Kamis, 14 Juni 2012

Israeli-American Scientist Wins 2012's World Food Prize


On June 12, Daniel Hillel was elected the winner of 2012's World Food Prize. Later on, in October, he will be formally presented with his award: $250,000 (roughly €200,000).

Born in the US but raised in Israel, Daniel Hillel is the man behind the micro-irrigation technology, which allows communities living in dry regions of the world to properly irrigate their crops while at the same time keeping water usage down to a minimum.

As you probably already know, drip-irrigation saves both water and fertilizer, as a network of pipes and valves delivers them straight to the plant's roots.

Throughout the past 50 years, his system was successfully implemented in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, thus encouraging food production in regions where natural conditions typically don't allow for nutritious crops to be harvested.

As “underdogs” of the global economy, these communities more than welcomed this new technology and are expected to continue using it for quite a long time.

According to Pub Memo, Kenneth M. Quinn, who is presently employed as the president of the World Food Prize Foundation, explained that the aforementioned prize was offered to Daniel Hillel because “Confronting hunger can bring diverse people together across even the broadest political, ethnic, religious or diplomatic differences.”

Thus by coming up with the micro-irrigation technology, Daniel Hillel tackled two major issues at the same time.

First of all, he succeeded in aiding undeveloped communities in various parts of the world make a living by means of agriculture; secondly, he proved that sustainable development is something within reach.

It is interesting that the World Food Prize was offered to this American-Israeli researcher quite a few days before the Rio+20 Earth Summit is scheduled to begin its activities, given that fact that this particular international conference is to revolve precisely around finding ways to encourage sustainable development.

Via: Israeli-American Scientist Wins 2012's World Food Prize

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