The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 tec