Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has been named the CEO of the World Food Prize Foundation, a newly created position designed to focus on organizational leadership and diplomacy, and expand the foundation’s global network in its efforts to address food insecurity worldwide.

Vilsack, 74, will begin his new role on March 1. He served as agriculture secretary in the Biden administration, a position he also served in for two terms under former President Barack Obama. He previously served two terms as Iowa’s governor from 1999 to 2007, and earlier as a state senator and mayor of the southeast Iowa city of Mount Pleasant.

He is no stranger to the World Food Prize Foundation, and has served on its council of advisers and board of directors.

Vilsack’s appointment to the role of CEO is part of a transition in leadership at the World Food Prize Foundation, which saw the retirement of Terry Branstad as the organization’s president and the appointment of Mashal Husain as his successor, a change that takes effect Jan. 31.

The Business Record sat down with Vilsack recently to learn more about his new role, his approach to tackling global food insecurity, and how his previous roles in the public sector will serve him as he embarks on his new job.

“This mission [of the World Food Prize Foundation] is what I think is so exciting, and the opportunity that I think I bring, I hope, is to basically continue to deepen and broaden the reach and understanding of what [the mission] means and what it does,” Vilsack said. “I’ve been blessed as governor of this state for eight years and as secretary of agriculture and you meet a lot of people and learn a lot about global food security challenges and issues, so hopefully those relationships and that knowledge can bring to bear a greater understanding.”

Part of that effort will include creating buy-in from Iowans to the important role the World Food Prize Foundation plays in the global effort to fight food insecurity and poverty, Vilsack said.

“Some of the great leaders in agriculture and food production in this country have come from this state,” he said, mentioning Henry Wallace, George Washington Carver and Norman Borlaug. “I think it’s an opportunity for me to make sure that folks here at home understand the gem they have [in the World Food Prize] and adequately and fully support it.”

The Des Moines-based World Food Prize was founded in 1986 by Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work to improve the world’s food supply. Each year at the annual Borlaug Dialogue the foundation recognizes an individual whose work and innovation have helped fight hunger worldwide. Borlaug, a Cresco, Iowa, native who was known as the father of the “Green Revolution,” died in 2009.

Vilsack said his background, both professionally and personally, should serve him well in his new role.

“I will go back all the way to my very first days on this Earth, born in an orphanage,” he said. “I was supported by community. I was fed by community. I wasn’t fed by a mother or father as most kids are. I was fed by a community of people who were charged with the responsibility of taking care of kids who didn’t have a home. So I think what runs throughout my public service and frankly, my entire life is this sense of community, this sense of connection and responsibility that we have for one another.”

Vilsack said he would later learn as mayor of Mount Pleasant and as a small-town lawyer the important work of a foundation and the benefits it brings. Then, as a state senator he learned the inner workings of the legislative process, knowledge and skills he said will help him navigate the challenges he will face in his new role.

It’s those experiences that foundation Board Chair Paul Schickler said made Vilsack rise to the top during the foundation’s global search to fill the role.

“Secretary Vilsack’s unparalleled diplomatic acumen, cultivated over decades of public service and leadership, uniquely positions him to engage global stakeholders and foster meaningful collaborations,” he said in a news release.

Husain said Vilsack will help advance the foundation’s work to drive “transformative change in food security, ensuring our work has lasting global impact, and inspires bold ideas and collaborative solutions to address the challenges facing our world.”

There are a number of challenges facing the world as it continues to work toward reducing food insecurity and building more equitable food systems, Vilsack said.

One is that more countries are becoming developed countries, which increases the demand for protein. That comes at a time of increasing challenges created by climate change and the effect they create on the ability to produce food, he said.

“I think there are challenges relative to the productivity that’s going to be required in order to feed an ever-increasing world population,” Vilsack said. 

He said a lot of food is either lost or wasted, and more innovation is needed to reduce that.

“So, if you’re looking at an Africa for example, there is tremendous capacity to produce, but they don’t have the infrastructure to store or refrigerate or to properly handle the food so it can be produced but it won’t necessarily get to where it needs to be,” he said.

The stability of governments is another challenge as well as the effect that may have on transportation and supply chain systems, Vilsack said.

“There are a lot of issues and a lot of people working in different capacities on those issues,” he said. “The question is raising the awareness of the entire population, all of us, not just those who are laboring in the vineyard, but the people that need to understand the necessity of support for those programs, whether it’s governments supporting them or whether it’s foundations supporting, or if it’s businesses supporting them, there needs to be an understanding that this is a responsibility and it’s going to take all of us. From a global perspective you’re looking at some major, major issues, and the World Food Prize allows us to elevate the innovation that’s taking place. It allows us to convene people to discuss these issues and maybe see a way forward and identify best practices.”

Vilsack said he also believes there is still a sense among Iowans that hunger isn’t happening at home, a myth that he will continue to dispel.

“I think there’s a tendency to think it’s happening someplace else, and obviously that’s not the case,” he said. “And unfortunately and tragically there are still too many children who are suffering from [food insecurity] here in the United States.”

According to Feeding America, 47 million people — including 14 million children — are food insecure. In Iowa, 1 in 9 people — and 1 in 6 children — are food insecure.

Vilsack said he sees his new role as a continuation of the work he did as secretary of agriculture and “everything I’ve done in my public life.”

He said he will work to engage both the public and private sector to address issues surrounding food insecurity.

“You need the power of government and the resources that government can bring to bear, however, if you’re really going to get the community engaged and involved in this, that requires the business community and the nonprofit community to work together collaboratively,” Vilsack said.

He said the World Food Prize Foundation and Iowans have a critical role to play in the discussion about global food security, an issue that “directly relates to peace and security in our country and around the world.”

“If everyone is well fed, we will have a much more peaceful world,” he said. “If you think about it, where are the hot spots in the world today and what are the characteristics of those hot spots? And I think what you’ll find is a lot of hungry people and a lot of unemployed people and a very basic agriculture economy that isn’t helping to create a middle class.

“So you have a lot of angry and upset people, so global food security would mean a more productive agriculture, which would allow that economy to be far more conducive to a middle class. You would have fewer hungry people, fewer angry people and you’d have a more peaceful world, and what’s not to like about contributing to that mission?”