Rebekah Klassen at World Food Prize; Solidifies role as one of next generation to focus on solving global food crisis
Receiving this “prize” invitation is really just the beginning.
Mountain Lake Public High School (MLHS) senior Rebekah Klassen, daughter of Chad and Esther Klassen, recently spent three days (Thursday, October 13 to Saturday, October 15) attending the World Food Prize, held in Des Moines, Iowa. The young woman earned the opportunity to be one of six Minnesotans taking part by writing a paper on the challenges India is facing in feeding its people. Accompanying Rebekah was Lindsey Brown, her mentor and a MLHS agriculture instructor and FFA advisor.
As Rebekah lays out, “The World Food Prize is a gathering of leaders, experts, business executives and researchers from around the globe for an intensive week-long convention focused on fighting food insecurity. The World Food Prize Laureates are also honored in their annual ceremony. The Global Youth Institute, through which I was a participant, allows teenagers to become engaged in the discussion for three days where we heard speeches, interacted with dignitaries and presented our research papers.”
At the Iowa experience, Rebekah joined with 400 other outstanding high school students and teachers from across the United States and around the world to interact with Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates, along with the more than 1,000 global leaders from 65 countries attending the World Food Prize’s annual Borlaug Dialogue international symposium. The symposium pulls the world’s foremost experts together to discuss cutting-edge issues in food security, and hosts multiple youth education programs to inspire the next generation to study and work in fields related to global agriculture.
The World Food Prize was conceived by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, a biologist, humanitarian – and recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Borlaug received his Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1937 and his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. Borlaug, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 95, was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal – and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honor.
And, the late Borlaug is one of Rebekah’s heroes because of his role as “agriculture’s greatest spokesperson.” She has spent time researching his life and studies, and reading from his books.”He is known as ‘the father of the Green Revolution,’ as well as ‘The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives,'” explains Rebekah. “Dr. Borlaug’s work was transformative; he left a huge legacy,” Rebekah emphatically states.
The intersection of Rebekah’s interest in Dr. Borlaug – and in eradicating world hunger – first propelled her to the World Food Prize Minnesota Youth Institute, held on Saturday, May 7, where she presented a research paper on the global issue, recommended solutions to key global challenges and discussed problems and solutions on the topic with other like-minded teenagers in grades eight-through-12. To top off the experience, the teenagers took part in educational sessions and interactive tours at the University of Minnesota, allowing them to explore current research and issues in international development and life sciences. This event was held at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus. At that time, Rebekah, then a MLHS junior, was also recognized as a Borlaug Scholar. Each participant received a $1,000 scholarship to study in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota.
Following the May Saturday event, the top students at the Minnesota Youth Institute were evaluated and competitively selected to represent the State of Minnesota as delegates at October’s Global Youth Institute. Rebekah learned on Monday, June 27, that, indeed, she was selected to attend the world-wide gathering and present her paper.
It was during the summer following Rebekah’s freshman year in high school – her Greenhand year as a FFA member – that she pinpointed world hunger as a cause in which she was curious and eager to learn about. “I was working on a speech for FFA, and world hunger was on the list of topics. I began researching the connection between poverty, poor soil for growing food, lack of education and world hunger. That interconnection led me to dig deeper into the facts surrounding the causes and statistics.”
Knowing her deep passion on the subject, “Ms. Brown learned about about the program and shared it with me to see if I was interested,” explains Rebekah. “Indeed, I was very interested, and began preparing my paper, working on it off-and-on for about a year. The focus of my paper is on India and the hunger pangs of is people.
“India is as the top of the charts with the country’s number of malnourished children,” Rebekah shares. “In addition, they have a super-dense population. Ag-productivity levels are low; the soil is old soil, worn-out soil – not suited for productive farming. In addition, their equipment is old and in disrepair.
“It is a lack of education, and, as well, resources, that makes it so hard to improve their farming methods in order to produce enough food for all.
“In order to transform a village for the future, what makes the most sense?” Rebekah asks. “It is a conundrum. Is it better to just give food to feed children – or – to pay for a soil workshop for a rural Indian farmer to learn about better farming practices in order provide sustenance for many?,” Rebekah asks. “To me, revamping their ag system in order to provide food security – with safe food – food without rotting and disease, is the real transformation needed.
“Unfortunately, with the large wealth gap in the nation, there are not enough resources for the government to educate all of its citizens.”
Going into detail about the Des Moines confab, Rebekah introduces the major characters, “The president of the World Food Prize is Ambassador Kenneth Quinn. H.E. Mrs. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, was the honored guest. Also in attendance was the former president of Malawi – Joyce Banda, the current president of the World Food Bank and the new president of the African Development Bank Group, as well as the four 2016 World Food Prize Laureates, including Dr. Jan Low of the United States, Dr. Maria Andrade of Cape Verde Islands, off the cost of West Africa and Roberg Mwanga of Uganda, all colleagues at the International Potato Center, and Howarth Bouis of the United States, founder and director of HarvestPlus.”
She goes on to share that, “This event was the most international thing I have ever been to. During mealtimes, the students got to sit with the adults. Not only was the food from all different cultures, but I conversed with people of different nationalities at every meal. The students were also from around the world with Canada, China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Tunisia, and Pakistan represented. Even though I have traveled internationally before, I got more exposure to cultures at this event in Iowa than I ever had in my life.”
Rebekah’s favorite, “and most impactful part” of the three-day event was the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. As she describes the banquet, Rebekah tells that it, “started out with a speech from an African Hunger Hero. What I remember most is when she asked, ‘Why do you all eat three meals a day? Where I come from, we eat one or maybe two if we are lucky.”
At the banquet, attendees were given randomly-drawn cards that determined their socioeconomic class – as least for this meal. “Ms. Brown and I were put in the lower class,” states Rebekah. “We sat on the floor and received rice and no water for our supper – while the upper class was served a three-course meal. Being in the position that roughly 50% of the world faces everyday made me think deeply about my privileges and responsibilities. Dr. Pinstrup-Anderson stated that we should not feel guilty because of our privileges -but instead – are responsible to act out of compassion to the rest of humanity that does not have those privileges.”
By participating in the Global Youth Institute, students like Rebekah are eligible to apply for either a prestigious Borlaug-Ruan International Internship or a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wallace-Carver Fellowship.
The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship is an all-expenses-paid, eight-week hands-on experience for high school students to work with world-renowned scientists and policymakers at leading research centers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Since 1998, 250 Borlaug-Ruan Interns have traveled to Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Turkey to get a firsthand view of pressing food security and nutritional problems in poverty-stricken areas and take part in ground-breaking research.
The USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowship is a paid two-month research or policy placement at a USDA laboratory or field office, or at USDA headquarters in Washington D.C. Wallace-Carver Fellows intern at USDA, analyzing agricultural and economic policy; assisting in the management of food, nutrition and rural development programs; and taking part in groundbreaking field and laboratory-based research. Fellows travel to Washington D. C. at the start of their internship for a week-long high-level leadership program hosted by the United States Secretary of Agriculture.
Rebekah will be applying for both, hoping to earn a Borlaug-Ruan Internship to travel to India. This would be a six-week trip during summer 2017, following her May graduation from MLHS. The opportunity would fit hand-in-glove to Rebekah’s future plans. “I have decided that I am going to be a missionary, though I am not sure where I will be attending college. I am hoping to do something pertaining to agriculture, education – or both,” discloses Rebekah.
Rebekah’s fervor on world hunger and food insecurity has also led her to be proactive on a first-hand basis – at both the local level – working with the director of the Loaves & Fishes Food Shelf in Mountain Lake and collecting stock supplies for the food shelf through FFA Food Drives – as well as in the world – interacting with people directly affected by hunger issues while on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic.
“My goal, at this point in my life, is to be a student leader in the fight against hunger – to be aware, raise awareness and give with awareness,” stresses Rebekah. “The future will be focused on all the possibilities to help feed the world.”
