“If we start with "limits" and a premise of scarcity and fear, it makes us fearful of each other, and that makes us vulnerable to anti-democratic systems.” IfsLimitsDemocraticVulnerableFearfulPremisesScarcity Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“Nature has an incredible capacity for regeneration and growth, but we can't experience it if we stay fearful and focused on lack.” IfsGrowthCapacityIncrediblesFocusedFearfulRegeneration Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“Nature is with us if we can learn how to align with it and not break the basic laws that generate life.” IfsLawBreak Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“My children threw me a life line: "Return to your roots - food - and rewrite your first book, Diet for a Small Planet." I learned that if I could just show up, in this case, if I could just get myself out of bed, get to the computer in my tiny office at MIT, and start writing, help would start arriving.” IfsWritingFirstsChildrenBookHelpingShowsLinesCasesPlanetsReturnBedOfficeComputerRootsTinyMy ChildrenDietsIf I CouldArrivingMitLife Line Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“I get goose-bumps when you talk about Diane Wilson. Who knows where she found that courage? When she was a child, she would crawl under the bed when a stranger came to the house. But in 1989, she found out that her county in south Texas was ranked worst in the country for toxic waste. She wondered if the effluent, dumped into the waters where she and her family had shrimped for generations, might be responsible for the dwindling fish populations. And she suspected that her son's autism might be related to the pollution.” IfsKnowsChildrenCountryMightFoundHouseWaterGenerationsWorstSonBedWasteResponsibleSouthPopulationFishesStrangerRelatedTexasToxicPollutionAutismCountyBumpsBeing ResponsibleGeeseWilsonDumpedToxic Waste Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“What gave her [Diane Wilson] the courage? If you look at someone like Diane, it's easy to say, well I could never be like that. But we don't know. We do know that it's possible for a woman, who didn't grow up as a world changer, to find it in herself to take a stand.” IfsKnowsWorldWellsLooksGrowsEasyGrowing UpWilson Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“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.” IfsThinkingSupportStageTribes Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“The problem is that our whole tribe - if you will, the larger community of humanity itself - is on a death march ecologically and in terms of the intensification of violence and conflict.” IfsWholeProblemHumanityTermCommunityViolenceConflictMarchTribes Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“My path has not been smooth. But the great thing about getting to be an elder is that you can look back and see the intense times of confusion and challenge, and see that if you keep walking through them, they can lead to times of great satisfaction and reward.” IfsLooksChallengesPathWalkingRewardsSatisfactionIntenseGreat ThingsConfusionSmoothElders Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“In the late 1960s, there were alarming predictions that worldwide famine was around the corner. I wondered if humans had already lost the race, overrun the Earth's capacity. I let one question lead to the next, and unearthed information that would forever change my life: Not only is there enough food in the world to feed every man, woman, and child on Earth, there is enough to make us all chubby.” IfsMenWorldHumansChildrenEnoughEarthNextLostRaceForeverInformationLateCapacityCornersEvery ManPredictions1960sMen WomenFamineAround The CornerChanging My Life Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“If we cannot know what's possible, then we are free to do that which is pulling our hearts and that which is life serving.” IfsKnowsHeartServingPulling Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“I think of Wangari Mathai in Kenya. If she started out saying she wanted to plant 20 million trees, she would have been laughed at. In fact, the foresters and the government did laugh at her. They said, "Villagers? Un-schooled villagers? Planting trees? No, no, no, it takes foresters." So she planted trees anyway.” IfsThinkingHas BeensSaidFactsGovernmentWantedMillionsLaughingTreePlantLaughedThey SaidKenyaSchooled Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“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.” IfsKnowsActionBreakSurprisingStrawsTurning PointsCamels Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“No society has fulfilled its democratic promise if people go hungry... If some go without food they have surely been deprived of all power. The existence of hunger belies the existence of democracy.” PeopleIfsExistenceDemocracySocietyPromiseDemocraticHungerHungryFulfilledDeprived Author:Frances Moore Lappé
“I believe it is possible that we can turn today's breakdown into a planetary breakthrough on one condition. We can do it if we can break free of a set of dominant but misleading ideas that are taking us down.” IfsBelieveIdeasTodayTurnsI BelieveCan DoBreakConditionsDominantBreakthroughMisleadBreakdown Book:EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want Source: EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want