U.S. Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs
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The United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs was a
select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues *Select or special committee (United States Congress) *Select ...
of the United States Senate between 1968 and 1977. It was sometimes referred to as the McGovern committee, after its only chairman, Senator
George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...
of South Dakota.


Formation and members

The impetus for formation of the committee was a rising concern about hunger and malnutrition in the United States. It had been brought to public attention by the 1967 field trip of Senators Robert F. Kennedy and
Joseph S. Clark Joseph Sill Clark Jr. (October 21, 1901January 12, 1990) was an American writer, lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 90th Mayor of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1956 and as a United States Senator from Pennsylvani ...
to see emaciated children in Cleveland, Mississippi, by the 1967 broadcast of the
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special '' Hunger in America'', and by the 1968 publication of
Citizens Crusade Against Poverty Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
's report '' Hunger USA''. The last of which showed that diseases such as
kwashiorkor Kwashiorkor ( , ) is a form of severe protein malnutrition characterized by edema and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates. It is thought to be caused by sufficient calorie intake, but with insufficient protein consumption (or lack of goo ...
and
marasmus Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition characterized by energy deficiency. It can occur in anyone with severe malnutrition but usually occurs in children. Body weight is reduced to less than 62% of the normal (expected) body weight for the a ...
– thought only to exist in underdeveloped countries – were present in America. Existing Senate and House committees were uninterested in pursuing the issue, with
House Agriculture Committee The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, or Agriculture Committee is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The House Committee on Agriculture has general jurisdiction over federal agriculture policy and oversight of s ...
chairman
William R. Poage William Robert Poage (December 28, 1899 – January 3, 1987) was a Texas politician who was won election to the United States House of Representatives 21 times, serving 42 years. Early life and education William Robert "Bob" Poage was born in ...
saying "The basic problem is one of ignorance as to what constitutes a balanced diet, coupled with indifference by a great many persons who should and probably do not know," and
Senate Agriculture Committee The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with congressional oversight, legislative oversight of all matters relating to the nation's agriculture industry, farming programs, forest ...
chairman
Allen Ellender Allen Joseph Ellender (September 24, 1890 – July 27, 1972) was an American politician and lawyer who was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1937 until his death. He was a Democrat who was originally allied with Huey Long. As Senator he comp ...
saying "I know that in my state we had a number of fishermen who were unable to catch fish. Do you expect the government, because they cannot catch fish, to feed them until the fish are there?" Political activist
Robert B. Choate, Jr. Robert Burnett Choate Jr. (November 6, 1924 – May 3, 2009) was an American businessman, political activist, and self-described " citizen lobbyist" most famous for his work in consumer protection. Life Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of th ...
first came up with the idea of forming a joint congressional committee to probe the hunger problem. McGovern, who had been involved in food-related issues throughout his congressional career and who had been Director of
Food for Peace In different administrative and organizational forms, the Food for Peace program of the United States has provided food assistance around the world for more than 60 years. Approximately 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited directly fro ...
in the Kennedy administration during the early 1960s, thought that confining the committee to just the more liberal Senate would produce better chances for action. McGovern gathered 38 co-sponsors for the committee's creation, a resolution quickly passed the Senate, and McGovern was named the committee's chairman in July 1968. However, the Senate Rules Committee gave essentially no funding to it that year, so it was inactive; in February 1969, McGovern successfully battled the Rules Committee to restore the normally allocated funding and the select committee's operations began. Membership of the committee during 1969 and 1970 consisted of eight Democrats and five Republicans, and were: The next volume of ''Congressional Quarterly Almanac'' for 1970 shows the same members. *
George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...
of South Dakota, chairman *
Allen Ellender Allen Joseph Ellender (September 24, 1890 – July 27, 1972) was an American politician and lawyer who was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1937 until his death. He was a Democrat who was originally allied with Huey Long. As Senator he comp ...
of Louisiana * Herman Talmadge of Georgia * Ralph Yarborough of Texas * Philip Hart of Michigan * Walter Mondale of Minnesota *
Edward M. Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
of Massachusetts * Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island * Jacob Javits of
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
* Charles Percy of Illinois *
Peter H. Dominick Peter Hoyt Dominick (July 7, 1915 – March 18, 1981) was an American diplomat, politician and lawyer from Colorado. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the United States Senate from 1963 to 1975. His uncle, Howard Alexander Smith, wa ...
of Colorado *
Marlow Cook Marlow Webster Cook (July 27, 1926 – February 4, 2016) was an American politician who served Kentucky in the United States Senate from his appointment in December 1968 to his resignation in December 1974. He was a moderate Republican. He ...
of Kentucky *
Robert Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his t ...
of Kansas Later members of the committee included Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Edward Zorinsky of Nebraska, Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, Henry Bellmon of
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
,
Alan Cranston Alan MacGregor Cranston (June 19, 1914 – December 31, 2000) was an American politician and journalist who served as a United States Senator from California from 1969 to 1993, and as a President of the World Federalist Association from 1949 to 1 ...
of California, and
Mark Hatfield Mark Odom Hatfield (July 12, 1922 – August 7, 2011) was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropr ...
of Oregon.


Hearings, investigations, and actions

The committee's initial goal was to study the problem of hunger and recommend a multi-faceted federal response. Following the Kennedy-Clark path, McGovern sought to dramatize the problem with an onsite visit and so took the committee to Immokalee, Florida, the base for 20,000 mostly black or Hispanic
migrant farm worker A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers who work outsi ...
s. They saw graphic examples of hunger and malnutrition firsthand, but also encountered resistance and complaints about bad publicity from local and state officials. Moreover, local officials were suspected of blocking existing assistance to workers, on the grounds the migrants were "federal people, not Immokalee people." Outside the special committee, McGovern battled the Nixon administration and southerners in Congress during much the next year over an expanded
food stamp In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for Poverty in the United States, low- and no-income people. It ...
program; he had to compromise on a number of points, but the legislation signed in 1970 established the principles of free food stamps and a nationwide standard for eligibility. Federal commodity assistance came to Immokalee as well. The committee worked with others in organizing a White House conference on the issue, which led to the
White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health The 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health was a historic first and resulted in landmark legislation. In his opening address on December 2, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon vowed “to put an end to hunger in America…for all ...
in 1969. In 1971, McGovern expanded the focus of the committee to look at environmental conditions that affected eating habits. He toured the abandoned, destroyed neighborhoods of The Bronx, New York, and issued a report highly critical of the Federal Housing Administration for failed urban renewal efforts. Further committee involvement by McGovern faded for a while as he became caught up in his opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War and in his 1972 U.S. presidential campaign. Throughout, the select committee held hearings in which it heard from academics, non-governmental organizations, educators, health and nutrition experts, school officials, the medical community, and the public. The committee's work filled many volumes of hearing reports. Staff members on the committee included lawyer Jack Quinn, future diplomat
Julia Chang Bloch Julia Chang Bloch (; born 1942) is a Chinese American businessperson and diplomat, who was the first U.S. ambassador of Asian descent. She is the founder and president of the US-China Education Trust. Life and political career Bloch was born ...
, and nutritionist
D. Mark Hegsted David Mark Hegsted (March 25, 1914 – June 16, 2009) was an American nutritionist who studied the connections between food consumption and heart disease. His work included studies that showed that consumption of saturated fats led to increa ...
. Beginning in 1974, McGovern expanded the committee's scope to include national nutrition policy. Now, the committee's focus was not just on not eating enough, but also eating too much. In January 1977, after having held hearings on the national diet, the McGovern committee issued a new set of nutritional guidelines for Americans that sought to combat leading killer conditions such as heart disease, certain cancers, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis. Titled ''Dietary Goals for the United States'', but also known as the "McGovern Report", they suggested that Americans eat less fat, less cholesterol, less refined and processed sugars, and more complex carbohydrates and fiber. (Indeed, it was the McGovern report that first used the term ''
complex carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may ...
'', denoting "fruit, vegetables and whole-grains".) The recommended way of accomplishing this was to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less high-fat meat, egg, and dairy products. While many public health officials had said all of this for some time, the committee's issuance of the guidelines gave it higher public profile. The committee's "eat less" recommendations triggered strong negative reactions from the cattle, dairy, egg, and sugar industries, including from McGovern's home state. The American Medical Association protested as well, reflecting its long-espoused belief that people should see their doctor for individual advice rather than follow guidance for the public as a whole. Some scientists also thought the committee's conclusions needed further expert review. Others felt that the job of promulgating recommendations belonged to the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council. Under heavy pressure, the committee held further hearings, and issued a revised set of guidelines in late 1977 which adjusted some of the advice regarding salt and cholesterol and watered down the wording regarding meat consumption.


End

The committee had won annual extensions each year, despite some institutional opposition, especially from southern Democrats. During 1977, however, there was a large-scale effort to reform the Senate's overall committee system, which was seen as unwieldy, especially in having some 34 special, select, or joint committees. Intense politicking took place as to which select or special committees would survive, and McGovern and Dole fought hard to preserve the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. They were unsuccessful, and at the close of 1977 the committee was subsumed as the Subcommittee on Nutrition within the newly retitled United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. In reaction, Percy said "I do not know of another committee which ... had to lay bare its whole soul and have an accountability to the whole Senate, as we have had year after year after year. Senator Edward Brooke said that the select committee had simply lacked external clout because its constituency was poor and not organized, and called its ending "a sad commentary upon the Senate".


Results and legacy

The McGovern committee suffered the usual institutional limitations of select committees, in that they could highlight problems but could not report legislation to the floor. Instead, its members had to support legislation being worked on elsewhere, or find a regular standing committee that would introduce legislation on their behalf. Nevertheless, the committee often overcame these restrictions, and it greatly highlighted the dimensions of the nation's problem with hunger, and its work led to major changes and additions into how federal food assistance programs worked. Towards the end of the committee's lifetime, it had become effectively institutionalized as the key congressional agent in the hunger, food assistance, and nutrition areas. The committee's work in raising the national understanding of the link between nutrition and chronic disease led to several amendments being passed to the existing
National School Lunch Act The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (79 P.L. 396, 60 Stat. 230) is a 1946 United States federal law that created the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) to provide low-cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through ...
and Child Nutrition Act. The McGovern committee guidelines led to reorganization of some federal executive functions to support the related aims and became the predecessor to the more detailed
Dietary Guidelines for Americans The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) provide nutritional advice for Americans who are healthy or who are at risk for chronic disease but do not currently have chronic disease. The Guidelines are published every five years by the US Department ...
later issued twice a decade by the
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, created on December 1, 1994, to improve the health and well-being of Americans by establishing national dietary guidelines based on the best s ...
. Two nutrition authors wrote in 2008 that "Perhaps as much as any single force, the bipartisan Select Committee brought credibility to the hunger and nutrition issues ..." Their conclusion is echoed by three nutrition authors writing in 1986, who said:
More than anything else, it was probably the McGovern committee that sparked the change in public thinking about the American diet. For although it set out to investigate the causes of hunger in the United States, the committee quickly found that malnutrition in this country covers not diseases of deficiency, but also diseases of excess.


References


External links


''Dietary Goals for the United States'' text
{{George McGovern Nutrition Food politics 1968 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1977 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.