Contact: Caroline van Schaik, LSP, 507-523-3366
PHOTO AVAILABLE: For a digital photo of Lappe´, contact Brian DeVore at 612-729-6294 or bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org

1/7/05
WINONA, Minn.—Internationally recognized author and activist Frances Moore Lappe´ will talk about the connections between democracy and hunger Friday, Feb. 11, at Winona State University. Lappe´ will begin speaking at 7 p.m. at Winona State’s New Science Building Auditorium (just off of Huff Street near the corner of Sanborn and Winona Streets), and there will be refreshments and a book-signing afterwards. This event, which is sponsored by the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), is free and open to the public. For more information, call LSP’s southeast Minnesota office at 507-523-3366, or e-mail caroline@landstewardshipproject.org. In the event of inclement weather, call LSP to confirm that the talk is taking place.

In 1987, Lappe´ was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for her work on hunger and democracy issues. Lappe´ believes there is no democracy where there is hunger, and she has authored several books on that subject over the past three decades, including Diet for a Small Planet and Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet. Her most recent book is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. Lappe´ is also working on an update of her 1992 classic, The Quickening of America.

Lappe´ is the co-founder of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First), and also co-founded the Center for Living Democracy. She and her daughter Anna Lappe´ recently launched the Small Planet Institute (http://www.smallplanetinstitute.org).

On Feb. 11, Lappe´ will speak on her recent interviews and visits on five continents where she uncovered what she calls “silent revolutions” of groups who are managing against great odds to better their own social circumstances using working democracies. As part of her research, Lappe´ recently met with farmers and other rural residents in southeast Minnesota to hear how they are using local township government to protect their land and livelihoods.

“Food democracy concerns itself with the future as well,” said Lappe´. “It implies economic rules that encourage communities to safeguard the soil, water and wildlife on which all our lives and futures depend.”

For more information about efforts to strengthen local democracy and sustainable food production in the Upper Midwest, contact the Land Stewardship Project at 507-523-3366, or visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org.

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