Community Peace Radio Show #53

Date: 14 November 2009

Topic: Frances Moore Lappé -- "You Have the Power: Community Practices for Global Dilemmas"

Participant: Frances Moore Lappé

Host: Pat Leahan

Summary: We interview Frances Moore Lappé, who had also recently given a talk at the United World College-USA. We will quote from the UWC press release to give you a sense of today's Community Peace Radio interview.
 
"Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored 17 books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Award (a.k.a, the “Alternative Nobel.”) Her most recent book Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, was awarded the Nautilus Gold/“Best in Small Press” award. 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 Book Review."

And here is a great quote from Frances that captures the essence of her message: "Power is an idea. And in our culture it’s a stifling idea. We’re taught to see power as something fixed—we either have it, or we don’t. To shift one’s frame in order to perceive possibility is a very personal undertaking. It starts with a willingness to relinquish personalized blame and a boldness to examine the exposed roots of the crisis. It is not possible to know what’s possible. Believing we can accurately predict outcomes, as cynics claim to, has become the utmost in hubris. And because this is true, we are free. We are free to act assuming that our action—no matter how small it appears to us—could be the tipping point setting off tectonic shifts of consciousness and creativity."

Resources:
FML official website --
http://www.smallplanet.org/

YES magazine article --
"The City That Ended Hunger"
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/the-city-that-ended-hunger 

Pat's Extra Notes:
It was an honor to interview someone who has had such an influence on people's lives for so many years.

Thank you, David, for our CPR intro music:
http://www.DavidRovics.com/