Frances Moore Lappé
Frances Moore Lappé is the author of nineteen books, beginning with the acclaimed Diet for a Small Planet. Most recently she is the co-author, with Adam Eichen, of the new book, Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want. Among her numerous previous books are EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want (Nation Books). She is co-founder of the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute. Follow her on Twitter: @fmlappe
Articles by this author
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Views Monday, September 17, 2018 Amid Our Nation’s Mounting Democracy Crisis, Hope Is Power Yeah, I know. “Hope” gets shoved into a corner called “nice” where weaklings huddle who can’t face hard realities. In fact, hope and power don’t often show up in the same sentence. Truth is, though, hope is a tap root of power. First, note that the word power derives from the Latin, posse, “to be... Read more |
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Views Monday, September 10, 2018 What is Hope? I’ve been called a hope fiend, and I cop to it. More than ever, hope isn’t just a “nice” feeling we’re lucky to experience from time to time. No, hope has become a requirement, as despair is our worst enemy. So, let me share a few things this fiend has learned about hope. First, it’s work. Yes, I... Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 12, 2018 What’s the Biggest Threat to American Democracy? We sure hear a lot today about external threats to our democracy, whether it’s Russia’s election “meddling” or North Korea’s nuclear expansion. But a home-bred threat might run deeper still. More than a third of Americans polled by the finance company LendEdu say they’d forfeit the right to vote in... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, May 09, 2018 Hope Hides in the Cracks of Our Faltering Democracy American democracy faces huge problems, most of us agree. Still, as recently as last summer, Pew Research found that 85 percent of us embraced the idea that America “stands above all other countries” or that it’s “one of the greatest, along with some others.” Understandably, it’s tough for many to... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, February 13, 2018 We Have What It Takes To Meet The Crisis Of Our Democracy In 1999, Dee Hock, founder of Visa, quipped , “It’s far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.” But 18 years later, pessimism can feel like the new realism. After all, just three Americans control more wealth than the bottom half of us. In last year’s election, less than 1 percent of... Read more |
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Views Friday, January 12, 2018 Farming for a Small Planet People yearn for alternatives to industrial agriculture, but they are worried. They see large-scale operations relying on corporate-supplied chemical inputs as the only high-productivity farming model. Another approach might be kinder to the environment and less risky for consumers, but, they... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, December 13, 2017 We Saved Net Neutrality Once. We Can Do It Again Democracy lives or dies on the quality of public conversation. “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Today it doesn’t take the smarts of... Read more |
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Views Monday, November 27, 2017 A Perilous Time, a Promising Movement “The system is rigged!” is now an angry, bipartisan cry, intensifying as Trump bows to big-donor interests and deepens distrust of government. But here’s the worst part. Not only has big-donor influence blocked life-saving public actions, from worker safety to climate change, but in recent decades... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, November 21, 2017 The Big Threat Now Is Citizens’ Lost Hope for Real Democracy In today’s fraught and frightened America, the word “democracy” could well evoke the rolling of eyes, a blank stare, or wide-eyed incredulity. Certainly not the pitter-patter of hearts. But what if Americans were convinced that all we care most about—from our kids’ future to the immediate need for... Read more |
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Views Saturday, October 21, 2017 The Essential Ingredient of Democracy On what human strengths does democracy depend? It’s a huge question and an urgent one, as many Americans fear their democracy is in free fall. Fortunately, in digging for answers, our constitution itself offers a useful starting point. The Preamble establishes the republic’s commitment to “promote... Read more |