Please come to The Real Hunger Games with Best-selling author Roger Thurow
October 14, 2019
10-11:30 a.m.
Cargill 105, St. Paul campus [map link]
Pre-event book sales and signing 9-10 a.m. provided by the University of Minnesota Bookstore
Acclaimed and best-selling author and former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Roger Thurow brings his insights into our role in humanitarian and development issues to the University of Minnesota as the inaugural speaker of the 9 Billion and Counting Speaker Series. His presentation The Real Hunger Games will be followed by questions and discussion.
Thurow is an expert on agricultural development. For 20 years, he was a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa. His coverage of global affairs spanned the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the humanitarian crises of the first decade of this century, along with 10 Olympic Games.
In 2003, he and Wall Street Journal colleague Scott Kilman wrote a series of stories on famine in Africa, which was selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Their reporting on humanitarian and development issues was also honored by the United Nations. Thurow and Kilman are authors of the book ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty (PublicAffairs, 2009). In 2009, they were awarded the Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award. He is also the author of The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change (PublicAffairs, 2012) and The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—and the World (PublicAffairs 2016).
Thurow became a senior fellow for Global Agriculture and Food Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in January 2010.
CFANS provides support to the Stakman-Borlaug Center (SBC) for the creation of this speaker series which builds on the 9 Billion and Counting Conference held on the St. Paul campus on October 17, 2016. The series will foster connections between our CFANS community and the many visitors who are a part of our broad international community. Today more than ever before, the challenges to food security are complex. A changing global climate, shifting crop production patterns, diminishing natural resources, and a growing world population -- projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 -- all contribute to the food production challenges; nutritional content, safety concerns, and distribution logistics further complicate the picture.
At the University of Minnesota and around the globe, researchers are partnering with policymakers and industry leaders to leverage disciplinary diversity to solve complex food security challenges, building upon the vision of alum Norman Borlaug, Ph.D. In this speaker series, we hope to highlight some of the important work done by the University of Minnesota and our global community of partners.
Upcoming Event: If you find this event of interest, you may also value hearing from the former president of EARTH University José Zagl, invited presenter for the 2019 Borlaug Memorial Lecture, 2 p.m., October 21.