Frances Moore Lappé Biography
Frances Moore Lappé’s 1971,
three-million-copy bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet, awakened a whole
generation to the irrationality of feeding mountains of grain to livestock,
which return in meat only a tiny fraction of the nutrients fed. Today, with
concerns growing over genetically modified organisms and impact of corporate
globalization, she has teamed up with her daughter Anna to write a sequel.
Mother and daughter have just completed Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a
Small Planet. In it, the two Lappés pick up where the original book left
off. Together, they set out on a round-the-world journey to explore the greatest
challenges we face at the new millennium. Traveling to Asia, Africa, Latin
America and Europe, as well as here in the United States, they sought answers to
the most urgent question of our time—whether we can go beyond today’s
consumerism and the isolation of me-first capitalism and find paths we each can
walk that will heal our lives and the planet. Hope’s Edge was released by Tarcher/Putnam.
While writing Hope’s Edge, Lappé, author of over a dozen other books, was a
visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Currently, she is
a senior fellow at Second Nature in Boston. Lappé is the co-founder of two
national organizations.
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. Still making waves after twenty-five years, the Institute was
described by The New York Times as one of the nation's "most respected food
think tanks." Its publications continue to shape the international debate
on the root causes of hunger and poverty.
In 1990, Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy, a ten-year
initiative that helped make visible and therefore accelerate the spread of
democratic innovations in which regular citizens contribute to problem solving
in all dimensions of public life.
Lappé served as founding editor of the Center’s American News Service,
which over five years placed solutions-oriented news stories in more than 300
newspapers, including almost half of the nation’s top 100 newspapers by
circulation.
Lappé's books, used in a broad array of courses in hundreds of colleges and
universities and in more than 50 countries, have been translated into over a
dozen languages. Lappé's 1989 book, Rediscovering America's Values, written as
a dialogue, has sparked discussion on democratic values in thousands of
settings. The Los Angeles Times called the book "original" and
"provocative"- a "remarkable and valuable resource...It will help
individual readers clarify their own personal values."
Her 1994 The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking our Lives
focuses on the success stories and practical tools of citizen problem solving.
Lappé's life and work have been featured in People Magazine, The Boston Globe
Magazine, The Utne Reader, Vegetarian Times, Orion Magazine, and many other
publications. Lappé's articles have appeared in publications as diverse as The
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Readers' Digest, Christian Century,
Chemistry, Le Monde Diplomatique, National Civic Review, Tikkun, and Harpers.
Her television and radio appearances have included the Today Show, CBS Radio,
and National Public Radio. Lappé's work has been featured in several television
documentaries, including an hour-long special devoted to her life that aired in
Australia and Great Britain. She lectures widely to university audiences,
community groups, and professional conferences.
Lappé has received 15 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions,
including the University of Michigan, Kenyon College, Allegheny College, and
Lewis and Clark College.
In 1987 in Sweden, Lappé became the fourth American to receive the Right
Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel," for her
"vision and work healing our planet and uplifting humanity." In her
30's, Lappé received the annual Mademoiselle magazine award, honoring young
American women leaders. Lappé's book awards include the World Hunger Media
Award and the Henry George Award. In 2000, she was inducted into Natural Health
Magazine's Hall of Fame.
Bibliography
Getting A Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want, 2010
Getting A Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad, 2007
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our country by Bringing Democracy to Life, 2005
You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear (with Jeffrey
Perkins), Tarcher/Penguin, 2004
Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (with Anna Lappé),
Tarcher/Penguin, 2002
The Quickening of America: Rebuilding Our Nation, Remaking Our Lives (with
Paul Martin Du Bois), Jossey-Bass, 1994
Diet for a Small Planet, Ballantine Books, 1971, 1975, 1982, 1991
(with Rachel Schurman), The Institute for Food and Development Policy,
1990
Rediscovering America’s Values, Ballantine Books, 1989
(with Rachel Schurman and Kevin Danaher), Grove Press, 1987
World Hunger: Twelve Myths (Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset and Luis
Esparza), Grove Press, 1986. Updated and revised, 1999
What To Do After You Turn Off the T.V., Ballantine Books, 1985
Nicaragua: What Difference Could a Revolution Make? (with Joseph Collins),
Grove Press, 1984
Now We Can Speak (with Joseph Collins), Institute for Food and Development
Policy, 1984
Aid as Obstacle (with Joseph Collins and David Kinley), Institute for Food
and Development Policy, 1980, Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1979
Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity (with Joseph Collins), Houghton
Mifflin 1977, Ballantine Books, 1979
This biography was last updated on 07/22/2011.
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