DuPont Addresses Nation to Help Stop World Hunger

WASHINGTONJames C. Borel, executive vice president of DuPont, encouraged the creation of sustainable solutions to world hunger in an address to industry leaders and students. Borel identified  food as among the greatest challenges of the 21st century during his address at John Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies' "Year of Agriculture" symposium.

Borel made note that no one company, nonprofit or industry can tackle it world hunger alone. Even in the United States, for instancea land of enormous agricultural productivitystatistics indicate that last year about one-in-seven Americans experienced some degree of food insecurity," Borel said. Overcoming hunger within the United States and around the world will require a lasting commitment to collaboration all along the food value chain. Everyone must come to the table. Because feeding the world is everyones business."

Borel emphasized that attention needs to be poured into the advance of food security by leveraging science to identify effective solutions to the sustainability of food sources, reducing the waste of food in both developing and developed countries and cultivating the next generation of leaders who will create the path to achieve food sustainability.

During his keynote, Borel was asked how his expertise will ensure people everywhere will have food to eat and also how he predicts collaboration towards this effort will start. Borel explained, "If we cannot provide food securityif people go hungry, if people are allowed to starveit will not just be a humanitarian crisis, but a geo-political crisis as well. People will be hungry, ungovernable and angry."

He also made note of the of world hunger on a family, community, nation and world. "Severe hunger can easily lead to civil unrest or worse. Starving families are only focused on survival. Clearly, it is in our own best interests to prevent this." He concluded by reinforcing the notion that agriculture science is a challenge that communities and industry leaders need to collaborate to achieve sustainable solutions to world hunger, that this effort cannot be achieved alone.