Nurture the Heart, Feed the World

When I think of foreign policy, I tend to think in terms of diplomats, wars, tariffs, and maybe exchange rates and travel. I don't think of people helping to directly provide food to foreign nations by educating the population in ways they can help supply more food for themselves and perhaps for export. Nurture the Heart, Feed the World has certainly broadened my interpretation of "foreign policy." Nurture the Heart, Feed the World is a delightful autobiography written by Dr. Leon Hesser. The book tells how he used his background in agricultural economics to increase the production of food on three continents. In some ways, the book could almost be considered a co-autobiography, if there is such a thing. Dr. Hesser writes often about his wife, Dr. Florence Hesser. Starting with their early years, exploring youth, marriage and family, the reader learns about Dr. Leon Hesser's interest in farming, as well as his wife's initial reluctance to live on a farm. Their various foreign postings made sure that they and their family experienced a wide range of cultures and climates. Dr. Florence Hesser had a great deal of success as Professor of Education and Director of the Reading Center at The George Washington University. Her career, like his, has been very interesting and has touched many lives. The book is filled with so many pictures, I felt like I was having a private showing of a family photo album! In my opinion, this added significant value to the book. Many books of this nature have a selection of pictures all together toward the middle. However, Nurture the Heart, Feed the World spaced pictures throughout the book, so they were in context with the print. Moreover, nearly all of the pictures had captions underneath. Born in the Midwest, Leon Hesser earned a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University. His subsequent career as a Foreign Service Officer in the Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State took him and his family to various postings around the globe. Currently, he and his wife, Dr. Florence Hesser lead a very active retirement life in Naples, Florida. They give a new meaning to the word "busy!" Nurture the Heart, Feed the World is a wonderful story that takes the reader all over the globe. The author and his wife have enthusiastically shared their life histories.