Photo by Macy Cox <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harding University\u2019s American Studies Institute (ASI) hosted its second distinguished lecture series event of the semester on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to focus on the topic of global food insecurity. The guests at the event were David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and former governor of South Carolina, Arkansas Senator John Boozman, and former Walmart chief financial officer Brett Biggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program began with Beasley talking in chapel at 9 a.m. about his efforts heading the UNWFP and how his faith drives his passion to end world hunger. Since 2017, Beasley has served as executive director of UNWFP, which is the largest humanitarian organization in the world focused on hunger and food security. In 2020, the World Food Programme was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize under Beasley\u2019s leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the World Food Programme, we feel like we use food as a weapon of peace, just as modeled and talked about by the prince of peace,\u201d Beasley said in an interview with The Bison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beasley also talked about his interpretation of Leviticus 19:18 as being better translated to \u201cLove your neighbor as your equal\u201d and how the verse should be the basis of interpretation for all scripture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe difference is when you love your neighbor as yourself you can narrowly define that,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cBut if you love your neighbor as your equal, seeing as that equal is in the image of God, it broadens it in such a way that gives a greater context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After chapel, Boozman and Biggs joined Beasley for a panel discussion at 10 a.m. that was open to students and faculty. It focused more on faith in the workplace and how that had played out for each of them as Christians in their respective fields. Boozman, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, has helped pass several legislation efforts to help fight hunger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe way you change the world is [through] personal relationships,\u201d Boozman said. \u201cWhen you look at your life, what\u2019s the evidence of your faith?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ASI event continued with its main panel at 3 p.m., facilitated by University President Mike Williams. During this discussion, Beasley went into more detail about the number of people facing starvation globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are in a crisis,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cThere\u2019s $430 trillion worth of wealth on the planet today, and the fact that a child dies every four to five seconds from hunger-related issues is a shame, a disgrace on humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beasley also warned that due to continued conflict and climate shock, the world will soon be faced with food shortages and food price inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[We\u2019re] gonna have a food availability problem in 2023 based upon the direction that we\u2019re headed,\u201d Beasley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During chapel, Beasley said his organization believed that world hunger could be solved by 2030, but not at the rate humanity is going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we end conflict and war, we could end extreme hunger,\u201d Beasley said. \u201cEven with climate change and everything we\u2019re facing, but if you don\u2019t end the wars, you can\u2019t end the hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biggs, a Harding alumnus, served as the CFO at Walmart, the largest food retailer in the world, from 2016 to 2022. He said during the panel that he felt Harding was an appropriate place to convene on a topic like food insecurity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you think about Harding\u2019s mission and what so many students have been trained to do, I think with the topic of hunger and food insecurity, this is the type of place it needs to happen,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cConvening at places and events like this [is] important, but we\u2019ve got to go do something after this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a local scale, efforts are already being made to combat food insecurity in the community. One project has been the Student Association\u2019s (SA) community garden, which has helped provide fresh produce to Jacob\u2019s Place Homeless Mission in Searcy, according to Ella Duryea, a junior representative for the SA and the head of the community garden committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[Earlier] in the fall, we\u2019d harvest whatever we had, and we\u2019d take it over to Jacob\u2019s Place, [where] it would be used as ingredients for homeless people to cook their own food,\u201d Duryea said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Andrea Morris, the assistant to the provost for strategic initiatives, and junior Tucker Lovell have also been initiating conversations with different organizations across campus to gain student insight on what needs to be done to better combat local food insecurity. The two will be revealing their formalized program plan based on this insight during chapel today. Morris said the timing of this ASI event with the conversations that have already been happening was entirely coincidental. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I learned that the executive director of the United Nations Food Programme was coming here, I said, \u2018God, look at what you are doing,\u2019\u201d Morris said. \u201cI was humbled and grateful that we had already begun a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photo by Macy Cox Harding University\u2019s American Studies Institute (ASI) hosted its second distinguished lecture series event of the semester on Wednesday, Nov. 2, to focus on the topic of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15171,"featured_media":17326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17324"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17329,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17324\/revisions\/17329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}