Frances Moore Lappé Speaks at Opening Convocation

September 10, 2009

Renowned author and authority on food and world hunger issues Frances Moore Lappé launched Denison’s yearlong campus-wide “consumption” theme with her convocation lecture “Why Hunger in a World of Plenty?”  

On Thursday, Sept. 10, in Denison’s Swasey Chapel, President Dale Knobel and Marlaine Browning, academic events coordinator, introduced Lappé, who opened to laughter with a quote from Visa founder Dee Hock: “It is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.”  

Having set the tone for the night, Lappé spoke about remaining positive in spite of the severity of the world’s problems. “When I feel despair is when I feel my actions may be futile.  But when I feel I can have an effect, I can see there are millions of others like me.”

Dan Andrews, a senior from Gannett Park, Md., majoring in environmental studies, appreciated Lappé’s positive outlook. “I really liked the energy.  She is very optimistic and impassioned about what she’s doing.”

Lappé said the solutions to world hunger are in need of revision. She argued that it used to be about scarcity—including a belief that if we just produced more food, then we could end hunger.

“Sitting at the agriculture library at the UC-Berkley campus, using my dad’s slide rule,” she said, “I figured out that there is more than enough food to make us all chubby.”

Lappé said that cooperatives are key. “They are structured to keep the social dispersion of power so that people have access to what is produced. This form of economic activity shows us that there are other ways to organize a market than simply highest return to existing wealth. “

After the convocation, Lappé said she wants this concept to be embraced. “I’m hoping that I will have encouraged people to ask the ‘why, why, why’ question and see that the market system doesn’t have to be so destructive.  People have been exchanging goods and services forever, and it doesn’t have to end in this hyper-consumption state.”

Lappé won the 2008 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award and is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award.  Also, during the 2008 election season, her seminal book, “Diet for a Small Planet,” as well as her most recent book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad” were designated as “must-reads” for the next U.S. president by The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Other topics to be explored this year relating to the consumption theme include production, media, health and health care, education, and distribution of resources.  Nicholas Mirzoeff will speak Sept. 22 at Higley Auditorium on counterinsurgency, climate change and the consumption of culture.  

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Global hunger has more to do with power than scarcity: DU speaker (Newark Advocate, September 12, 2009)