said, “I’m excited to learn about opportunities to change the world by improving food security and meet people that have seen the food insecurity issues up close.”
Evan wrote his paper on improving the health of dairy cattle in Uganda through the use of improved genetics and veterinary care. A story about his experience was published earlier this week on InkFreeNews.com
Six students in all were selected to attend from the state of Indiana.
Their visit from Oct. 16 to 19 will include the 2019 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium. They not only will present their papers to experts from around the globe but will also have the chance to hear from influential speakers, including several World Food Prize Laureates.
The World Food Prize recognizes individuals for working successfully toward establishing a nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people. It was established in 1986 by Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and became known as “the man who single-handedly saved a million lives” for his work increasing wheat yields. The World Food Prize is considered the Nobel Prize of agriculture.