The Endless Feast on YouTube

For those of you who didn't get a chance to see our series, The Endless Feast, when it made its way across the airwaves this summer on public television, you can see a few clips of it on YouTube here. Despite the grueling hours and long travel days, it was so much fun to get a chance to visit the incredibly inspiring sustainable farms across North America.

Isn't that Ironic?

When Monsanto chairman, president and CEO, Hugh Grant, made his remarks this year at the World Food Prize awards ceremony, I would guess he didn't mean them to be so damn ironic. In this op-ed piece in the Des Moines Register he closes on this point: "I know this: Proud men and women everywhere would rather produce their own food than wait to unload it from the back of a relief truck." That may be true, but his company has been a global force in disabling "proud men and women" from being able to feed themselves by saving, sharing, and planting their own seeds. The company has systematically attacked farmers for allegedly using their seeds without paying proprietary technology fees.

Bryant's a Star!

It was a blast to toast Bryant tonight as he was awarded, along with our food-politics hero Marion Nestle, with the first Natural Gourmet Cooking School's Award of Excellence in Health Education. Bryant gave a moving and eloquent talk about how much the award meant to him, and I got to be among all of his awesome friends and colleagues as we cheered. Annemarie Colbin, founded the school thirty years ago (tonight was also a birthday fete) and she introduced the evening's awardees. She told the crowd of 100 or more that was crammed into the large demonstration kitchen that when she started the school people were aghast: Eek, a cooking school that focuses on fennel not foie gras? On beets not beef?! She was among the vanguard; now the school's philosophy is mainstream. And soon, she said, we might just be passe!

Marion Nestle and Milk-n-Honey

marion nestle and me (note the paperbacks are out for food politics and what to eat)

Had my third (and last) visit to Milk-n-Honey. As I told the actors, I was just getting used to seeing them so frequently, I'm gonna miss them!

For the After-Show Cafe, I hosted a wide-ranging conversation with the audience and Marion Nestle. After a brief break for all of us to pour ourselves cups of steeping hot fair-trade coffee, we settled back into our seats and pondered some of the play's themes. We talked about diabetes and New York City bodegas trying to stock healthier foods, and we talked about the role of the pharmaceutical industry profiting off of ill health.

When someone asked Marion's advice about what we can do to make change beyond just choosing more health-supportive foods, Marion didn't skip a beat. "My favorite political action these days is working to ban advertising junk food to kids." That might seem like a radical idea in a country where kids entertainment--from TV to DisneyWorld--is intricately linked to the junk food industry, but in a lot of European countries, this is just a given. Anyone game?

It was a really fun night and I got to see lots of old and new friends. I'll end with Marion's final words: "Go out and do something!"

Green Gourmet Hits A Tube Near You

This was a rare week when I got to see my Green Gourmet girls--Elise, Ludie, and Elizabeth--twice in one week. (And, if I'm lucky, I'll see them on Monday, too). Ludie was sporting their new line of tees ("Stop the Violence" printed above a pesticide gun with aim at some innocent carrots and apples) and Elizabeth and Elise told me about their latest YouTube venture: Food Poetry. Check it out here and get inspired by their other vids, with their food education genius on display.

Snap! The Climate Change Movement is Alive and Kicking

Guerrilla News Network -- Many of us have experienced a global warming moment: it hits us that humans have altered our earth’s climate forever. For founder of the Energy Action Coalition Billy Parrish, who has helped to gather 5,500 people from every single congressional district for a rousing conference this weekend, the moment came on a glacier above the Ganges, one of India’s most sacred rivers.

It was the summer of 2002 and Parrish had hiked to the glacier’s peak with scientists who had been studying the area. Pointing out across the ice, they said: “That’s how far away it was last year; that’s where it was the year before.” Within his lifetime, Parrish learned, the glacier would be gone.

“That glacier feeds a river that supplies fresh water to more than 450 million people,” Parrish said, addressing the darkened stadium during the opening night of this three-day conference in College Park, Maryland, which will culminate with a lobby day on Capitol Hill on Monday.

After his epiphany in India, Parrish dropped out of Yale and launched what would become the Energy Action Coalition. The Coalition now boasts more than forty member organizations at campuses across the country. This weekend’s huge feat – the first national youth summit to address the climate crisis – is the accomplishment of all of these Coalition partners and many other organizations.

Tonight’s opening talks set the tone for the conference: Impassioned, powerful speeches, participatory singing, and a ton of incredible energy.

Author and activist Mike Tidwell (The Raging Tide), one of the speakers, bounded onto the stage and boomed into the mic: “Global warming doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. This isn’t climate change; the climate is snapping into a whole new regime right in front of our eyes.”

“One million people displaced in unprecedented firestorms in Southern California? Snap. My dad calling from Atlanta wondering where he is going to go in three to four months when people there predict drinking water will run out? Snap. The Arctic losing a chunk of ice this summer the size of Florida in the span of one week? Snap.

Another of the night’s rousing speakers was Majora Carter, the dynamic founder of Sustainable South Bronx. During his talk, Tidwell had reminded us that while the United States has just 5 percent of the world’s people, we emit 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Carter added this addendum: we also imprison 25 percent of the world’s people. What’s the connection between prisoners and the environment? Carter argued powerfully that the same double standard affecting our industrial design has shaped our “war on drugs,” which she said really should be called a “war on the poor.”

“If they located the same dirty industries that are polluting our environment in rich communities, we’d have had clean energy a long time ago,” Carter said to much applause, including among the thirty-four young people, in “Green the Ghetto” tee’s who came down with her from New York City.

The movement that brought has pulled off this conference is awe-inspiring in its energy and its rapid uptake: At the beginning of this year, not one single campus in the country had pledged to go carbon neutral. Today, thanks to the Coalition’s Campus Climate Pledge, 430 have done so.

In 1961, Tidwell said, when Kennedy made his we’ll-send-a-man-to-the-moon speech (and a few decades before many of these students were born) what was extraordinary was not just the dream; it was not just the timeline. What was extraordinary, Tidwell underscored, was that the core technology to get there did not yet exist.

What’s different with the challenge of climate change? We have the technology we need, now. (North Dakota, for instance, could meet 36 percent of our country’s energy needs with wind energy from that one state alone.) What’s different is that we have the policies we need to ensure the necessary emissions reductions. And, of course, what’s different is that our planet’s climate is at stake; we don’t have the option of failing.

I’m here with my younger brother, environmental scientist Matthew Lappé, who only three years ago was a college student himself—way back when the Energy Action Coalition and its partners had yet to take off. Now, he spends his days working out kinks in proposed policy solutions and studying the science of climate change. “It can get pretty depressing,” he said. “But being here makes me appreciate how quickly this movement has developed, and just how far it has come.”

Find out more at www.powershift07.org.

GNN contributing editor Anna Lappé is the co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet and the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund.

Climate Cange Inspiration

Action Speaks (Louder than Words)

I got to visit my favorite city today. (Yes, that's Providence where I spent four glorious years while the city was under constant construction under the watchful eye of Mayor Buddy Cianci). Action Speaks is a four-part series celebrating under-celebrated days in history. Today, we're going to talk about the Farmer’s March on Washington in 1979 and reflect on its meaning for farmers and eaters today. Click here to listen to our conversation.

PS Happy Halloween--reminds me of one of my favorite Halloweens here in Providence: I dressed up like the mayor (I wore a suit and a "I heart Cops" button") and a friend dressed as his wife (at the time) Nancy Ann. (Yes, that would be Nancy Ann Cianci).

NYC: Don't miss Milk-N-Honey

I absolutely loved this show, but don't take my word for it.

Don't miss it.

MILK-N-HONEY
a multimedia play about the politics and pleasures of eating, starring Dumpster divers, food chemists, the color yellow, farm workers, a very Happy Burger, a very unhappy cow, Doritos, the flavor of light, and corn (of course).

After each performance, the theater becomes an After Show Café, with free cupcakes and fair-trade certified coffee from the Lower Eastside Girls Club, where you can engage with the actors, and special guests for conversation.

SPECIAL SHOWS w/ ANNA LAPPÉ:
Sunday November 11th
3:00pm to 5:30pm
An After-Show Café with Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), hosted by Anna Lappé (Grub)

Wednesday November 14th
7:30pm to 10:00pm
An After-Show Café with Marion Nestle (Food Politics, What to Eat), hosted by Anna Lappé (Grub)

Milk-N-Honey runs through through November 18th: Order Tickets Now!

Check here for showtimes, or join me for one of these very special shows. Hope to see you there!

Compassion in Action and The Missing Peace Project

the missing peace project
compassion in action
July 2007

(I'm finally getting around to posting about this event from the summer... better late than never! --al).

This summer, I was deeply honored to be one of the two awardees, along with Nicholas Kristof from The New York Times, of this year's Missing Peace Project Compassion in Action Awards.

Once I got past the imposter syndrome (as in, I don't deserve this!), I was able to enjoy the evening. The awards ceremony was held in a beautiful gallery space on Manhattan's western edge. The several hundred guests were surrounded by art, including sculpture and installation as well as video and painting, inspired by the Dalai Lama. (For those of you in San Francisco, you can see the exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. I highly recommend it!).

Bob Thurman, cofounder and current president of Tibet House U.S., was the emcee and already humbled to accept the award, I was even more humbled to receive it from him.

The family: Josephine Lappe, Anthony Lappe, Frankie Lappe, and Anna Lappe

Mom and me enraptured by Robert Thurman's remarks.

Domino & Us

Wondering what to serve up on t-day? See Bryant's take in our piece in Domino here.

here's what barbara kingsolver thinks of my mom's new book...

"Getting a Grip is not an ordinary book: it's more like a new pair of glasses, allowing you to see everything around you with greater clarity. Suddenly the world is more comprehensible, more manageable, even more beautiful. You won't want to take them off." --Barbara Kingsolver

Pretty cool!

Getting a Grip on Money in Politics

My mom has hit the road promoting her new--and self-published--book Getting a Grip. See if she's dropping by your city or town here. Whether you can see her in person, or not, check out the new video she and my brother produced about getting money out of politics. In this short video, you'll learn about successful clean elections legislation popping up in several states and the national "Just 6 Dollars" campaign. Watch and be inspired.

World Food Day and the Right to Food

food sovereignty banner from nyeleni, mali

My mom and I have a piece on food as a human right on the Huffington Post today. Check it out here.

World Food Day Oct 16: Focus on the Right to Food

If you're in NYC... see you here:

From the Greater New York Dietetic Association:

The choice of The Right to Food as the theme for 2007 World Food Day demonstrates increasing recognition by the international community of the important role of human rights in eradicating hunger and poverty, and hastening and deepening the sustainable development process.

The links between climate change, hunger and poverty will be the focus of the 2007 teleconference. Three international leaders -- Suzanne Hunt, independent consultant, currently dividing her time among the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Global Bioenergy Partnership, Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Research Scientist and Leader of the Climate Impacts Group at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Dr. Stephen H. Schneider, Stanford University professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and founder and editor of the Interdisciplinary journal, Climate Change, -- will discuss the many crosscutting issues of global climate change and the potentially disastrous consequences, especially for millions of poor and chronically undernourished people. The overwhelming majority of the world's climate scientists are convinced that the looming crisis is caused primarily by "humankind's activities" and will require immediate and farsighted action by all nations, rich and poor. In addition to the guest panelists there will be a live uplink from the World Food Prize ceremonies and cameo comments from other experts.

Two documentary films – The Millennium Development Goals and The Ecological Footprint – will highlight the goals agreed to by rich and poor country leaders in 2000 and will consider an ingenious way for determining whether we are living within our ecological budget or consuming nature's resources faster than the planet can renew them.

When: Tuesday October 16^th, 2007, 11:45 AM – 3:00 PM

12 Noon – 1:00 PM Teleconference panel discussion

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Individual site discussion of local hunger issues and activities; prepare question for panel (bring your own lunch)

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM "Town meeting" question & answer period between panelists and individual sites

Where: Cornell University Cooperative Extension, 16 E 34^th Street , 8^th floor
bring photo ID for building security

Please R.S.V.P. to Maggie Meehan, GNYHEN Co-chair at: meehan.maggie@ gmail.com, be sure to put "World Food Day Teleconference" in the subject heading

Launched from New York

We had a fantastic time tonight toasting my mom's new book with more than seventy guests at our friend, Josh Mailman's, home in New York City. Read all about it on her blog here.

Anthony Lappe, Clarice Lappe, Josh Mailman, and Frances Moore Lappe

Martha Graham on Divine Dissatisfaction

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening, that is translated through you into action – and because there is only one of you, in all time, this expression is unique...You have to keep open and aware, directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open... There is no satisfaction, ever, at any time. There is only a queer, divine, dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching, and makes us more alive than others.

NYC: Screening Liberally in TriBeCa

I'm curating a series of films with my friend Wendy Cohen at THE TANK in TriBeCa. Visit www.screeningliberally.org to sign up for our e-mail newsletter to catch coming attractions or e-mail me to suggest a film to show. See you at the movies!

Pictures from China

visiting a farmers market in Fuyang

Please check out my pictures from our trip to China here at my FLICKR account: flickr.com/annalappe. I learned so much and feel a renewed understanding of the transformational power of Heifer International.

Getting a Grip on My Mom's New Book

Don't be the last on your block to get a copy of my mom's new book: Getting a Grip. Here is my favorite review so far from Booklist. (Carol: Don't know ya, but love your take on the book!)

From Booklist: "The indefatigable Lappe turns her finely tuned sense of outrage and her deeply honed sense of conviction to the unending and seemingly unmanageable problems confronting the world and focuses her clarion vision on solutions that may begin with just one person but that can end with an entire culture becoming more informed, more caring, more responsible. If we, as individuals, do not willingly choose to live defeated by poverty, debilitated by disease, demoralized by racism, she posits, then why should these abhorrent conditions not only exist but proliferate, especially in a democratic society? Displaying her usual laserlike logic, Lappe distills her arguments to their most basic level, a tactic that allows her crystalline assessments to virtually leap off the page. Parsing the notion of democracy, Lappe examines its successes and failures, offering creative and innovative methods for turning egregious areas of weakness into exhilarating beacons of strength. Progressing from confronting fear to seizing power, Lappe's treatise on humanity's potential for growth is a comforting source of inspiration. "by Carol Haggas

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall Whose the Most Organic of Them All? Origins Launches an Organic Line

I was invited to speak this afternoon to Origins employees today as part of a series of events in the run-up to the company’s launch of their new organic line. I was so was impressed with the team’s dedication -- as well as their stellar ice cream sundae making skills. The products are hitting shelves in the next few weeks, but it’s taken years to get the line off the ground. A big challenge, they explained, has been the sourcing with zippo of some ingredients in the organic category. Glycerin, a common makeup ingredient, wasn’t available organically, for instance, so they had to get suppliers to shift to organic. Reading the ingredients list of these new products, I was pleased to notice that my brow wasn’t furrowing in worry.

Despite the team’s dedication to the environment and our health, the organic products at Origins, at least for now, will only make up only 6 percent of their total line. And Origin’s parent company, Estée Lauder, refuses to join the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, which has been signed by more than 600 companies and expresses a commitment to improving the environmental and health safety of cosmetics. (I think it’s ironic that Estee Lauder won’t sign this, but they have been getting big PR for their anti-breast cancer campaigns, while they sell products that include ingredients that may cause this.)

As we ate delicious ice cream sundaes (organic, of course) today, I shared the dream that one day we’ll look back on this time as the dark ages, when we humans did the unthinkable: Spread across our faces, in our hair, and on our bodies products with some ingredients that are untested for safety or are probable cancer-causers, hormone disruptors, and neurotoxins.

Celebrating Real Food on College Campuses

the farm at Yale University

Hanging out with students yesterday at Mt. Holyoke College, I got to thinking about how college campuses have played important roles in social change, particularly in corporate campaigns. When it comes to how college students have been able to shift corporate behavior, part of the reason comes from this simple fact: Most of the time, we consumers are a disparate bunch. We are millions large, but we don’t always see our connectedness. We’re hard to organize.

On the other hand, the industries selling to us – whether it’s yo-yos or yurts – tend to be pretty concentrated and resourced. With college campuses, the consumer-seller relationship gets flipped. As tuition paying members of the community, students can make a strong case for why they should have a say in how universities spend their money -- how they shop, in other words.

Using this powerful position, the student anti-sweatshop movement, for instance, has made a big splash. The student fair-trade movement has similarly had a huge impact. Entering the scene in force just a couple of years ago, the student movement for fair and local food on campuses and for launching college-based farms is taking off across the country. It feels like every day I hear about a new success story, a new effort blooming on a campus.

[News flash: As I write this, I just got the news that friends at Grow Montana, one of these awesome new initiatives, have just been honored by the Glynwood Center for their work in their home state].

The motivation for this work is manifold. In part, students are fired up about health and the food we eat: As one of Yale’s Sustainable Food Project put it: “Students shouldn’t be reading The Jungle in English 101 and then eating it for lunch.” Another motivating force is the desire to strengthen local economies and to keep small-scale farmers farming. And another inspiration is that students, like the ones I met at Mt. Holyoke tonight, who want to get in touch with how their food is grown and share fresh food with friends and family and colleagues.

Gathering for the first time next month, students from Northeast campuses are hosting the first ever, Real Food Summit, to share successes and strategies and to continue to build the movement. May the event be a huge success!

... and speaking of dirt ...

Met these folks at the Mt. Holyoke event. Check out their cool work.

Have You Eaten Your Dirt Lately?

Have you you ever eaten dirt? It may not sound as strange to some of you as it does to others. Some of you may even know that cultures across the planet have been eatin' dirt throughout the ages. It's even got a name and various theories about why it may be good for you (as well as controversy about why it may not be the best idea).

I had a chance to talk dirt with Deborah Koons Garcia today over a non-dirt meal of organic salad greens, watercress, roasted pumpkin seeds, shredded beets, and nutritional yeast, at Kripalu where we both were speaking as part of the retreat center's first ever Conscious Kitchens. Following her fantastic -- and ever-more important doc, The Future of Food -- Deborah's turning her filmmaker's eye to... d-i-r-t, or soil, to be exact. She's traipsing the planet interviewing people about the substance that gives us our food. Should be fascinating. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Pictures from China

a farmer in a Heifer project village in Anhui Province

Please check out my pictures from our trip to China here at my FLICKR account: flickr.com/annalappe. I learned so much and feel a renewed understanding of the transformational power of Heifer International.

Outsourcing Our Pollution

factories along the yangtze

Had a long flight home, made about 36 hours longer than expected because of a missing part on our first plane. I don't think any of us particularly wanted to risk a 13-hour non-stop flight with all the pieces of the plane not accounted for, so we headed back to Beijing for a long night's wait until we finally got out the next day.

I ended up hanging out with the gaggle of businessmen, from a garage-door parts salesman to a baby shoe manufacturer. We talked about outsourcing to China, the 'Wal-Mart effect' of the downward pressure on prices, and the growing environmental nightmare that is China's water, air, and land.

As we lifted off from Beijing's international airport the next afternoon, I could barely see the city through the pollution below and it was so visually clear: We're not just outsourcing our jobs to this country, we're outsourcing our pollution.

Greetings from China

I'm sitting in a hotel in Anhui Province, about midway between Beijing and Shanghai, where even this very basic hotel has a super fast ethernet connection. As I type, I can hear the honking of cars, buses, pedicabs, and bikes as they pass each other on the road outside my window.
I'm here to learn about the sustainable development projects that Heifer International has been developing. I'll post here some more reflections on the trip, but after a 12+ hour-day, I'll just post some pictures.
view driving into beijing... the haze is the air pollution that has made china one of the world's worst greenhouse gas emitters and means that only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union, according to this NYT article.

The bee hives of one of the farmers in the Miyun Province (a few hours outside of Beijing) who have benefitted from Heifer support to purchase what they've need to transition from sheep raising to bee keeping. (A few years ago the government decreed that farmers could no longer use the mountains in this region for grazing or farming; the erosion had caused a series of the worst sand storms in the history of Beijing. A decision which may certainly have helped the environment, but that cost many farmers their livelihood overnight.)
The bee keeper and his 86 year-old mother who graciously invited us into their home.
Later that day, we head out to hike the Si Ma Tai portion of the Great Wall. Though it's only an hour or so from his home by car, he's never been--it would be too expensive. As we're leaving the parking lot, I turn back for one last glimpse of the Wall and see in the foreground a bumblebee yellow H2 Hummer.
A typical meal. I've learned two phrases since arriving here: Thank You... and I'm Full.

Off to China...

I'm heading to China tomorrow with Heifer International. Will hopefully be blogging from there. In the meantime, check out Lhadon's amazing blog from Students for a Free Tibet.

Twinkie vs. Apple Showdown

Check out the latest video from the makers of The Meatrix. This time, they take on the Farm Bill. Please send the link to friends and family. To learn more about the Farm Bill, see the Farm Bill 101 from Oxfam here, from Food and Water Watch, and keep up to date on Farm Bill 2007 organizing with the Community Food Security Coalition, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture.

Starbucks Hormone-Free Milk Campaign... Wins!

I just got off the phone with Wenonah Hauter from Food and Water Watch and she has just found out that they won their Starbucks campaign. Thanks to thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and rallies by consumers across the country, Starbucks committed to serving only 100% hormone-free milk in all of its U.S. stores by the end of this year.

Now, let's call 1-800-235-2883 to thank Starbucks CEO Jim Donald for doing the right thing and let him know we'll be looking forward to New Year's Day and a happy, healthy, hormone-free 2008!