Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet [Paperback]

Frances Moore Lappe (Author), Anna Lappe (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 28, 2003

Thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lappé started a revolution in the way Americans think about food and hunger. Now Frances and her daughter, Anna, pick up where Diet for a Small Planet left off. Together they set out on an around-the-world journey to explore the greatest challenges we face in the new millennium. Traveling to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, they discovered answers to one of the most urgent issues of our time: whether we can transcend the rampant consumerism and capitalism to find the paths that each of us can follow to heal our lives as well as the planet.

 

Featuring nearly seventy recipes from celebrated vegetarian culinary pioneers-including Alice Waters, Mollie Katzen, Laurel Robertson, Nora Pouillon, and Anna Thomas-Hope's Edge highlights true trailblazers engaged in social, environmental, and economic transformations.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (April 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585422371
• ISBN-13: 978-1585422371
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thirty years after Frances Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet changed eating habits around the world, she and her daughter Anna bring us a new round of iconoclastic recommendations that break overwhelming issues down to a simple matter of personal choice. Hope's Edge presents many of the same issues of the original title, but it also provides a wealth of new discoveries and possibilities in this era of genetically engineered foods, worldwide famine, and growing rates of obesity-related health issues.

Beyond discussing a wide range of reasons to become a vegetarian (and that means no fish or chicken either, folks), the authors introduce you to a number of individual reasons for hope--Bob, the Wisconsin cheese maker; Jean-Yves, the farmer from Brittany who created the Sustainable Agriculture Network; and Muhammad Yunas, who has changed the lives of countless living in poverty with his remarkable microcredit programs. Along with these stories and the theories they're based on, you'll also find luscious recipes calling for grains, fruits, vegetables, and a handful of dairy products that will delight your taste buds and your conscience.

The Lappes firmly believe that the choices of low-level consumers have the potential to make positive changes, both in the world economy and in our physical health. By eating a vegetarian diet, shopping with care, and cooking with love, we might all brighten our future tremendously. --Jill Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Thirty years ago, Frances Moore Lappe's groundbreaking Diet for a Small Planet challenged Western assumptions about hunger. Lappe 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 Lappes 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 Lappes 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," Lappe 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 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (April 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585422371
• ISBN-13: 978-1585422371
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book! March 25, 2002

By Diane Dreher, Ph.D.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the most creative, courageous books I've read in a long time, drawing lessons from something as essential as food to renew our hope in an era of anxiety, cynicism, and learned helplessness. Hope's Edge offers a welcome alternative to a world increasingly dominated by global capitalism, where more is often spent on processing, packaging, and promotion than on the nutritional value of the food itself and where American citizens are becoming unwary guinea pigs for GMO foods.
From their grassroots research spanning five continents, Frances and Anna Lappe bring heartening evidence that democracy is still alive, that our personal choices can add up to make a tremendous difference, and that, as Margaret Mead once said, "a small group of highly committed people can change the world." I recommend this book highly for its compelling vision of creativity, community, and positive social change.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that changes the way you think May 7, 2002

By Susan Bumagin

Format:Hardcover

I wanted to give you some feedback about an extraordinary book that you sell. Just out a few months ago, written by Frances Moore Lappe (author of Diet for a Small Planet), Ms. Lappe and her daughter Anna traveled 5 continents to write the stories of people in communities that are"doing the right thing" - benefiting their communities in sustainable ways as well as themselves and serving as inspiration for those of us who work to create more healthy and sustainable communities. Hope's Edge is even better than Diet for a Small Planet, and serves as a remarkable guide in a world that has become much harder to live in.

Two books that have really changed the way I think about the world are Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Hope's Edge, by Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe. Thank you for carrying books that introduce constructive avenues toward social change and move people to positive action.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pushing the edge of hope a little further May 23, 2003

By Shelley Motz

Format:Hardcover

Given the subject matter, one can be forgiven for expecting Hope's Edge to be a depressing read--after all we are pushing our planet to its absolute limit and hope sometimes seems a great folly. But rather than increase my sense of helplessness, the mother-daughter team of researchers and writers (Frances Moore-Lappe and Anna Lappe)have inspired me and indeed pushed the edge of hope a little further. With its documentation of individual lives and community-based solutions, the book reminds me about the importance of our individual decisions. It is easy to become complacent when I live in one of the wealthier parts of the world. It is just as easy to feel helpless and apathetic and to not see the impact I can make simply by supporting my local organic farmers and making other conscientious consumer decisions. Hope's Edge eloquently points to the power of imagination, of envisioning new ways of living and working in community. Thanks Anna and Frances for making the journey and sharing it with the world!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Arming us with hope and evidence May 10, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Many authors can and have articulated the problems of today's society. It is important for those problems to be exposed and explained - but where does that leave us? As someone all too familiar with the problems, and struggling to live with my ideals in today's America, it is easy to feel like there is no hope and the world's people are just accepting their fate at the hands of the multi-nationals. That's when a book like Hope's Edge begins to reveal its meaning and importance: it not only covers the problems, more importantly, it uncovers stories of people who are overcoming the problems.

The book arms us with examples of people and strategies that are working, that are making progress. It didn't leave me feeling like we're all doomed no matter what we do, it didn't leave me feeling that I can sit back and relax because someone else is making things ok, it simply gave and gives me hope, examples and evidence that it is possible to create healthy communities and empower people in the face of fear, oppression and poverty. That is the seed of true power, the knowing it is possible. For that I thank Ms. Lappé and her daughter and highly recommend their book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope, when we need it most March 4, 2002

By Tanya Pergola

Format:Hardcover

What a truly inspiring book! Frances and Anna Lappe put words to the previously not-so-well-articulated feelings of "stuckness" that lead so many of us -- and, therefore, the world -- to perpetuate unhealthy and unsatisfying patterns in our lives and in our communities.

The off-the-beaten track tour of Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Kenya, and parts of Europe and the United States, gives an inside look at the growing movement of amazing people doing amazing things to attempt to reverse the increasing despair-ity in our world. These are the stories that rarely make it into the "news", but are so important to hear in order to give us hope.

The recipes sound wonderful, however, I cannot find many of the ingredients here around my home in East Africa. So, in the true spirit of the book, I am substituting local ingredients to create globally-inspired cuisine. I can't wait to teach the mamas in the village how to use some of their traditional medicinal herbs to make a cream topping for their beet soup!

If there has ever been a time for reflecting on how we are all linked-up, this book gives some wonderful insights and clues to how to make sense of it all...and, how to finally make the leap towards making a difference.