Why biotech developers don’t deserve the World Food Prize

Tom Laskawy, founder and executive director of the Food & Environment Reporting Network, wrote in Civil Eats why the winners of this year’s World Food Prize, including the chief technology officer at Monsanto, do not deserve the honors. He says that agriculture corporations are only using the prize as good PR and that there are better prizes to earn in terms of accomplishments in the food industry:

If you want to discover the groups and individuals who are trying to more completely address the issue of food availability globally and what to do about the billions of peasant farmers still working the land worldwide, you’re better off tuning out the noise from Iowa this week and paying attention to the announcement of another prize going on at the same time.

The Food Sovereignty Prize prize is given by an alliance of environmental, sustainable agriculture, and indigenous peoples’ groups which have joined forces to “dismantle systemic food injustice rooted in race, class, and gender oppression.” Past honorees include La Via Campesina, the Korean’s Women’s Peasant Association, and Landless Workers Movement of Brazil.

Read the full, original story here: “Eyes on the “Food” Prize”

 

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