Title:
World Food Prize Honors Heads of Two Groups Based in
US
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
This year's World Food Prize will honor two leaders
of hunger-fighting groups based in the United
States. The winners are David Beckmann of Bread for
the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International. They
will share the prize of two hundred fifty thousand
dollars.The World Food Prize usually goes to
researchers or top policy officials. This is the
first time it will recognize the work of
nongovernmental groups. The winners were announced
in June at the State Department in Washington. The
privately supported prize will be awarded in Des
Moines, Iowa, in October. Heifer International
provides donated animals and training to farmers in
fifty countries. Jo Luck stepped down this year
after almost twenty years as chief executive
officer. She remains president until next year.
Under her leadership, the group's budget grew from
less than ten million dollars to more than one
hundred thirty million. Jo Luck says people pass on
their gifts of not just animals. They pass on gifts
of training and leadership. She says: "You just give
them those resources and that training and
opportunity, and you cannot hold them back."She told
the story of a woman from a poor village in
Zimbabwe. A family member helped send her to school
in the United States with earnings from a donated
milk goat. She received a doctoral degree.David
Beckmann became president of Bread for the World in
nineteen ninety-one. Before that, he worked on
poverty issues at the World Bank. He is an economist
and a Christian clergyman. Bread for the World
organizes people from religious and non-religious
groups to write, call and visit members of Congress.
The purpose is to support measures to improve the
lives of the poor.David Beckmann points to big
increases in American development assistance. He
says this would not have happened without the work
of hundreds of thousands of people and churches that
are part of Bread for the World and that keep the
pressure on their members of Congress.The prize
committee also credited his efforts with helping to
increase aid to needy families in the United
States.Norman Borlaug established the World Food
Prize in nineteen eighty-six. His work with rice and
wheat crops saved millions of people from starving
in Asia and Latin America. The plant scientist and
Nobel Peace Prize winner died last year at the age
of ninety-five. And that's the VOA Special English
Agriculture Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
