Frances Moore Lappé Quotes

The act of putting into your mouth what the earth has grown is perhaps your most direct interaction with the earth.

The real cause of hunger is the powerlessness of the poor to gain access to the resources they need to feed themselves.

Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.

Hunger is a people-made phenomenon, so the central issue is power: the power of those who make the decisions about what is grown and who, or what, it's grown for.

Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy.

Our heavily meat-centered culture is at the very heart of our waste of the earth's productivity.

Hope is a stance, not an assessment.

Every choice we make can be a celebration of the world we want.

[O]ur greatest contributions to the cause of freedom and development overseas is not what we do over there, but what we do right here at home.

Hope is not what we find in evidence, it's what we become in action.

Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.

I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are.

The spirit that I am advocating is reframing how we view the world, and shifting from the negativity of lack and "not enough" to the positive frame of aligning with Nature.

For me hope isn't wishful thinking or blind faith about the future. It's a stance toward life - one of curiosity and humility.

We can all reprogram our brain's responses by putting ourselves into new, initially uncomfortable situations. We'll learn fear might not mean 'stop'; I've come to believe fear usually means 'go.

We didn't evolve to be passive victims or shoppers.

I'm neither an optimist nor a pessimist. I am a dyed-in-the-woo l possibilist! By this, I mean with an eco-mind, we see that everything's connected and change is the only constant.

Individuality doesn't just mean individualism-standing alone. It means developing one's unique gifts, and being able to share them for the enjoyment of oneself and others.

What we need to get right is not focusing on the fear associated with quantity - not enough, scarcity, and lack - and moving instead to a worldview that explores quality and connectedness.

Every time you take a step and walk with your fear, you'll never know the impact. But you can be certain somebody's watching, and that courage is contagious.

Engagement is the good life. What could be more exciting than getting involved in something that you care about and joining with others and seeing something change? What could be more thrilling?

Relationships are the core message of ecology.

Nature has an incredible capacity for regeneration and growth, but we can't experience it if we stay fearful and focused on lack.

I think that fear of embarrassment is the essence of the human challenge.

Our food system takes abundant grain,which people can't afford,and shrinks it into meat,which better-off people will pay for.

Freedom is not the capacity to do whatever we please; freedom is the capacity to make intelligent choices.

in a world where only a minor portion of the land is really well suited to agriculture, man is using much of the best land with dubious efficiency.

With an eco-mind, we get ready for surprises, for we realize it's just not possible to know what's possible.

After the journey around the world, writing Hope's Edge, I began to see that it is not possible to know what's possible - and therein lies our freedom.

We'll learn fear might not mean 'stop'; personally, I've come to believe fear usually means 'go.' It always means listen closely.

There are surprising turning points; there is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and you never know if your action could be the straw.

I think that luxury has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with beauty.

much agricultural land which might be growing food is being used instead to 'grow' money (in the form of coffee, tea, etc.).

History doesn't proceed in incremental little notches.

Approaches to growing food that align with nature changed human relationships.

The good life for me always meant connecting with those big, important issues that grown-ups get so excited about.

Because we are living in a culture increasingly dominated by fear where many feel blocked.

For me, just showing up for the traveling and writing gave me the power to overcome my fear of fear.

We can choose who we bring into our lives. We can choose who will reinforce our risk taking.

Little wonder that it can seem unthinkable to say "no, thanks" to the modern-day equivalent of our tribe - our fear-driven culture.

I like to think of power back in its Latin root, its meaning comes from posse - to be able.

[Fear] means that we are human beings walking into the unknown, and that we are risking breaking with others for something we believe in.

Women can succeed in villages all over the world today without relying on heavy machinery or debt. They can take leadership roles in agriculture, eliminating hunger and inequity.

Science is showing us that we are even more connected to each other than we ever realized.

I had the realization that hunger is not caused by scarcity of food, it is caused by the production system and an absence of democracy throughout the world.

Beauty is created by fellow human beings, and enhanced because they are in relationship with each other.

I think we are at a new evolutionary stage. We evolved in tight-knit tribes in which we faced death if we didn't have the support of the rest of the tribe.

Food has always been at the center of community bonding, of family life, and simple pleasure, but it is becoming more and more an obsession, a source of pain.

We are very much social creatures who model ourselves on one another.

Beauty exists irrespective of financial circumstances.