Norman Borlaug Lecture--"Life's a marathon not a sprint"--Jo luck

On Monday, David Beckmann and Jo Luck came to Iowa State University and spoke to make people more aware on the fight against Global Hunger. I thought this presentation was very interesting and I actually enjoyed watching it. David Beckmann is the president for Bread for the World which is an organization that influences political leaders to end hunger here and also other countries. Beckmann said that it's VERY possible to achieve large impacts on global hunger if we just got the funds from the government and people to help.  They have already convinced the government to increase funding for global hunger and develop more policies and long-term solutions. Since they've started, the membership has almost doubled and the government has almost tripled their assistance. Now 30 million more African children are in schools. I think that this is insane all that one man has accomplished. Some of the things he said were really sad, it made you realize how much people really are in need of food. He said a statistic that really surprised me, "1 in 4 children live in households that run out of food." I think this is really sad and I never realized it before he said it.

Jo Luck was another very inspiring person to listen to. Luck is the president for Heifer International. This organization helps people who are struggling to become self sufficient. They provide families with food and animals to develop their income. Jo Luck said "Passing on a gift to another in need." I think this idea is very cool because there entire organization is based off helping people and doing things for others. Luck told us a lot of her different adventures and crazy things she has had to deal with during her years working for Heifer International and it shows you that she really must have a heart for what she does because most people would just end it after so much. One of the things she shared with us that was interesting was when she asked the people she's helping their top 10 most important things people living like us would probably say material things but the people she was with said things like family, love, peace, spirituality and heath, etc. This shows you how much they are in need because we already are fortunate to have a lot of those things. One of the questions asked in the lecture was what do they do about all the different cultures and environments with the animals because certain animals cannot survive in certain environments. How do they decide who gets what kind of animal. Luck's response was that they have 30 different kind of species so they will put whatever kind works best for that society. 

Overall, I am really glad that I went to this because I learned a lot.