FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ
Since 1971, Lappé's debut book Diet for a Small Planet has sold over three million copies. In 2019, The New York Times Magazine interview with Frances began: "Frances Moore Lappé changed how we eat. She wants to do the same for our democracy."
Frances Moore Lappé is the author or co-author of 21 books, many focusing on themes of “living democracy”—suggesting not only a government accountable to citizens but a way of living aligned with the deep human need for connection, meaning, and power. She has received 20 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions across the country, mostly recently Indiana University in 2021.
Her most recent publication, "Crisis of Trust: How Can Democracies Protect Against Dangerous Lies" (2023), dives into the roots of the American disinformation crisis and shares lessons from democracies leading the fight to combat harmful lies and promote truth. In 2017, Frances released "Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want" coauthored with Adam Eichen. Booklist (the American Library Association's book review magazine) wrote, “With specific plans of action and encouraging words of support, Lappé and Eichen extend concrete hope to those who feel politically helpless.” Other recent works include "It’s Not Too Late! Crisis, Opportunity, and the Power of Hope," "World Hunger: 10 Myths" and "EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want."
PROMINENT RECOGNITION
In 1987 Frances received the Right Livelihood Award (considered an "Alternative Nobel") "for revealing the political and economic causes of world hunger and how citizens can help to remedy them." In 1985, she was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, Berkeley and from 2000 to 2001, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008 she received the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition, and agriculture.
Other notable awards include the International Studies Association's 2009 Outstanding Public Scholar Award, and in 2011, the Nonino Prize in Italy for her life's work. In 2007 Frances became a founding member of the World Future Council, based in Hamburg, Germany.
Frances is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland-based think tank Food First, and the Small Planet Institute. Frances and her daughter Anna Lappé also cofounded the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide
"Some of the twentieth century’s most vibrant activist thinkers have been American women—Margaret Mead, Jeanette Rankin, Barbara Ward, Dorothy Day—who took it upon themselves to pump life into basic truths. Frances Moore Lappé is among them."
—Colman McCarthy, columnist
The Washington Post
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
From 1984–1985, Frances was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, at the University of California, Berkeley.
From 2000–2001, Frances was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 2003, Frances taught with Dr. Vandana Shiva in Dehra Dun, India, about the roots of world hunger, sponsored by the Navdanya Research and Agricultural Demonstration Center.
In 2004, Frances taught a course on Living Democracy at Schumacher College in England.
In 2006 and 2008, Frances was a visiting professor at Suffolk University, Boston.
From 2013–2014, Frances was the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Studies at Colby College in Maine.
In 2021, Frances was Indiana University's Patten Lecturer.
