Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, Anna Lappe

From the Publisher

Thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet became a touchstone for a generation. It helped us see how we're generating the very food scarcity that we say we fear. It showed how each of us can choose the opposite: a diet best for our bodies and also best for our planet. Now Frances and her daughter, Anna, pick up where that book left off. In a personal journey of discovery on five continents, the Lappes explore the most puzzling questions of our time: Why, as societies, do we create the very inequalities and devastation of nature that, as individuals, we abhor? Are there paths we each can walk that will, in practical ways, heal our lives and help the planet?

Searching for answers, the Lappes challenge promoters of corporate globalization who claim that theirs is the only path. Frances and Anna take us with them into worlds beneath the radar of the global media. There we meet poor villagers in Kenya who are trying to turn back the encroaching desert; we eat with landless peasants in Brazil who are facing down big landowners to create vibrant communities; we celebrate the efforts of village women in Bangladesh incurring huge risks to lift their families out of poverty; and we admire renegade farmers in Wisconsin, undeterred by widespread hardship, who are learning to thrive while caring for the land. As we walk with trailblazers who transform fear into creative action, we can see possibilities for change in our own lives that before were invisible.

From the foothills of the Himalaya to the lush farms of Brittany, the Lappes expose the false tradeoffs within corporate globalization: chemical agriculture or starvation; genetically modified foods or scarcity; corporate capitalism or chaos. In Hope's Edge, we discover we have choices. We're able to perceive strikingly parallel insights emerging across our planet -- insights springing us free from the prevailing thought traps that lock us personally and globally into self-destruction. What the Lappes offer in place of these traps is a guiding framework gleaned from the breakthroughs of people they met on their journey -- a framework as useful in grasping our global predicament as in finding meaning in our lives.

Featuring recipes from vegetarian, organic, and whole-foods culinary pioneers, Hope's Edge is also a celebration of a cuisine that has emerged in the past thirty years -- one that brings us back to the sensuous pleasure of eating and reconnects us to the earth and those who care for it. At once an account of an intimate mother-and-daughter journey and a far-reaching vision for social and environmental transformation, Hope's Edge helps each of us find new courage to trust ourselves and choose the world we want.

Publishers Weekly

Thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lapp 's groundbreaking Diet for a Small Planet challenged Western assumptions about hunger. Lapp was the first to argue systematically for the rejection of meat-based eating and cultivation in favor of a system where "corn becomes filet mignon" and eating lower on the food chain (i.e. more grains and vegetables) is crucial the key to ending worldwide hunger, since non-meat proteins are much more efficient and sustainable to produce. Her new book, co-written with her daughter, comes into a world still grappling with the problem. Describing their journeys through Brazil, Pakistan, Holland and the U.S., the Lapp s continue to question the economic status quo as well as discuss the way different countries handle food production in times of scarcity and plenty. By focusing on their individual journeys and choices, the Lapp s bring intellectual concepts to a personal level, and in doing so, challenge us to do the same. What we eat directly, they argue, connects us to the earth and people around the globe. "Food has a unique power," Lapp writes. "With food as a starting point we can choose to meet people and to encounter events so powerful that they jar us out of our ordinary way of seeing the world, and open us to new, uplifting and empowering possibilities. They call us to travel `hope's edge.' " Recommended for those interested in a better understanding of the world hunger crisis and personal ways to make a difference and for healthy cooks too: a recipe section features delicious vegetarian, organic and whole-foods dishes from celebrated restaurants such as Chez Panisse and Angelica Kitchen. (Feb.1) Forecast: The first Diet was a foundational book for modern vegetarianism, finally providing a thoroughly argued rationale that did not rely on the cruelty-to-animals argument. Many boomers will pick up the new edition to see that argument updated for the era of globalism, and younger browsers will recognize the authors from their parents' battered copies. Expect strong, steady sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Frances Moore Lappé is the well-known author of Diet for a Small Planet (1973), a manifesto of global food politics. For this follow-up, she and daughter Anna unblinkingly document an international journey they undertook to see how things stand nearly 30 years later (unfortunately, not too well). In nine countries, the Lappés meet and talk with prodemocracy organizers, farmers, villagers, educators, and other people working to create life outside of corporate globalization. Some of their stories from Bangladesh, Kenya, India, and elsewhere are terrifying, but they never lose their nerve. Tough-minded but optimistic, they capture the ills of genetic engineering, pesticides, and corporate concentration, as well as successful efforts by local people to restore their dignity and interconnection to life. The main focus is food (recipes from vegetarian, organic, and whole-foods advocates are included), but it quickly becomes obvious that for the Lappés eating well and responsibly means living the same way, with true democracy for all. An extensive bibliography of sources and contact organizations is provided. Essential for all public and academic libraries. Karen Munro, Univ. of British Columbia Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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