The global response to malnutrition and obesity – two sides of the same unhealthy coin – will be addressed this week at the World Food Prize Symposium.

The event, beginning Wednesday and continuing through Friday in Des Moines, will not only focus on the malnutrition of individuals in developing countries, it will address the issue of obesity that many are saying has been largely ignored as an international problem.

“While they are separate, they are starting to become much more interrelated,” said Justin Cremer, director of communications for the World Food Prize Foundation. “This will probably be the first time the two are addressed at the same time.”

Organizers of the “Dual Global Challenges of Malnutrition and Obesity” symposium are anticipating more than 600 people to attend, along with nearly 100 high school students from nearby – Ohio and Pennsylvania – and from afar – Nigeria and the Netherlands.

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and health officials are expected to speak, along with nationally and internationally renowned researchers. Panel discussions focusing on both domestic and international issues in nutrition will also take place.

Abbey Avery, junior in animal science, who spent eight weeks in Ethiopia in 2004 as a Borlaug-Ruan International Intern through the Youth Institute, said she’s glad to see the symposium addressing the issue of obesity.

“It’s something that’s been kind of overlooked,” she said.

Avery, who traveled abroad after her freshman year at Iowa State, said she hoped that by discussing and dissecting the two opposite sides of the same problem, solutions may be developed for each. She said by addressing the issue now, the potential is there for someone to step in and stop it.

“It’s such a new topic that we haven’t really discussed before and haven’t really put much thought into except in the past few years,” she said.

Avery will be helping at the first World Food Festival, which is expected to be held annually, taking place on Locust Street between E. 4th and Penn Avenue in Des Moines, where vendors from all over the world will be present.

The annual $250,000 World Food Prize will also be presented to Dr. Modadugu Gupta, the first researcher in aquaculture to be honored.

Catherine Swoboda, junior in agriculture, said she is glad to see Gupta receive the award, because past recipients have usually been researchers in the field of agriculture. She said she thinks aquaculture is an area that should be more focused on. “I think this will bring attention to it,” she said.

The event kicks off with the Board of International Food and Agriculture Development Open Forum on Agriculture and Nutrition at 1 p.m. Wednesday.