Joachim von Braun
Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC, USA, since 2002. He guides and oversees the Institute's efforts to provide research-based sustainable solutions for ending hunger and malnutrition. Before that he was director of the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn. He has extensive experience in the area of food security in developing countries. He was also professor of Food Economics and Policy at Kiel University, Germany. He received his doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Goettingen, Germany in 1978.
M.S. Swaminathan
An agricultural scientist known as ‘The Father of the Green Revolution’ in India.
Hans Eenhoorn
Associate professor Food Security and Entrepreneurship at Wageningen University.
Hans R. Herren
President of the Millennium Institute in Washington.
Joachim von Braun
Director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington
Joachim von Braun states that high food prices are currently the most urgent problem in the field of food.
High food prices are especially a problem for the poor people, because they already have a shortage of food. The problem can be addressed by policies and programmes that enhance productivity and reduce poverty in rural areas.
The most important dilemma in the field of food at this time is that we have a large portion of the population left in poverty and on the other hand a better world economic situation.
Biotechnology can and already does play a role. It can be an instrument to increase the income of farmers and it can play a helpful role in addressing the long-term sustainability issue and climate change, for instance by developing plants with drought resistance and with a higher nutrient content.