Frances Moore Lappé’s writings

Books

Visit the SPI Books page for details on all our books or to order.

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, Small Planet Media, 2007

Democracy’s Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life, Jossey-Bass, 2006

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

Taking Population Seriously (with Rachel Schurman), The Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1990

Rediscovering America’s Values, Ballantine Books, 1989

Betraying the National Interest (with Rachel Schurman and Kevin Danaher), Grove Press, 1987

World Hunger: Twelve Myths (with 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 and Paul Rice), 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

Mozambique and Tanzania: Asking the Big Questions (with Adele Beccar-Varela), Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1979

Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity (with Joseph Collins), Houghton Mifflin 1977, Ballantine Books, 1979

Chapters

“Where’s the Power,” Greenfestival Reader: Fresh Ideas from Agents of Change, eds., Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz, Polipoint Press, 2008.

“World Hunger: Its Roots and Remedies,” John Germov and Lauren Williams, eds., Sociology of Food and Nutrition, Oxford University Press, 2008.

“Natural Abundance,” The Best of Buddhist Writing, ed., Melvin McLeod, Shambhala, 2008.

“Rethinking Our Mental Map: Stories from the Edge of Hope,” in Kris Steinnes, Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams of Women and Spirit of Women, Wise Women Publishing, 2008.

“I Courageously Speak and Live My Truths,” Janice Lynne Lundy, Your Truest Self, Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be, Sorin Books, 2008.

“The Promise of Democracy,” Herbert Giradet, ed., Surviving the Century, Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges. World Future Council and Earthscan, 2007.

“Foreword,” Little House on a Small Planet, Lyons Press, September 2006

“Food and Democracy,” Warrior Mothers: Stories to Awaken the Flames of the Heart, Rising Star Press, 2004.

“Diet for a Smaller Planet: Real Sources of Abundance,” (with Anna Lappé), Feeding the Future: From Fat to Famine: How to Solve the World’s Food Crises, eds. Andrew Heintzman and Evan Solomon, House of Anansi, 2004.

“Foreword,” Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers (by Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston), Marlowe & Company, 2004.

“Food, Farming, Fear—The Power of Ideas to Create the World We Want,” Iowa State University’s Pesek Colloquium, Winter 2003

“Foreword,” Seeds of Deception, Jeffrey Smith, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2003.

“Foreword,” Encountering Global Environmental Politics: Teaching, Learning, and Empowering Knowledge, ed., Michael Maniates, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

“Foreword,” (with Anna Lappé), How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas (by Joe Collins, Stephan DeZerega, Zahara Heckscher), Putnam, 2002

Selected Articles and Blogs

“Empower the Undecided: UDecide.org,” Huffington Post, October 6, 2008

“Our Next President Could Learn a Lot from Willie Nelson,” Huffington Post, September 22, 2008

“7 Years Later: Could Civilians Be Key to Winning the War on Terror?,” Huffington Post, September 11, 2008

“Send This to Your Republican In-laws!”, Huffington Post, September 3, 2008

“Obama, Call On Us! (And We’ll All Win)”, Huffington Post, August 27, 2008

“The Next Time Someone Dismisses You as an Arugula-Eating Elitist...”, Huffington Post, August 19, 2008

“NPR Misses Real Story, Plants Wrong Seeds,” Huffington Post, August 11, 2008

“‘Fantasy Dessert’ Implicated in Worldwide Epidemic,” Huffington Post, July 11, 2008

“Good Grief, Gordon Brown!”, Huffington Post, July 8, 2008

“Just Who’s Doing the Hoarding? Food Independence and Real Democracy,” Huffington Post, July 1, 2008

“Is Clinton’s 2012 Campaign Under Way?”, Huffington Post, May 29, 2008

“Wasn’t It Also Obama’s ‘Democracy Speech’?”, Huffington Post, March 26 2008

“The Only Fitting Tribute”, The Nation, March April 2008

“Heart-Centered Realism”, Tikkun Magazine, January/February 2008

“Commentary: Climate Change, Courage & Celebration”, Yes! Magazine, Winter 2008

“Power: Redefining a dirty word Conscious Choice”, Conscious Choice, August 2007

“The Right to Food Means Freedom From Dogma”(with Anna Lappé) Huffington Post, October 16, 2007

“Baffled by Al Gore’s Reason,” Huffington Post, June 15, 2007

“Creating Real Prosperity”, Yes! Magazine and AlterNet, November 22, 2006

“Live it or Lose it,” Interview by Lauren Newkirk Maynard, ArtVoice, October 2006

“Our Words Are Killing Us,” Huffington Post, March 15, 2006

Excerpt from Democracy’s Edge, Utne Reader, March-April 2006.

“The Sweet Taste of Success” Alternet, February 22, 2006.

Imagine Magazine “Discovering Democracy’s Power,” Spring 2006.
http://www.imaginemagazine.net

“Thomas Friedman, Are You Listening?” Huffington Post, January 27, 2006

“Hunger is Not a Place” The Nation, January 5, 2006 (read responses here)

“Hope is Not for Wimps,” SGI Quarterly, A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture
and Education, January 2006.

“Bush Isn’t the Problem” Huffington Post, December 14, 2005

“At Democracy’s Edge,” Worldwatch November, December 2005

“Rosa Parks and the Art of Conflict Generation,” Guerilla News Network October 26, 2005.

“Victoria Falls’ (excerpt from You Have the Power by Frances Moore Lappé and Jeffrey Perkins) Geez Magazine, Fall 2005, Geezmagazine.org

“Your Best Fears,” Interview by editor Will Braun, Geez Magazine, fall 2005, Geezmagazine.org

“Time for Progressives to Grow Up,” Common Dreams, May 26, 2005; originally published on December 23, 2004 on Guerrilla News Network

“The woman who didn’t listen,” (with Anna Lappé), Guerrilla News Network, October 14, 2004

“The Scarcity Myth,” The Ecologist Magazine, March 22, 2003

“No Limos, No Cameras, No Headlines: No G7…Only P7,” Guerrilla News Network, December 2002

“Of Land and Hope,” (with Anna Lappé), Yes! Magazine, Fall 2002

“Hunger 30 Years Later: What Have We Learned?” (with Anna Lappé), Wisconsin State Journal, September 2000

“Building Social Capital Without Looking Backward,” (with Paul Martin Du Bois), National Civic Review, February 14, 1997

Editorials

Letter to the Editor of the Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter, featured at Mollie Katzen Online, October 16, 2006

“For the Poor Abroad Corporate Sweatshops Are the Only Option – Wrong!” – Letter to The New York Times

“A Dangerous False Trade-off: Healthy Eating OR Life’s Pleasures” – Letter to The New York Times

Letter to the Editor (responding to Thomas Friedman’s June 3 column, “A Race to the Top"), The New York Times, June 7, 2005

“The light in the middle of a dark Norwegian winter,” Houston Chronicle, December 18, 2004

“The Genius of Wangari Maathai,” (with Anna Lappé), International Herald Tribune, October 14, 2004

“Confronting Big Food,” (with Anna Lappé), The Monterey County Herald, August 2004

“Fear’s Power: Reflecting on Bowling for Columbine,” Newsletter of the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, March 2003

“A Better Way to Feed the Hungry,” (with Anna Lappé), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 22, 2002

“Dispel the Myth That Cheap Food Comes Without High Costs,” (with Anna Lappé), The Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2002

“Fed Up with Unhealthy Food,” New Jersey Star-Ledger, February 2, 2002

“Labelling for GMOs,” Letter to the Editor, The New York Times

“Pushing Hope’s Edge: Rediscovering the Power of Food,” (with Anna Lappé), Response, United Methodist Women’s Magazine, October 2001

“Hope’s Edge: Finding Our Path in Uncertain Times,” (with Anna Lappé), U.N. Chronicle, September-November 2001

“People, Not Technology, Are the Key to Ending Hunger,” (with Anna Lappé), The Los Angeles Times, June 2001

Unpublished Pieces

“Now What? Seven Lessons for Building a More Powerful Progressive Politics,” Paper with Richard R. Rowe, November 2004

“The Power of Courage in a Culture of Fear,” Op-Ed, May 2004

“Latin America Losing Hope in Democracy,” Letter to the Editor, April 2004

“Manifesto on the Future of Food,” (Co-authored as part of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture), San Rossore, Italy, July 15, 2003

“The World We Want & The Words We Use,” Prepared for gathering hosted by Vandana Shiva and the region of Tuscany to create the Commission on the Future of Food, Florence, Italy, February 4-5, 2003

“The Courage to Fear,” (speech to Wellesley Friends Meeting), October 27, 2002

“Children: Laboring Under False Assumptions,” July 2002

“Hope is Not for Wimps,” June 3, 2002

“Globalization and Building Living Democracy,” Letter to the Editor, Winter 2001

“The Existence of Hunger Belies Democracy,” Prepared for the Fifth Annual P7 Meeting (Gathering of the world’s poorest countries), Brussels, Belgium, December 2001

“Poverty & Terrorism,” Letter to the Editor, December 2001

“On Fear, Flying and Freedom,” September 22, 2001