history of meals for millions, soy, and freedom from ... - SoyInfo Center

Springs Conference held by forty-four nations at the
Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Virginia, from May 18 to
June 3, 1943. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an
invitation to this conference at the peak of World War II, on
30 March 1943, to countries associated with the United
States in the war, to discuss world problems of agriculture,
nutrition an food. “This first World Food Congress
established an interim commission with an office in
Washington, D.C., which functioned until” FAO was
formally established as an agency of the United Nations on
16 Oct. 1945 in Quebec, Canada, to assume the work of the
International Agriculture Institute and is presently governed
by the U.N. Conference of Member Nations. FAO’s
headquarters was transferred from Washington to Rome,
Italy, in early 1951 (p. 101).
“In July 1960, FAO, with the approval and cooperation
of the United Nations system, launched the five-year,
worldwide Freedom from Hunger Campaign.” The message
of this campaign “to the more affluent nations has
concentrated on arousing public awareness of the danger
which global hunger and malnutrition pose to the peace and
progress of mankind. It has also sought to encourage
international cooperation in facing up to the solution of
these problems.”
“Every nation has been urged to establish a Citizens’
Freedom from Hunger Foundation to raise funds for the
campaign. In this way private individuals, women’s clubs,
religious groups, civic organizations, and commercial firms
can participate through contributions of money or materials.
“The American Freedom from Hunger Foundation
Campaign was named by President Kennedy on November
22, 1961, the day before Thanksgiving.” A ceremony in the
White House launched the U.S. phase of the campaign.
Alvin Shapiro of Washington, DC, as the first head of the
American Foundation (p. 103-04). A photo (facing p. 15)
shows the people present at the launching of the FFH
Campaign in the Fish Room of the White House (left to
right): Marian Anderson, Senator George McGovern,
President John F. Kennedy, German Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer, and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.
“A highlight of the campaign was the World Food
Congress in Washington, D.C., June 14-18, 1963, timed to
commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Hot Springs
World Food Conference” [in Virginia]. President Kennedy
opened the conference with a memorable speech (p. 106).
The United States pledged $40 million in commodities, as
part of a program to reduce U.S. food surpluses and also
feed the hungry (p. 108).
Note: In March 1979 The American Freedom from
Hunger Foundation merged with the Meals for Millions
Foundation to become the “Meals for Millions / Freedom
from Hunger Foundation.”
The World Food Program was first established at the
1960 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
MEALS FOR MILLIONS, SOY, AND FREEDOM FROM HUNGER 79
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Conference, when George McGovern, director of the US
Food for Peace Program, proposed establishing a
multilateral food aid program. WFP was formally
established in 1963 by the FAO and the United Nations
General Assembly on a three-year experimental basis. In
1965, the program was extended to a continuing basis.
Chapter 8, “Victory in the war against want, begins: On
23 Sept. 1959 Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev, at the start
of his visit to the United States, visited the farm of Roswell
Garst near the city of Coon Rapids, Iowa. He wanted to
learn more about modern agriculture. In the Soviet Union
nearly 50% of the entire labor force was involved in
producing food, compared with only 8% in the United
States. Yet the remaining 92% of Americans are better fed
than is the Russian populace, and the USA has surplus food
which it uses to feed the hungry overseas (p. 113-14).
“The great changes in American agriculture came at an
accelerating pace after 1915 with the sharply increased
demands for food of World War I serving as a catalyst. In
the half century since then the American farm has been
transformed. Every phase of the farm operation is heavily
assisted by machinery. Rural electrification not only lights
the farmhouse but runs everything from water pump to
milking machine, hybrid seed, chemical fertilizer,
pesticides, livestock feed supplements, soybean products,
and a host of other developments, including the cooperative
movement, have changed the face and form of rural
America.”
In 1862, under Abraham Lincoln and during the Civil
War, three historic acts “laid the institutional foundation of
American agriculture: The Homestead Act, the Morrill Act,
and the creation of the Department of Agriculture (p. 115-
16).
In the last half of Chapter 8 McGovern suggests “a tenpoint
battle plan against hunger led by the American people,
which I am convinced will end in victory.” These are largely
McGovern’s opinions about how the Food for Peace
program could be improved and expanded. Four example,
No. 4 is to “eliminate the political restrictions on our Food
for Peace (FFP) program.” He advocates that surplus
American food be sent to hungry people (especially
children) living in Communist countries, such as the USSR,
China, or Cuba.
Appendix I gives 4 pages of statistics about the FFP
program, including a graph showing the dollar value of FFP
shipments to 5 different regions of the world from 1955 to
1963. Shipments to Europe peaked in 1957 at $850 million
and decreased sharply thereafter. Shipments to the Near
East and South Asia peaked in 1961 at $700 million and
have decreased since then but were still the largest in 1963.
Appendix II includes directories of: (1) The executive
committee of the American Food for Peace Council. Many
of the members of the Executive Committee are private
citizens. Mr. Dwayne O. Andreas, an Executive Vice