Dan Silverstein of Heuristic Management LLC, in town for the World Food Prize, gave the keynote address at chamber groups’ annual Terrace Hill breakfast attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and his wife, first lady Chris Branstad. 

Silverstein, a consultant on food and agricultural development, detailed the troubled and up-and-down history of U.S. food aid to developing countries. He then noted advances under recent administrations, including the Feed the Future initiative.

A number of federal programs offer assistance for efforts to help developing areas. Silverstein said a few Des Moines-based operations seem to be good fits, Kemin Industries Inc. and Eurofins Scientific among them.

“If you create access to markets, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Silverstein. “We have to create markets for these people and then they can do it themselves; they have shown they can do it.” 

Specific programs that could help fight hunger, he added, are Partnering for Innovation, where a company can get a U.S. grant to go in with a local partner and create an environment for farmers to sell crops for disposable income and lift them out of poverty. Development Credit Authority covers 50 percent of the risk on bank loans to farmers in developing areas.