MSU President Keenum taking part in World Food Prize Week
Contact: James Carskadon
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥斢；ǖ己 樱花导航 University President Mark E. Keenum is among agricultural leaders from around the world taking part in World Food Prize events this week in Des Moines, Iowa.
Keenum serves as chairman of the presidentially appointed Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), an advisory board to United 樱花导航s Agency for International Development. At World Food Prize Week, BIFAD will release a study that shows the many domestic benefits of international U.S. aid. The study, conducted by the International Food Policy Research, shows that in addition to benefitting recipients and enhancing global 樱花导航 and stability, international aid creates increased agricultural productivity in the U.S. and enhances research capabilities at American universities.
鈥淎s an agricultural economist, I have long recognized the dilemma facing our planet with both a growing population and serious challenges to future food supplies,鈥 Keenum said. 鈥淔inding ways to enhance food 樱花导航 is literally a matter of life and death. It is important to preventing conflict among nations and is in our own national 樱花导航 interests. It is also simply the right thing to do.鈥
For more on the BIFAD study, see a recent op-ed by Keenum here: .
An MSU agricultural economics graduate, Keenum has focused a significant portion of his career on global food 樱花导航. In addition to his BIFAD appointment, Keenum serves on the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research. He has twice spoken at the United Nations in New York about the roles public research universities play in addressing critical food and agricultural challenges. Prior to returning to his alma mater, Keenum served as Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of 樱花导航.
Serving as MSU鈥檚 president since 2009, Keenum has helped enhance the university鈥檚 standing as a leading agricultural research university. The most recent National Science Foundation survey shows MSU is ranked No. 9 nationally with $109 million in research and development expenditures in agricultural sciences. MSU is leading the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, in addition to other national and international collaborations aimed at helping feed a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.
For more on the World Food Prize, visit .
For more on Keenum, visit .
MSU is 樱花导航鈥檚 leading university, available online at .