Former Presidential Nominee and Senator, George McGovern visits UNCG campus

“The enduring passion in my life has been concern for hungry people both in our country and around the world,” said former Democratic presidential nominee Senator George McGovern to open his speech at UNCG last Wednesday. McGovern came to campus for the premiere of “Hungry for Green,” a film written and directed by UNCG professor Matt Barr which he narrated.

The film, officially titled “Hungry for Green: Feeding the World Sustainably,” is a 26-minute documentary addressing organic and sustainable agriculture’s interconnections to feeding the world’s hungry. Provost David Perrin introduced the Senator to a packed house in the Elliott University Center, where the film screened. McGovern spoke of the early experiences that led him to devote so much of his life to ending world hunger. Growing up in South Dakota, McGovern saw the hardships of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. He told a story about watching his father, who had little himself, feed young men that came to their house after “riding the rails.”

These young men traveled across the country hiding in boxcars. His father prayed for the young men, whether they liked it or not, and instilled in McGovern the idea that no one deserved to go hungry. While stationed in Italy as a bomber pilot during World War II, McGovern witnessed children huddling around the soldiers hoping to get a little food. The only English words they knew were names of candy bars. One morning, on the military base, he woke to the sound of scratching sounds. He looked outside and saw housewives rummaging through the garbage for food to take home to their children. He saw hunger in the United States, and around the world. “All of this gave me a feeling that if I ever got the chance to reduce hunger in the world, I would seize on that,” he said.

McGovern went on to describe his first run at the South Dakota House of representatives, and meeting then presidential nominee John F. Kennedy, when he campaigned in the state. He lost that year, but told Kennedy, “The farmers of South Dakota can do more to promote peace in the world than any other group if we remember that food is strength, and food is health, and food is hope for oppressed people around the world.”

Eventually, President Kennedy would make McGovern the director of the newly formed “Food for Peace” program, an initiative to redistribute agricultural abundance that he himself suggested to the President. In that capacity, McGovern travelled the world to look at the food situation around the globe. “This gave me the opportunity to see hungry, so hungry people, so repressed in so many parts of the world,” he said, “Late at night sometimes, I just see that vision of millions and millions of hungry people reaching out for help.”

Eventually, as a member of the U.S. Senate, McGovern created the Commission on Nutrition and Human Needs. Among many other accomplishments, he led the Senate to double the Federal School Lunch Program and Triple the Federal Food Stamp Program with the help of Republican Senator Bob Dole. They also co-sponsored a bill initiating a program that provides extra assistance to needy mothers and their children. “It doesn’t cost much money,” he said of the program, “one or two days of these foolish wars in Iraq or Afghanistan would pay for it.

“Hungry for Green: Feeding the World Sustainably,” chronicles McGovern and other scholars and experts on sustainable agriculture and world hunger during a conference at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. There, researchers, professors, and activists shared ideas on agroecology, sustainability, and the connections between poverty, food, energy, and agriculture. Mathew Barr, the writer and director of the film and an associate professor in the media studies department at UNCG, said, “It is one of the first documentaries to tie together the issues of agricultural sustainability and the worldwide problem of hunger. We plan to get ‘Hungry for Green’ out to PBS stations as well as to educational venues nationwide.” The film has already won praise from acclaimed documentary filmmakers and critics.

McGovern attended Dakota Wesleyan University for his undergraduate degree and got a masters degree and doctorate in history at Northwestern University, all paid for by the G.I. Bill. He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1957-61, and three terms in the Senate, 1963-81. As commencement speaker he spoke to the UNCG graduating class of 1969. In 1972 he ran against Richard Nixon as the Democratic Party presidential candidate, but lost. In addition to his work on world hunger, his political career is noted by his support of farmer’s rights and staunch opposition to the Vietnam War.