LIVING DEMOCRACY

Bon Appetit

This Book Started a Food Revolution in 1971—And It’s Never Felt More Relevant​

Diet For a Small Planet argued that plant-centered eating is better for ourselves and our planet. Fifty years later, that idea is still shaping how we eat.

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"Go back in time with us to 1971, the year that changed the way we eat forever. When Frances Moore Lappé called cattle “a protein factory in reverse” in her 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet, she wasn’t just arguing that meat was an inefficient way to feed humans, though it is. Nor did she set out to turn millions of Americans vegetarian and help the natural foods movement find its political voice, though she did. For the 26-year-old researcher, Diet was an act of radical hope..."

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Read the full article! 

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By Jonathan Kauffman

March 23, 2021

WHAT IS LIVING DEMOCRACY?

The Small Planet Institute’s vision is grounded in eyes-wide-open hope, the opposite of wishful thinking. We strive to further three social conditions: wide dispersion of power, transparency in public affairs, and a culture of mutual accountability--what we call Living Democracy--an evolving way of life, not only a form of government. These conditions have been proven over humanity’s long evolution to bring forth the best in our species and to keep the worst in check.

Living Democracy is not a finished state. It is a journey with clear direction, one based in evidence from diverse fields of inquiry as well our own experience and observations of history. Together, they confirm that humans come “soft-wired” for cooperation, empathy, and fairness needed to make possible a democratic way of life; while our species also suffers a profound anti-democratic weakness, our tendency to push blame on those we perceive as different.

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Thus, at the Small Planet Institute we ask - what are the social conditions enabling the positive aspects of our nature to flourish while keeping the negative in check? We define three: the wide dispersion of power, transparency in public affairs, and a culture of mutual accountability rather than blaming. In large measure they bring forth our better selves because they enable us to meet three essential human needs: for personal power (to know “we count”), meaning, and connection with others.

When these needs are met across political, economic and social dimensions of life, we experience dignity, the very lifeblood of Living Democracy. 

Living Democracy is thus the journey of fulfilling the social conditions essential to meeting our deepest needs.

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ'S

"THOUGHT SPARKS" VIDEO SERIES

Frances shares her often-surprising takes on themes of hope, democracy, and courage in her Thought Sparks Video Series. She opens her heart about what fortifies her in this scary time. And don't miss reading her companion blogs too!

JOIN THE HOPE MOVEMENT

"It's not the magnitude of a challenge that crushes the human spirit. It's feeling useless that does us in."

— from "Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want" by Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen

“This book, perhaps better than any other, shows Americans that the democracy they want is possible.”

—Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School professor and author of Republic, Lost, on Frances Moore Lappé & Adam Eichen's Daring Democracy

DEMOCRACY SUCCESS STORIES