World Ark Magazine - March/April 2009 - (Page 36) “Very young, I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to dealing with the social injustices of the world.” —dr. pamela K. anderson Dr. Pamela K. Anderson (center) meets with leaders of the ParuParu community in Peru’s Cuzco Potato Park. in MeMoriuM actor, Humanitarian, Vinaigrette Guru H paul newman H o She then studied entomology at the University of illinois and both entomology and ecology at harvard’s School of public health, receiving master’s and doctorate degrees. “i was really interested in this connection between health and agriculture, making sure the way we do agriculture doesn’t harm human health.” when the United Nations declared 2008 The international Year of the potato, phone calls and e-mails poured in. “when people first started hearing about this, there was a lot of chuckling and laughing, a lot of media inquiries that were fluff. people were asking, ‘what’s your favorite recipe? what’s your favorite potato?’” anderson says. “when the food crisis hit, people stopped laughing and started to pick up the serious messaging we’re doing around the international Year of the potato, pushing the importance of the potato as a world food-security crop.” potatoes are native to the andes of South america, but are now grown on six continents. in 2005, for the first time, developing countries produced more potatoes than developed countries. anderson is working with agriculture officials in china and india to help them use potatoes to feed their swelling populations. and in africa, anderson is pushing the orange-fleshed sweet potato as a healthy food for children. “if you can get children to eat 100 grams of sweet potato every day, it deals with vitamin a deficiencies, which are tied to night blindness and under-5 mortality,” she says. potatoes make sense as a remedy to the food crisis because they’re both economical and nutritious. while grain prices can fluctuate wildly, potatoes are not an internationally traded commodity and therefore remain largely unaffected by speculation. and potatoes are a good source of carbohydrates and micronutrients. one potato provides 50 percent of the daily-recommended amount of vitamin c. we asked our World Ark readers to submit nominations for heifer heroes. read them online at www.heifer.org/worldark. 36 m a rch / ap r i l 2 00 9 | world ark www.he i f e r .o r g lEFt PHoto: courtESy tHE INtErNatIoNal Potato cENtEr. rIGHt PHoto: cHrIStINNE MuScHI/laNDov. scar winner paul Newman died in September 2008, leaving a legacy of artistic excellence and groundbreaking generosity. his winning idea to market his homemade salad dressing under the good name he earned from his decades-long hollywood career continues to net millions of dollars annually for charities around the world. The Newman’s own line of salad dressings and other foods is perhaps the best-known of Newman’s philanthropic endeavors, but it is by no means the only one. he helped found a network of free summer camps for children with lifethreatening diseases. Newman also founded the committee encouraging corporate philanthropy, a forum of executives and corporations that encourages businesses to support nonprofits. when asked why he started his camps for sick children, Newman chalked it up to good fortune. “i wanted to acknowledge luck: the chance and benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others, who might not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it.” http://www.heifer.org/worldark http://www.heifer.org
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