When she was in her 20s, Frances Moore Lappé© set out to answer a question: There is an abundance of food in the world, so why are people going hungry?
Lappé© has continued to pursue that quandary over the last 40 years. Her first book, "Diet for a Small Planet," published in 1971, was a best-seller that exposed the waste built into this country's grain-fed meat production and advocated a diet centered on plants.
She has gone on to write 17 other books and to win humanitarian, environmental and service awards, as well as to co-found three organizations, including the Small Planet Institute.
Tonight, she will speak in the Gould Barn at the Parson Capen House in Topsfield.
"This has been the question of my lifetime," said Lappé©, who lives in Boston. "This talk, and this movement that this library is sponsoring — localizing food production and consumption — that is part of what's at the root of this."
The free talk is part of the Topsfield Town Library's Community Read program. Residents are encouraged to read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," by Barbara Kingsolver, a memoir about living off the local land.
The library has organized a slate of free events and activities centered around the book and its theme.
The Salem News caught up with Lappé© this week before her visit to Topsfield.
How did you get into this line of work?
I was 26 years old, and it dawned on me that, "Wow, every species feeds its offspring and we're the smartest species, and yet people are going hungry all over the world. Why?"
What did you do?
The word was that we can blame nature — that there just isn't enough food. So I sat in a library at UC Berkeley to see, "Is that true? I've got to get to the root of this." I discovered not only is there enough food in the world, but enough for us all to be quite chubby.
What is the solution?
We have proven knowledge that agriculture that's working in line with nature produces more food and healthier food. And because it's more labor-intensive, it also employs more people, so more people have money to buy food. We have to step up in our communities and re-establish a small-farm agriculture in America.
Will you talk about that in Topsfield?
I'll be emphasizing that big time, and that this is also a key, key part of the climate crisis and an answer to the climate change problem.
How?
Industrial agriculture and plowing of land has released probably at least as much carbon as the burning of fossil fuel. ... That's another big piece that people can participate in locally: planting trees and supporting local, organic farmers.
You write about poverty, scarcity and malnutrition. Is society on the right track to solving these problems?
I think that's the hardest thing, that people say, 'We've got to get a food bank going because there's not enough,' rather than really looking at the scarier issue, which is the concentration of power.
How do you do that?
The most important thing we can do as citizens is to make our U.S. government a positive force in the world. ... And one way of redistributing power is by becoming powerful ourselves. The local food movements touched on every single aspect of what I was talking about. What I was trying to start 40 years ago is finally happening.
Have things gotten better or worse since you started your work?
It's the 40th anniversary next year of "Diet for a Small Planet," and over 1 billion people are hungry today — many, many more than when I began. ... But when I wrote "Diet for a Small Planet" and promoted the idea of being a vegetarian, people were convinced their children would die of starvation.
How can one person make a difference?
To me, all of our consumer choices have an effect. If we continue to buy, for example, genetically modified foods, which are in so much processed foods, we are strengthening one of the largest corporations in the world. ... Every time we are buying locally from organic producers and small farmers, that consumer choice is putting us on the side of sanity and small farmers who are struggling."
Can I ask how old you are?
I'm 66. I was 26 when I was working on "Diet for a Small Planet," and I was 27 when it came out, and I feel like I'm just getting started.
Want to go?
What: Author talk by Frances Moore Lappé©
When: Tonight at 7
Where: Gould Barn at the Parson Capen House, 1 Howlett St., Topsfield
Admission: Free
More information: To learn about more Community Read events, visit the library website at www.topsfieldtownlibrary.org.
