The Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates - Home of the World Food Prize, the Hall is a public museum, educational facility and a place of inspiration for all Iowans. It is a magnificent setting where people of all ages can explore the awe-inspiring stories of some of Iowa’s greatest heroes and the achievements of world-renowned scientists and leaders who have been named World Food Prize Laureates.
Global Challenges in Feeding the World - The educational exhibits are entertaining and engaging and support science, history and social science studies. Exhibits range from The History of Agriculture Timeline chronicling significant events and inventions for feeding the world to The Greatest Global Challenge: How we will feed nearly 9 billion people by the year 2050.
The Greatest Global Challenge exhibit provides current, global stories on plants and animals, water, nutrition and health, environment, people, technology and infrastructure and how different countries and cultures are fighting the battle against hunger and starvation.
In restoring the former Des Moines Public Library Building as its Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates, the World Food Prize Foundation has designed the art and décor to tell five main stories:
- Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is the man, who through the Green Revolution that he is credited with starting, saved one billion lives and is said to be the man who saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived;
- The World Food Prize is the "Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture," and the World Food Prize Laureates are the leaders of the single greatest period of food production and hunger reduction (the last 50 years) in all of human history;
- Led by John Ruan, Iowa rescued the World Food Prize in 1990 and moved it to Des Moines, with the intent to designate Iowa as the "Hunger Fighting Capital of the World";
- The great state of Iowa has an extensive and noteworthy agricultural and humanitarian heritage; and
- An historic building can be exceedingly energy efficient, as the Hall of Laureates has attained LEED Platinum Certification - a nearly unheard of achievement for buildings on the National Historic Register.