TESTIMONY OF

GEORGE McGOVERN

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE AGENCIES ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

ROME, ITALY

BEFORE THE

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION AND FORESTY

JULY 27, 2000

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I'm pleased to be associated once again with this important committee. During eighteen years as a Senator from South Dakota, I served every day as a member of this Committee: That was one of the deep satisfactions of my life. I also enjoyed my service on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Joint Economic Committee and my Chairmanship of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. But Agriculture was my bread and butter committee.

This morning I'm especially pleased to be accompanied by my friend and longtime Senate colleague, Bob Dole. As you know, Bob and I represent opposing parties. But we formed a bipartisan coalition in the Senate on matters relating to food and agriculture. That coalition reformed the field of nutrition and virtually put an end to hunger in America. We reformed and expanded food stamps for the poor; we improved and expanded the school lunch and breakfast programs; we launched the WIC program for pregnant and nursing low-income women and their infants. In the 1980's and 1990's there has been some slippage in the coverage of these excellent programs and that needs to be corrected. It is embarrassing that in this richest of all nations we still have an estimated 31 million Americans who do not have enough to eat.

But today I want to describe a new vision for you. It is a vision that would commit the United Nations, including the U.S., to providing a nutritious meal every day for every child in the world.

There are now 300 million school age children in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Most of them do not have a school lunch or breakfast. One hundred and thirty million of them do not attend school and are condemned to a life of illiteracy. Most of those not in school are girls because of the favoritism toward boys and discrimination against girls.

How can we draw these children into the classroom? The most effective attraction anyone has yet devised to bring youngsters into the schools and keep them there is a good school lunch program. The American school lunch program is the envy of the world. At the recent convention in St. Louis of the American School Food Service Association there were visitors from half a dozen foreign countries, including Japan, who were there to find out how they should erect school lunch programs.

By actual test results, a school lunch program will double school attendance; it will also dramatically improve the learning process and academic achievement. Children can't learn on an empty stomach. Nutrition is the precondition of education.

Nearly 40 years ago when the late President Kennedy brought me into the White House as Director of Food for Peace - a bipartisan program under P.L. 480 launched in the Eisenhower Administration - I received a telephone call from the Dean of the University of Georgia. He said, "Mr. McGovern, I'm calling to tell you that the federal school lunch program has done more to stimulate the social and economic development of the south than any other single program. It has," he said, "brought our youngsters into the schools, improved their learning capability, made them stronger, faster and healthier athletes, and more stable and effective citizens."

I believe the Georgia Dean was right then, and based on what he told me so many years ago, I know that he would support a daily school lunch for every child across the world.

If we could achieve the goal of reaching 300 million hungry children with one good meal every day, that would transform life on this planet. Dollar for dollar it is the best investment we can make in creating a healthier, better educated and more effective global citizenry.

One enormous benefit from such an effort is that it would help mightily in breaking down the barriers to the education of girls. Third World parents will send both girls and boys to school if lunches are provided. In six countries where studies have been conducted, it was revealed that illiterate girls who enter into marriage at 11, 12 or 13 years of age have an average of 6 children. Girls who have been schooled have an average of 2.9 children; they marry later and are better able to nurture and educate their children.

One significant benefit of an international school lunch program is that it would raise the income of American farmers and those in other countries that have farm surpluses. Every member of this Committee knows that nearly every farm crop is now in surplus. This depresses farm markets and farm income. But if the Secretary of Agriculture - Dan Glickman, a great Secretary - used his authority in the market he can buy everything from California and Florida oranges to Kansas and Indiana wheat, Iowa corn, Montana, Texas and North and South Dakota cattle and hogs, Wisconsin and New York milk and cheese, and North and South Carolina and Georgia peanuts.

I'm pleased that President Clinton has endorsed this concept. In a White House meeting a month ago he told me: "George, this is a grand idea. I want us to push it." I cite Secretary Glickman and Undersecretary Gus Schumacher as my witnesses.

The President proposed $300 million for the first year - largely in the form of surplus farm commodities. If other U.N. countries will consider that $300 million as a 25% share with the other three-fourths coming from the rest of the world for a total of $1.2 billion, that would not be a bad start.

I'd like to yield now to Bob Dole for some comments and then perhaps the Committee will wish to question us.

Governor George Bush has described himself as a "compassionate conservative." The most compassionate conservative I know is Bob Dole. He was terribly wounded in World War II. I suspect partly because of that he has a tender heart for veterans. But beyond this, wherever there are hungry poor people, or undernourished children, or farmers in trouble, Bob Dole is always there.

The late Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached a sermon on the New Testament verse: "Be ye wise as serpents and gentle as doves." Translated into the modern vernacular, Dr. King said this means: "Be ye tough-minded and tender-hearted."

That's Bob Dole.