Frances Moore Lappé
Frances Moore Lappé, practical philosopher of hope in action, is the author or co-author of 18 books. The common thread of her work is that solutions to today’s biggest challenges depend on the active engagement of communities, the fast-growing practice she calls Living Democracy. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered “the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined” [JM Hirsch, Associated Press].
Her most recent book, Getting a Grip 2: Clarity, Creativity and Courage for the World We Really Want, is a thorough revision of the 2008 Nautilus Gold/“Best in Small Press” award winning edition. In June 2008, that book and Diet for a Small Planet were designated as must-reads for the next U.S. president (by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, respectively) in The New York Times Sunday Review of Books. Other recent books include Hope’s Edge, written with Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide, as well as You Have the Power and Democracy’s Edge.
With Anna Lappé, Frances leads the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. Together they founded the Small Planet Fund which gathers and channels resources to democratic social movements, especially those featured in Hope’s Edge.
In 1975 with Joseph Collins, Lappé launched the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First), described by The New York Times as one of the nation’s “most respected food think tanks.” In 1990, Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy, a ten-year initiative to help accelerate the spread of democratic innovations. Lappé served as founding editor of the Center’s American News Service, which placed solutions-oriented news stories in almost three hundred newspapers nationwide.
Lappé’s books have been used in hundreds of colleges and universities and in more than 50 countries. Her 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 PBS with Bill Moyers, Today Show, CBS Radio, MSNBC Hardball, National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the BBC.
Lappé has received seventeen honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions. 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 2008, she received the 2008 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition, and agriculture. That same year, Gourmet Magazine named Lappé among twenty-five people (including Thomas Jefferson, Upton Sinclair, and Julia Child), whose work has changed the way America eats.
Historian Howard Zinn writes: “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.”
ADVISORY POSTS AND BOARDS:
- Frances is a founding councilor of the World Future Council, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, and London
- Frances serves on the advisory boards for the Union of Concerned Scientists, Simple Living, the Chez Panisse Foundation, Earth Corps, and the People-Centered Development Foundation
TEACHING AND SCHOLARLY POSITIONS
- From 2000-2001 Frances was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- In 2003, Frances 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, Frances taught a course on Living Democracy at Schumacher College in England.
- In 2006 and 2008, Frances was a visiting professor at Suffolk University, Boston.
ADDITIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
- Frances served as spokesperson for international World Food Day 2005.
- She is a contributing editor of Yes! Magazine, which carries our website feature, “Stories from the Edge.”
AWARDS
- Outstanding Public Scholar Award, International Political Economy section of the International Studies Association, 2009.
- Open Center Award, New York Open Center for “shaping a new understanding of the interrelationships among local food, agricultural sustainability, and living democracy,” 2008.
- Nautilus Gold/Best in Small Press, for Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad, 2008.
- James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award, 2008.
- Lifetime Service Award to Increase Planetary Awareness, AltWheels Alternative Transportation Festival, 2006 (along with biologist and author, E.O. Wilson).
- Rachel Carson Environmental Achievement Award, The National Nutritional Foods Association, 2003.
- Nautilus Award/Best in Social Change, for Hope’s Edge, 2003.
- Nutrition Hall of Fame, Natural Health Magazine, 2000.
- The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel, 1987.
- The Harry Chapin Media Awards (formerly the World Hunger Media Awards), WHY.