INVESTING CHECKOFF DOLLARS
ON THE RIGHT ROAD
Ambassador Kenneth Quinn
R E F L E C T I N G O N 2 0 Y E A R S L E A D I N G T H E WO R L D F O O D P R I Z E F O U N DAT I O N BY LAUREN HOUSKA
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enneth M. Quinn assumed leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation nearly 20 years ago. The Dubuque transplant had previously spent 32 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in many roles, including as the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia. Now set to retire, Quinn sat down with the Iowa Soybean Association to reflect on his career and share his hopes for the future.
What connected you with Norman Borlaug? The paths we took in life have many similarities. We both left Iowa to work 20 | NOVEMBER 2019 | IASOYBEANS.COM
in remote villages across the world. Though educated in different disciplines — Borlaug a scientist while I was a diplomat — we both had an incredible passion for rural development and lifting people out of poverty. In the mid-60s, Borlaug was working on revolutionizing wheat production amid political turmoil in India and Pakistan. At the same time, I was a brand-new U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer. I was working in villages in Sa Dec province of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the beginnings of the Green Revolution in rice.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned in your career? I like to say I was a footsoldier in the Green Revolution. I saw it all from the very beginning. While working in these South Vietnam villages, we were improving an old, nearly unnavigable farm-to-market road the French built in colonial times. I learned the lesson of my life during this time: The combination of improved roads and agricultural technology has the power to be economically, socially and politically transformative.
