In November 1979, I escorted Gov. Robert D. Ray and first lady Billy Ray to the Thai-Cambodian border, where we witnessed thousands of Cambodians who had escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide starving to death. Victims were dying at the rate of 50 to 100 a day, bulldozed into mass graves.

After this trip, Gov. Ray started the Iowa SHARES (Iowa Sends Help to Aid Refugees and End Starvation) campaign, which rushed lifesaving food and assistance from the people of Iowa to over 30,000 refugees.

Earlier that year, in October 1979, I was one of the 350,000 Iowans to hear Pope John Paul II remind us that we were “stewards of great gifts from God” with an obligation to “use them to feed all mankind” when he held a historic Mass at Living History Farms in Urbandale.

Iowa has long answered that call in times of grave hunger crises. From Herbert Hoover organizing one of the largest international food relief efforts during and after World War I to Henry Wallace creating hybrid corn to increase yields, and Dr. Norman Borlaug developing disease-resistant wheat varieties that has saved over 1 billion lives.

Iowa’s farmers and scientists do more than feed our own nation — they help feed the world. That work is far more than charity — it is a strategic investment in global stability, economic strength, and U.S. national security.

Right now, we are witnessing one of the greatest periods of global food insecurity in modern history. A staggering 363 million people face crisis levels of hunger. The wars in Ukraine and now the Middle East are making a desperate situation worse. The World Food Programme estimates that an additional 45 million people are at risk as the war in Iran disrupts oil flows, fertilizer supplies, and critical humanitarian supply chains.

As Congress builds its budget, continued support for food assistance and agricultural research programs is essential, especially as U.S. farmers face compounding difficulties, as fertilizer prices rise and trade is disrupted.

When I worked with Dr. Borlaug, he always said that these investments allow the United States — and Iowa — to remain global leaders while strengthening our economy, stemming migration, and helping prevent instability and conflict from reaching our shores.

Iowans should be proud of our global reach. Iowa ranks second only to California in total agricultural exports, and U.S. food assistance programs have been central to that success. By purchasing commodities from Iowa to combat global hunger, these programs create demand for surplus crops while opening doors to global markets that individual farmers could never access alone.

As a foreign service officer in Southeast Asia, I saw this region — countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand — on the brink of instability transform before my eyes. The arrival of reliable food supplies reopened local markets and reduced the desperation that so often fuels conflict.

I also saw firsthand how U.S.-backed agricultural research and innovation has transformed regions tormented by conflict. When I worked in Duc Thanh, Vietnam, in early 1969, during the height of the war, the U.S. introduced a new “miracle rice”–a strain of high-yielding, quick growing IR-8 rice that had been developed at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines by Nebraska scientist Hank Beachell. At the same time, we were also building roads to allow Vietnamese farmers to transport their products to market. The impact became clear.

By late 1969, once half of the roads were upgraded and farmers were growing the “miracle rice” — which cut the growing season in half — farmers could produce two crops a year with higher yields. Incomes increased, as did the quality of life. Suddenly, seeing the Viet Cong in the area became rare. When I left Duc Thanh in mid-1970, the district was virtually fully pacified, not through force, but through opportunity and food security.

I witnessed a similar impact in Cambodia when I was ambassador: a $13 million U.S. aid program, encompassing food assistance, helped eradicate the Khmer Rouge, the regime responsible for the very genocide that had moved Gov. Ray to unite Iowans in response.

Iowa’s legacy of feeding the world was not built on its own. It was built by America’s long history of investments in combating global hunger. When Congress funds these strategic programs, it is investing in the spirit that has defined Iowa’s role in the world and is putting real money in the pockets of Iowa farmers.

America’s greatest power has always been what we give to the world. Invest in that power, and Iowa farmers thrive, markets grow, and a hungry world looks to us — not away from us.

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Ken Quinn is the former ambassador to Cambodia (1995-1999), former president of the World Food Prize Foundation (2000-2020), and member of U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Iowa Advisory Committee.