Frances Moore Lappé
Encyclopedia
Frances Moore Lappé is the author of 18 books including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet
. She is the co-founder of three national organizations that explore the roots of hunger, poverty and environmental crises, as well as solutions now emerging worldwide through what she calls Living Democracy. Her most recent book is EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want
to John and Ina Moore and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. After graduating from Earlham College
in 1966, she married toxicologist and environmentalist Dr. Marc Lappé in 1967. They had two children, Anthony and Anna Lappé
. They divorced in 1977. She briefly attended University of California at Berkeley for graduate studies in social work.
Throughout her works Lappé has argued that world hunger is caused not by the lack of food but rather by the inability of hungry people to gain access to the abundance of food that exists in the world and/or food-producing resources because they are simply too poor. She has posited that our current "thin democracy" creates a mal-distribution of power and resources that inevitably creates waste and an artificial scarcity of the essentials for sustainable living.
Lappé makes the argument that what she calls "living democracy," i.e. not only what we do in the voting booth but through our daily choices of what we buy and how we live, provides a mental and behavioral framework of goods and goodness that is aligned with our basic human nature. She believes that only by "living democracy" can we effectively solve today's social and environmental crises.
Lappé began her writing career early in life. She first gained prominence in the early 1970s with the publication of her book Diet for a Small Planet
, which has sold several million copies.
In 1975, with Joseph Collins she launched the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy
(Food First) to educate Americans about the causes of world hunger. In 1990,
Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy, a 10-year initiative to accelerate the spread of democratic innovations in which regular citizens contribute to problem solving. She served as founding editor of the Center’s American News Service (1995–2000), which placed stories of citizen problem-solving in nearly half the nation’s largest newspapers.
Frances Moore Lappé’s works have been translated into 15 languages, the most recent of which is a Chinese publication of Hope’s Edge.
In 2002, Lappé and her daughter Anna established the Small Planet Institute
based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. With her daughter, she is also co-founder of the Small Planet Fund, channeling resources to democratic social movements worldwide.
Small Planet Institute’s website, www.smallplanet.org, was revamped in November 2010. It features information on Frances and Anna, including book descriptions and news articles; resources on food, hunger and the environment; and resources on power and democratic life.
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life, was released in 2006. This book completed a trilogy which began in 2002 with the 30th anniversary sequel to Diet for a Small Planet, titled Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, co-written with her daughter, Anna Lappé. Then in 2004 she published with Jeffrey Perkins You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. Among Lappé's other books are World Hunger: Twelve Myths and Rediscovering America's Values.
In March 2010, the Institute's publishing arm, Small Planet Media, released Lappé's newest book, Getting a Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity, & Courage for the World We Really Want, a through revision of the 2008 Nautilus Gold/"Best in Small Press" award winning edition.
Her latest book, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World we Want, was released in Fall 2011.
In 2006 she was chosen as a founding councilor of the Hamburg-based World Future Council
. She is also a member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture and the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists
. She serves as an advisor to the Calgary Centre for Global Community and on the board of David Korten
’s People-Centered Development Forum. In 2009 she joined the advisory board of Corporate Accountability International's
Value the Meal campaign. She is a Contributing Editor to YES! Magazine
.
Lappé's articles and opinion pieces have appeared in publications as diverse as The New York Times
, O Magazine
, and Christian Century. Her television and radio appearances have included a PBS special with Bill Moyers, the Today Show, CBS Radio, and National Public Radio.
Lappé has received 17 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions, including the University of Michigan
, Kenyon College
, Allegheny College
Lewis and Clark College and Grinnell College
. She also held various teaching and scholarly positions:
-From 1984-1985, Lappé was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, at the University of California, Berkeley.
- From 2000-2001, Lappé was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- In 2003, Lappé taught with Dr. Vandana Shiva
in Dehra Dun, India, about the roots of world hunger, sponsored by the Navdanya researching and agricultural demonstration center.
- In 2004, Lappé taught a course on Living Democracy at Schumacher College in England.
- In 2006 and 2008, Lappé was a visiting professor at Suffolk University, Boston.
In 1987 in Sweden, Lappé became the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award
, often called the Alternative Nobel. In 2003, she received the Rachel Carson
Award from the National Nutritional Foods Association. She was selected as one of twelve living "women whose words have changed the world" by the Women's National Book Association.
In 2008, she was honored by the James Beard Foundation
as the Humanitarian of the Year.In the same year, Gourmet Magazine named Lappé among 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson
, Upton Sinclair
, and Julia Child
), whose work has changed the way America eats. Diet for a Small Planet was selected as one of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World by members of the Women’s National Book Association in observance of its 75th anniversary.
Historian Howard Zinn
wrote: “A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who swerve past the barriers of greed and power to hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those.” The Washington Post says: “Some of the twentieth century’s most vibrant activist thinkers have been American women – Margaret Mead
, Jeanette Rankin, Barbara Ward
, Dorothy Day
– who took it upon themselves to pump life into basic truths. Frances Moore Lappé is among them."
Lappé's son, Anthony, is a New York City
-based producer and is the director of Invisible Hand Media.
Diet for a Small Planet
Diet for a Small Planet is a 1971 bestselling book by Frances Moore Lappé, the first major book to critique grain-fed meat production as wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity...
. She is the co-founder of three national organizations that explore the roots of hunger, poverty and environmental crises, as well as solutions now emerging worldwide through what she calls Living Democracy. Her most recent book is EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want
Biography
Lappé was born in 1944 in Pendleton, OregonPendleton, Oregon
Pendleton is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Pendleton was named in 1868 by the county commissioners for George H. Pendleton, Democratic candidate for Vice-President in the 1864 presidential campaign. The population was 16,612 at the 2010 census...
to John and Ina Moore and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. After graduating from Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
in 1966, she married toxicologist and environmentalist Dr. Marc Lappé in 1967. They had two children, Anthony and Anna Lappé
Anna Lappé
Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author and public speaker, respected for her work on sustainability, food politics, globalization, and social change...
. They divorced in 1977. She briefly attended University of California at Berkeley for graduate studies in social work.
Throughout her works Lappé has argued that world hunger is caused not by the lack of food but rather by the inability of hungry people to gain access to the abundance of food that exists in the world and/or food-producing resources because they are simply too poor. She has posited that our current "thin democracy" creates a mal-distribution of power and resources that inevitably creates waste and an artificial scarcity of the essentials for sustainable living.
Lappé makes the argument that what she calls "living democracy," i.e. not only what we do in the voting booth but through our daily choices of what we buy and how we live, provides a mental and behavioral framework of goods and goodness that is aligned with our basic human nature. She believes that only by "living democracy" can we effectively solve today's social and environmental crises.
Lappé began her writing career early in life. She first gained prominence in the early 1970s with the publication of her book Diet for a Small Planet
Diet for a Small Planet
Diet for a Small Planet is a 1971 bestselling book by Frances Moore Lappé, the first major book to critique grain-fed meat production as wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity...
, which has sold several million copies.
In 1975, with Joseph Collins she launched the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy
Food First
Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, USA. Founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, it describes itself as a "people's think tank and education-for-action center".Its mission is “to...
(Food First) to educate Americans about the causes of world hunger. In 1990,
Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy, a 10-year initiative to accelerate the spread of democratic innovations in which regular citizens contribute to problem solving. She served as founding editor of the Center’s American News Service (1995–2000), which placed stories of citizen problem-solving in nearly half the nation’s largest newspapers.
Frances Moore Lappé’s works have been translated into 15 languages, the most recent of which is a Chinese publication of Hope’s Edge.
In 2002, Lappé and her daughter Anna established the Small Planet Institute
Small Planet Institute
-Founding and Mission:Small Planet Institute is a nonprofit organization founded by Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé in 2001. Its mission is "to help define, articulate, and further an historic transition: a worldwide shift from the dominant, failing notion of democracy as a set of fixed...
based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. With her daughter, she is also co-founder of the Small Planet Fund, channeling resources to democratic social movements worldwide.
Small Planet Institute’s website, www.smallplanet.org, was revamped in November 2010. It features information on Frances and Anna, including book descriptions and news articles; resources on food, hunger and the environment; and resources on power and democratic life.
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life, was released in 2006. This book completed a trilogy which began in 2002 with the 30th anniversary sequel to Diet for a Small Planet, titled Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, co-written with her daughter, Anna Lappé. Then in 2004 she published with Jeffrey Perkins You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. Among Lappé's other books are World Hunger: Twelve Myths and Rediscovering America's Values.
In March 2010, the Institute's publishing arm, Small Planet Media, released Lappé's newest book, Getting a Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity, & Courage for the World We Really Want, a through revision of the 2008 Nautilus Gold/"Best in Small Press" award winning edition.
Her latest book, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World we Want, was released in Fall 2011.
In 2006 she was chosen as a founding councilor of the Hamburg-based World Future Council
World Future Council
The World Future Council is an independent body formally founded in Hamburg, Germany on 10 May 2007. "Formed to speak on behalf of policy solutions that serve the interests of future generations", it includes members active in governmental bodies, civil society, business, science and the arts...
. She is also a member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture and the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit science advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. James J...
. She serves as an advisor to the Calgary Centre for Global Community and on the board of David Korten
David Korten
David C. Korten is an American economist, author, and former Professor of the Harvard Business School, political activist and prominent critic of corporate globalization, "by training and inclination a student of psychology and behavioral systems". His best-known publication is When Corporations...
’s People-Centered Development Forum. In 2009 she joined the advisory board of Corporate Accountability International's
Corporate Accountability International
Corporate Accountability International is a non-profit organization, founded in 1977. Their campaign headquarters are in Boston, Massachusetts and they have offices in Oakland, California, Seattle, Washington, and Bogotá, Colombia...
Value the Meal campaign. She is a Contributing Editor to YES! Magazine
YES! Magazine
YES! Magazine is a non-profit, ad-free magazine that covers topics of social justice, environmental sustainability, alternative economics, and peace. The magazine is published by Positive Futures Network, founded by David Korten and Sarah van Gelder; Korten's wife, Fran Korten, is the publisher. ...
.
Lappé's articles and opinion pieces have appeared in publications as diverse as The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, O Magazine
O, The Oprah Magazine
O: The Oprah Magazine, sometimes simply abbreviated to O, is a monthly magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Corporation.-Overview:...
, and Christian Century. Her television and radio appearances have included a PBS special with Bill Moyers, the Today Show, CBS Radio, and National Public Radio.
Lappé has received 17 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions, including the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
, Allegheny College
Allegheny College
Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the town of Meadville. Founded in 1815, the college has about 2,100 undergraduate students.-Early history:...
Lewis and Clark College and Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....
. She also held various teaching and scholarly positions:
-From 1984-1985, Lappé was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, at the University of California, Berkeley.
- From 2000-2001, Lappé was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- In 2003, Lappé taught with Dr. Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva , is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D...
in Dehra Dun, India, about the roots of world hunger, sponsored by the Navdanya researching and agricultural demonstration center.
- In 2004, Lappé taught a course on Living Democracy at Schumacher College in England.
- In 2006 and 2008, Lappé was a visiting professor at Suffolk University, Boston.
In 1987 in Sweden, Lappé became the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
, often called the Alternative Nobel. In 2003, she received the Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
Award from the National Nutritional Foods Association. She was selected as one of twelve living "women whose words have changed the world" by the Women's National Book Association.
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and...
as the Humanitarian of the Year.In the same year, Gourmet Magazine named Lappé among 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, and Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
), whose work has changed the way America eats. Diet for a Small Planet was selected as one of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World by members of the Women’s National Book Association in observance of its 75th anniversary.
Historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
wrote: “A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who swerve past the barriers of greed and power to hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those.” The Washington Post says: “Some of the twentieth century’s most vibrant activist thinkers have been American women – Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, Jeanette Rankin, Barbara Ward
Barbara Ward
Barbara Mary Ward , in later life Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental...
, Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...
– who took it upon themselves to pump life into basic truths. Frances Moore Lappé is among them."
Lappé's son, Anthony, is a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based producer and is the director of Invisible Hand Media.
Writings
Thin Democracy proposes that the government will govern themselves instead of the public good. Living Democracy proposes that the government governs for the public good- Diet for a Small PlanetDiet for a Small PlanetDiet for a Small Planet is a 1971 bestselling book by Frances Moore Lappé, the first major book to critique grain-fed meat production as wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity...
, Ballantine Books, 1971, 1975, 1982, 1991. ISBN 0345023781 - Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity (with Joseph Collins), Houghton Mifflin, 1977, Ballantine Books, 1979.
- What To Do After You Turn Off the T.V., Ballantine Books, 1985.
- World Hunger: Twelve Myths (with Joseph Collins), Grove Press, 1986, 1998.
- Rediscovering America's Values, Ballantine Books, 1989
- The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives (with Paul Martin Du Bois), Jossey-Bass, 1994.
- Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (with Anna Lappé), Tarcher/Penguin, 2002.
- You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear (with Jeffrey Perkins), Tarcher/Penguin, 2004.
- Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life, Jossey-Bass, 2005.
- Getting A Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad, Small Planet Media, 2007.
- Getting A Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want, Small Planet Media, 2010.
- EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want, Small Planet Media, 2011.
External links
Recent Articles
- Retire Ronald McDonald--Do it for our kids! Frances writes that Ronald McDonald should be retired and McDonald's should halt advertising to kids, March 2010
- The Movement Mother An interview of Frances Moore Lappé with her son, Anthony Lappé, June 2009
- The City that Ended Hunger Frances writes about the city of Belo HorizonteBelo HorizonteBelo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Brazil in Yes MagazineFeb,2009
Videos
- Burger King's Flawed Strategy Frances on Fox News
- James Beard Awards 2008 Frances Moore Lappé video
- Big Picture TV Video clips of Frances Moore Lappé speaking about living democracy
- Interview on Democracy Now!, July 9, 2008
- Liberation Ecology: Toward an Empowering Frame to Move from Crisis to Transformation, Frances Moore Lappé giving the keynote address at the annual Provender Alliance conference in Hood River, Oregon, October 2, 2008.
- On KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle, Washington An interview with Mike McCormick, producer of Mind Over Matters, July, 2008