In Iowa, blunt lessons for Chinese teens on world food issues

"You know what I had for supper as a 'high income' person? Appetizer, salad, chicken main course with cheese, and even a dessert that tastes like the filling of an egg tart. The caramel on top? It's like heaven!"

Dressed in a black suit and red bowtie, Liu Yixuan, a 17-year old Chinese student, sat on the couch in a softly lit Hilton Hotel lobby in Des Moines, Iowa, leaving voice messages for his mother: "I shared my food with those of 'low-incomes'," he said.

The conversation was soon interrupted by Liu's classmate Li Shizhuo, who had a "low income" meal of water and rice at the banquet.

"I had nearly half his salad; if he doesn't share, I'll make him," said Li, who exchanged some playful punches with Liu.

They were two of 10 high school students from the Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School in North China's Hebei province, who had just returned from a "Hunger Banquet" as part of the 2019 Global Youth Institute hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation.

The mid-October event helped the students improve their understanding of world food issues.

More than 200 students from 10 countries and regions were assigned to high-, middle-, or low-income tiers: 20 percent in the high-income group were served a sumptuous meal; 30 percent in the middle-income group got a simple meal, and 50 percent in the low-income one received only rice and water.

Each participant had a "character ticket" based on real people's lives.

"You live in Samoa with your four sons and husband. You own an organic farm, on which you produce coconut oil for export. You recently rebuilt your home, and two of your sons who were living overseas have returned home to help with the family business. Your business earns about $256 each week," said one "high income" ticket drawn by Huang Zihe, 17, one of the Shijiazhuang students.

"We've long been taking every meal we have for granted," said Huang, "When those 'low incomes' come to your table and beg for chicken or cheese, you feel the hunger that truly exists across the world."

The 10 Chinese students were invited to Iowa by Kenneth Quinn, 77, then- president of the World Food Prize Foundation, who retired this month after 20 years at the foundation. He also was a former US ambassador to Cambodia and holds the distinction of meeting not only President Xi Jinping (when he was vice-president) but his father, Xi Zhongxun, too.

In July, after Quinn visited the students' school in Hebei, a sister province of Iowa, he was impressed by their "terrific English".

For the Iowa event, each student wrote a paper on a challenge related to hunger and food insecurity.

"If you enjoy eating an egg, why bother to find the hen that laid it?" That's what Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), writer of The Besieged City, said when politely declining a meeting with an admiring reader. But Huang Zihe, 17, went to see the hens literally, at a local family farm.

Her "amazing data set" won praise from roundtable expert Ronda Hamm from Corteva Agriscience, a US chemical and seed company.

Although Huang told China Daily she wants to pursue a career in publishing, she said she hopes to use the power of words to address issues such as hunger.

Liu Yixuan took his SAT in China this year, hoping to enter the Wharton School in Pennsylvania or New York University, as the latter is "quite near Wall Street." But now he's thinking of a new major.

"I was impressed by a professor in agricultural economics when he inquired … on my water-saving irrigation research from an economical perspective," said Liu, referring to Joachim von Braun of the University of Bonn in Germany.

The Iowa event, which concluded with a speech by the Food Prize's 2019 laureate Simon N. Groot of the Netherlands, enables students to share their research with international experts and peers.

"I was the only presenter in our roundtable addressing food security problems by scientific method," said Li Shizhuo, who researched solving heavy-metal pollution in agricultural soil.

"Science is like a fist, which cracks down on problems related to food security. However, we still need someone to wield the power to maximize its strength," Li said.

A day before the students left Iowa on Oct 20, in a corner of the Hilton lobby sat a silver-haired man surrounded by 10 Chinese students and their teacher Wang Hong as they chatted and laughed.

That man was Quinn, whom students gave a keychain stamped with their school badge as a souvenir. He gladly accepted and immediately attached it to his car keys with the help of a student.

"I never had a passport or left America till I was 26; you are so far ahead of me," he said.

Huang met Quinn when he visited the school in July. "We all love Mr. Ambassador. Last time he visited our school, he even sang Taylor Swift's hit Shake It Off. He is so lovable!"

Agricultural ties between Hebei and Iowa inspired the expansion of the World Food Prize education program, which started in 1994. Four high school students from Iowa began to go to China for eight-week internships at agricultural institutes, including China Agricultural University, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and Peking University.

In return, five high school students and their teacher from Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School have attended the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines every year since 2013, at Quinn's invitation.

"Peace through agriculture starts with young people," Quinn said. "The attitude they have is absolutely critical."

He told China Daily his dream is to have World Food Prize-related programs "all over China in every province", recalling the great legacy between China and Iowa.

While in Iowa, the students stayed with host families and attended local schools. They were frequently asked why their English was "so good".

"Everyone we met in Iowa seemed to want to know everything about China, the food, the people and so on. When we watched TV with our host families, where there were scenes or talk about China, they would pause to ask me if it was true," said Li Shizhuo, who spent five days with a host family who had a son of high school age.

"They want to know what China is really like, and they also want to know how Chinese people perceive the US," Li said.

"When I compare Chinese students who come to the US with my students, they are more similar right now," said John Lin, a teacher at Valley School, which some of the students attended during their stay. Lin moved to the US from China at age 12 and taught Chinese in Iowa schools for eight years.