Mike Pearson tells listeners how two scientists won this year's "World Food Prize" and how they won the award.

The World Food Prize was founded in 1986 and honors exceptional commitment to food security and agriculture enhancement.

The idea of the prize is to developing new crop varieties and create genetic diversity that underpins our food system to keep the supply safe.

Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr. Cary Fowler are the 2024 recipients of the World Food Prize for their extraordinary leadership in preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop biodiversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats to global food security. Over the last 50 years, their combined efforts as researchers, policy advisors, thought leaders and advocates have succeeded in engaging governments, scientists, farmers and civil society towards the conservation of over 6,000 species of crops and culturally important plants.

The Seed bank they have created includes 1. 25 million seeds.

The "Doomsday vault" keeps seeds and food secure from political unrest, a natural disaster or any other issue that could impact the food supply and it ensures the genetic resources will stay safe.

There are over 1,700 gene banks across the country keeping seeds for crop beeding and genetic diversity.

Related:Farm Progress America, Dec. 10, 2024

Farm Progress America is a daily look at key issues in agriculture. It is produced and presented by Mike Pearson, farm broadcaster and host of This Week in Agribusiness.