miller's crossing
"So it has come to this."
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Francis Moore Lappe on Democracy's Edge (with audio) Francis Moore Lappe I had the good fortune to attend a talk last night by Francis Moore Lappe, author of the groundbreaking book Diet For A Small Planet, published in 1971. She was in Madison, Wisc., with her new book Democracy's Edge and spoke at the Pres House on the UW campus. As someone who has devoted her life to issues of food, she has come to understand and document that world hunger is created by humans. It is political, not environmental. For her, the intersection of food and democracy provides a clear framework in which to discuss how we as human can do better. As individuals, Frankie encouraged the audience to learn to walk with our fears. And to see fear as a signal that you might be doing something right. We are social creatures conditioned to not do things differently. But if one person acts as a truth teller, she said, others will follow. It the pack is headed over the falls in canoes, it can be life saving to jump into the water and swim for shore. Frankie closed her talk with a story of a Brazilian town that declared food a human right. She prefaced it with an accessment of our current global situation: Despite the blustery cold and snow of the evening, the talk, which took place in an echoing chapel, was full of young and old faces, glowing warmly in the gentle words of an inspiring woman. |