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The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time

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Every caring person will be glad that she or he reads this book, because each of us can help eliminate world hunger in our lifetimes. The reference to the third freedom is to the idea of creating "freedom from want" that is found in FDR's famous speech about the four freedoms.

Senator McGovern has been close to the issue of hunger for many years, having first headed the Food for Peace program for President Kennedy and more recently working with the United Nations on food issues for President Clinton. In this book, he describes many of the lessons learned about allievating hunger in the United States and elsewhere around the world, the benefits from eliminating hunger, the barriers to making faster progress, the plans for making the next steps, and his proposal for eliminating world hunger for humans by 2015.

I remember hearing much about this subject in the 1960s, and especially recall the CBC special from 1968. Historically, American farmers had excess production that was hurting farm prices while people were hungry. During the Kennedy administration this was turned into a series of initiatives to reduce the surpluses to strengthen the prices and feed more people. Large gains were made in students attending school and in their academic performance through free school breakfasts and lunches for the poor.

What has happened since then? Well, the good news is that these and many other good ideas have been expanded around the world. The number of hungry people is still enormous, 800 million, but it is many fewer than 40 years ago. As Senator McGovern rightly points out, we now have the technology, expertise in food distribution, and financial resources to eliminate hunger for the final 800 million. All we lack is a focus on the issue, and the will to make a difference.

The U.S. contribution would be less than the cost of a building a B-2 bomber annually. It turns out that most people think that more than 10 percent of the Federal budget goes for foreign aid, and that is almost all food. Actually, foreign aid is less than 1 percent and most of that is armaments. In recent polls, over 70 percent of Americans favor ending world hunger. Throughout the last presidential campaign this issue got lost. That's a shame, because here is an area where we pretty much agree.

His proposal focuses on the following elements:

(1) Extend the school lunch program around the world (the bulk of the poor hungry are children, and this gets them to school and improves their ability to learn)

(2) Favor women and children in food distribution (because of their better use of the resources and the fact that this by-passes corruption the most) usually by providing the food at the schools for pick-up

(3) Create local food reserves around the world of the sort we have in the United States so that emergency food can be more readily available to respond to natural disasters and wars

(4) Train local farmers to be better at what they do and provide them with better technology, appropriate for their part of the world (especially better ways to irrigate that don't harm the soil)

(5) Support research into better agricultural practices, including biotechnology

(6) Reduce the arms made available to countries where on-going wars are likely since such wars cause much hunger

(7) Clean-up the water supplies to reduce disease at the same time, and eliminate the risk of future wars over water

(8) Further encourage democracies since they make avoiding famines a high priority.

One of the nasty surprises I got from reading the book is that despite world progress, hunger is growing again in the United States due to cut backs in food stamps and other programs aimed at hunger. If we have been making mistakes in this area, that's pretty bad . . . at a time of unprecedented prosperity and government surpluses.

I also hope that private companies and individuals will step up their efforts to take a hand in eliminating hunger. I suspect that the know-how of these individuals is probably even more valuable than their money and time.

I strongly encourage you to read this book. Write to your congressional leaders and to our new president about this subject.

Also, I suggest that if you can afford it, that you allocate $30 per person per year in your household for donations aimed at eliminating hunger. That's about what it would take. At least you would know you are doing your part, even if the rest of society sleeps. Ultimately, that's all any of us can be sure of, is that we have stood up and been counted.

This book should be shared. If you belong to a book reading group, I hope you will suggest it. I also ask that you give a copy to your spiritual advisor. This book could become the basis of some good projects for your house of worship.

Love thy brother as thyself.

George McGovern, former senator from South Dakota, has written a compact, layman's guide, The Third Freedom, on the politics of hunger. McGovern, long-time workhorse of food and agriculture policies, makes the case for a 5-point program to end hunger. The book's biographical anecdotes are as compelling as the case he makes. The author, World War II bomber pilot and Democratic presidential nominee, draws upon experiences from the Great Depression to the Clinton administration. Along the way, the reader learns how McGovern's father, farmers, Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, John Kennedy, Maryknoll missionaries and Pope John XXIII infulenced his thinking.

In the 1960s, McGovern's origination and stewardship of food and agriculture policies led to programs that benefited the U.S. economy. In the new century, McGovern uses his national visibility and standing to propose fresh political remedies: food policies that favor women and children; universal school lunch; genetically modified crops; fresh water; and agricultural aid modeled on the Peace Corps. The author endorses government action, rooted in biblical teachings, to feed the hungry. While the book is short on documentation, it is long on policy. The title from Gary Hart's memoir of McGoven's ill-fated presidential bid, Right from the Start, may aptly sum up this new work.

This is NOT a utopian dream. This basic blue print should not be objectionable to conservatives, moderates or liberals. The elder statesman and historian puts forward some straight forward and relatively inexpensive proposals to end world hunger in our time. Sen. McGovern goes out of his way to praise the contribution made by some of his Republican colleagues especially Robert Dole. He recognizes the need for open markets and the value of liberalized global trade while seeing the need for sensible adjustments to deal with the social and economic upheaval. He calls upon the U.S. to lead the United Nations in an integrated approach involving the private sector, the world market system, governments, NGO's, religious communities and grassroots organizations. This book is MUST reading for anyone looking for realistic and practical solutions to the world's gravest and cruelest injustice, malnutrition caused by poverty.

The Third Freedom is an excellent book that gives countless suggestions, answers, and reasoning for World Hunger. After reading George McGovern's theories I now see how simple it is for the world to end starvation and to make a difference. I recommend The Third Freedom to anyone interested in the issues around World Hunger and to anyone who wants motivation to make a change in the world.

In his simple prose and humble middle-American manner, former Senator George McGovern addresses one of humankind's moral imperatives: world hunger. It is a great tragedy that the majority of Americans are overweight (or have access to three square meals, at the least), while people across the globe -or even across the city- suffer from hunger.

Mr. McGovern presents five possible solutions that may mitigate the plight of millions, among these worldwide WIC and school lunches, an increase in the food stamp program, and a minimum wage increase. Unfortunately, many of these measures seem implausible, for the ironic reason of their political inviability; FEW Americans favor an increase in taxes, to say the least.

I found this book to be more than an overview of hunger's politics. It is a window into the soul of a great man. In truth, world hunger would be a fading memory were we like Mr. McGovern: compassionate and selfless.

I enjoyed this short little book-- really a manual, really, that's 160 so pages long. George McGovern, whom some may know as the fellow who lost to Nixon in '72, outlines a plan for defeating hunger by 2030. Seeing as how the 06'-08' food price crisis and the global recession are working against much needed investment in agriculture, generally diminishing cash crop trade, and causing many who have lost their livelihoods to make dietary concessions, I wonder with fear, is McGovern's plan doomed? All of his points are worthy causes, from strengthening the rights of women and girls, to making sure that water is adequately provided all over the world, and sowing the seeds of democracy in the hopes that responsible governments might make greater effort towards providing basic health services, educational systems, and working infrastructure. But McGovern seems to place the burden of responsibility too heavily on the United States' shoulders. Should it really take on the bulk of financial and leadership responsibilities, in the context of the UN or FAO? McGovern points out that the government shells out so much for military spending, but now that our economy has tanked-- we can't even figure out our own healthcare system!-- are we now going to try to be the Savior for the world's hungry? McGovern overlooks the unpredictable, and mounting devastation of natural disasters (as of writing, flooding in Pakistan has left millions homeless and no doubt food deprived). In addition, he asks way too much from America's farmers, whom he calls to lead initiatives like the World Food Program, etc. A deeper discussion of just how massive American exports in the seventies, artificially fed and buttressed as they were by cheap government loans, subsidies, and incentives would have shown how really unsustainable such whole-scale "relocation" of food is. Let's not forget what happened to all of those farmers, during the subsequent bust in the eighties. I applaud McGovern's social points, but from an agronomic and even logistical point of view, ending world hunger by 1930 through the miraculous work of tech-strengthened farmers and democracy-minded government doesn't really seem too likely.