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(More customer reviews)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.
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