Before the World Food Prize Foundation moved into the former public library (left), plans were proposed for a 30-story tower (center) and even an 85-story skyscraper (right). (Photos: RDG Planning & Design, left; Dave Elbert, center and right)
By Dave Elbert
Next week the World Food Prize will honor its 2025 laureate, Mariangela Hungria of Brazil, for her work in soil sustainability. The ceremony is set for Oct. 23 at the State Capitol during a full week of related events.
Four decades after the prize was created, it’s worth recalling the two storylines that intersected in Iowa to create the World Food Prize and its Des Moines headquarters in the former public library, now spectacularly recast as the Norman E. Borlaug World Food Prize Hall of Laureates.
Over the years, World Food Prize winners have worked in a broad range of fields, including agriculture, food distribution, biodiversity, climate issues and soil health. Winners include women and men from several branches of science, as well as politicians such as Bob Dole and George McGovern who have supported school nutrition programs and other government efforts to alleviate hunger and poverty.
The history of the prize is uniquely Iowan.
One storyline began in 1970, when Iowa-born Norman Borlaug (left) won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the development of high-yield, disease-resistant wheat that dramatically improved the food security of people in developing countries.
A second storyline originated more than a decade later in 1983, when Des Moines businessman and philanthropist John Ruan (right) launched an effort to have Des Moines recognized as the Food Capital of the World.
At the center of Ruan’s plan was a $75 million, 30-story world trade center that would focus on agriculture (rendered in black and white, below). As part of the effort, he proposed creating a “Nobel-like World Food Prize.”
The overall plan required a $30 million commitment from the state government. Ruan had the backing of Iowa’s then-new Gov. Terry Branstad. But Iowa was in the middle of a full-blown farm crisis, and lawmakers voted it down two years in a row. After the second vote in 1985, Ruan pulled back.
However, his efforts had caught the eye of Borlaug, who separately had been lobbying the Nobel Foundation to create a Nobel Prize for Food. In 1986, Borlaug gave up on the foundation and found a private backer, the breakfast cereal maker General Foods.
Unfortunately, the sponsorship was short-lived, ending after General Foods was acquired by Kraft Foods in 1989.
By then, Ruan had a new vision for a much larger World Trade Center. His new building would be 85 stories tall, capped by a rotating globe (rendered in color). There was never a public estimate on what it would cost, but Ruan wanted serious federal funding in addition to state support. He wanted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to move from Washington, D.C., to Des Moines.
And it wasn’t a pipe dream. Ruan was the single largest donor to Iowa Republicans, and he pitched the idea to President George H.W. Bush during a 1989 fundraising event in Des Moines. Ruan believed Bush was on board before the president lost his bid for re-election in 1992.
Even after the Bush defeat, Ruan believed he could bring the USDA to Des Moines with support from U.S. Rep. Neal Smith, a Democrat from Altoona, who was the No. 2 member on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. But when Smith lost his seat in Congress in 1994’s nationwide Republican landslide, Ruan shelved his plans for the trade center.
By then, Ruan had replaced General Foods as sponsor of the World Food Prize.
In 2002, at the urging of his son, John Ruan III, the Ruan family pledged $5 million to a $30 million effort to convert Des Moines’ original downtown library into the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates.
A stunning makeover of that iconic building on the downtown riverfront was spearheaded by World Food Prize President Kenneth Quinn in 2011. By then both Borlaug and the elder Ruan were gone; Borlaug died in 2009 and Ruan in 2010.
Dave Elbert has covered local history and business news for more than 40 years, first for the Des Moines Register and then the Business Record.
