Iowa has been waiting for Bill Gates for a long time. After initially being listed as a witness in the company's 2006 antitrust case in the state, the Microsoft chairman ultimately wasn't required to appear in court. But he showed up in Des Moines today for a different event: the World Food Prize.

Jamie Buelt, a former agricultural and financial reporter in Des Moines, was a PR and media consultant under contract with Microsoft in Iowa during the court case, but no longer works for the company. She covered the event today and sent this dispatch for TechFlash.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Bill Gates never met Norman Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize who died on Sept. 12. But his keynote address at Borlaug’s World Food Prize here today is being described as an important step toward elevating the award to the level of prestige and recognition of the Nobel Prize.

Borlaug, a Nobel laureate, started the World Food Prize in 1986 after failing to convince the Nobel committee to add agriculture as a category.

Gates' "presence here is profound,” said Jeanie Borlaug Laube, Borlaug's daughter. “Daddy was very impressed with [Bill Gates], impressed with how he is sharing his money with the world. … By being here today, he helps attract more money and attention to train young scientists and small farmers.”

So how is it that Gates ended up on a Seattle-like day in Des Moines talking farming to a packed room with an international audience that included the CEO of Pepsico, crop scientists, chemists, agronomists, World Bank representatives and ministers of agriculture for the U.S. Egypt, Mexico and Canada?

Gates explained agriculture is the next step in a journey that started with a concern about population and led to efforts to fight disease. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made improving health in places such as Africa a priority. Nothing helps people get and stay healthy more effectively than food. And in many of the world’s poorest countries food is produced primarily by small local farmers.

“Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world’s single most powerful level for reducing hunger and poverty,” he told the audience, reading his seven-page speech in at times a perfunctory tone.

He pointed out that the notion of curing hunger and poverty with better farming wasn’t new, and in fact, was the life mission of Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in breeding crops that could thrive in adverse growing conditions. The “green revolution,” marked by Borlaug’s contributions and work, didn’t make it to Africa, Gates pointed out. Then he provided the stats: cereal production in Africa is flat. The farming advancements that that helped India and China never made it Africa.

Iowa is the agricultural center of United States, but it’s also a place where visits from presidents and presidential candidates are commonplace. Gates, on the other hand, was received as someone who — in contrast to politicians — can really make a difference.

He drew a laugh from the crowd when he said, “I am optimistic about technology based on my history.”

He set the tone for rest of the day by shining light on the dirty little secret in agriculture: the “ideological wedge” that exists between those working to improve productivity through science and biotech (including genetic and atomic seed modification) and those focused on sustainability and environmental issues.

Gates boldly called the idea that productivity comes at the expense of sustainability a “false choice,” and added “it’s dangerous for the field.”

After his formal speech, Gates was asked free-form questions by this year’s World Food Prize laureate, Dr. Gebisa Ejeta. He pledged that he and Melinda will lend their voices personally to the support the cause of developing agriculture in Africa and would travel to the continent at least once a year.

As he talked about crop technology and “the science,” Gates became more animated. He would like to see advances in crop production in the lab make their way to the small farmer faster.

“The benefit of new technology is quite substantial. It’s not just some consumer thing about how long something stays nicely colored,” he said. He pointed out the example of a new rice variety Swarna Sub 1 tested in Bangladesh, which was developed to thrive in too much water.

The Gates Foundation today made $120 million in grants to a variety of projects including pest-resistant sweet potatoes, legumes that fix nitrogen into the soil and higher yielding sorghum.

Funding crop research and advancements, however, doesn’t necessarily get seeds on the ground and in the soil.

“I have been told not to be too naïve about how long it takes to get these advances to the small farmer,” he said confirming his own impatience. If it takes five years, Gates said the question should be, “can we do it four or three?”

He noted competition among nations might be helpful in spurring advancements and improvements. “We need to bring more people to the party by telling the success stories,” he said.

To that end the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is sponsoring a book to be released in November called Millions Fed. The book is a compilation of 19 case studies that had a “demonstrated and significant impact” on food security and poverty in developing countries.

Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize, gave Gates his own replica of the Congressional Gold Medal Borlaug received in 2001. Quinn then echoed the sentiments of Borlaug’s daughter, Jeanie, about Gates’ presence at the conference bringing a new level of recognition and prestige to the award.

“You are doing his work,” he said to Gates. – Techflash

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