Jean Mayer - Work On Hunger

Work On Hunger

Following in the footsteps of his father, Mayer devoted much of his time and attention to hunger issues. Many of the 750 articles and ten books he wrote were concerned with issues such as famine and nutrition policies. Mayer also served as an advisor on food issues to three U.S. Presidents and U.S. Department of State, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children's Fund. He was chairman of the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, the work of which paved the way for the subsequent establishment of the food stamp program and the expansion of reduced-price school lunch programs for poor children.

Mayer was politically active in other realms, as well. He was the first scientist to speak out against the use of herbicides in the Vietnam War, and he helped sponsor scholarship programs that sent non-white South Africans to mixed-race universities in their home country.

He was awarded the Bolton S. Corson Medal in 1978 for outstanding contribution to human nutrition.