A competition for innovative and promising public policy options to address challenges facing agriculture and the food system has been organised by Farm Foundation, a nonprofit organisation based in the United States.

The competition is open to anyone with an interest in the public policy issues outlined in the Foundation’s report, “The 30-Year Challenge: Agriculture’s Strategic Role in Feeding and Fueling a Growing World.” The Foundation intends to award cash prizes totaling $20,000.

“Agriculture globally faces the challenge of how to provide food to a world that is expected to have 9 billion people by 2040,” says Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin. “This challenge exists at the same time that we are already seeing pressures on global resources, as well as increased demand for agriculture to provide not only food, but feed, fibre and fuel.

“It is not clear that today’s public policies—designed to deal with issues of the last century—provide appropriate tools and incentives to address the challenges of the next 30 years,” Conklin continues. “Farm Foundation is offering this competition as a catalyst for innovative ideas and approaches.”

Released in December 2008, the Foundation’s 30-Year Challenge report identifies six major areas of challenges with a role in agriculture’s ability to provide food, feed, fibre and fuel to a growing world. The six areas are:

• global financial markets and recession;
• global food security;
• global energy security;
• climate change;
• competition for natural resources, and;
• global economic development.

The report highlights key issues public and private decision makers may need to consider as they confront the challenges of feeding a growing world.

“Finding the policies and strategies that will help us meet the 30-year challenge for agriculture will not be easy. There are no easy analyses or simple solutions,” Conklin continues. “Farm Foundation is committed to fostering a constructive and deliberative debate of the policies that may be needed to meet the challenge.”

Farm Foundation, a nonprofit organisation based in the United States, serves as a catalyst for sound public policy by providing objective information to foster a deeper understanding of issues shaping the future for agriculture, food systems and rural regions. Farm Foundation has a 76-year history of objectivity. It does not lobby or advocate.

Entries in the Farm Foundation competition are due June 1, 2009. For each of the six challenge areas, judging will be done by an independent three-member panel selected by Farm Foundation. Prize winners will be announced in September 2009. Details of the competition and entry process are available at the Farm Foundation web site.