Slow Food Nation interview: Anna Lappé

Why climate change may have more to do with your shopping cart than your car 5

Anna Lappé might be called a green-diaper baby. Her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, brought out the seminal Diet for a Small Planet back in 1971, and has been agitating forcefully for a just, sustainable food system ever since. Her father, the toxicologist Marc Lappé, was an early, important, and persistent critic of the agrichemical industry.

Anna has emerged in her own right as a leading voice in the sustainable food movement. In her work, she focuses not only on the depredations of industrial food, but also on the myriad alternatives to it that are bubbling up everywhere. In Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (co-written with Bryant Terry), she helped making eating close to home hip.

Now she's turning her attention to the connection between food and climate change. In this interview, I asked her how the two relate:

Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.

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  1. johnmcc793 Posted 11:01 pm
    15 Sep 2008

    Anna LappeSpeaking as a parent and devoted follower of Frances Moore Lappe's research, writing and educating we overfed Americans that world hunger is a political, poverty and trade disgrace, I am so pleased to see her daughter, Anna has stepped up to carry on her fight.  We parents live with hope our children will contribute some or all of their adult life to making this a better world.  Praise them that do.
    John McCormick

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  2. PermieWriter's avatar

    PermieWriter Posted 1:56 am
    16 Sep 2008

    Very sensible suggestionsSolid stuff that most folks can do without too much effort. Excellent.

    Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

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  3. Jon Rynn's avatar

    Jon Rynn Posted 2:02 am
    16 Sep 2008

    Two questionsFirst, I'm under the impression that one of the main pathways through which agriculture leads to CO2 release is because soil is eroded and CO2 is released as a result of irrigation and plowing.  Is there any way to figure out which food is grown in such a way that the soil is not contributing greenhouse gases?  It's beyond organic, and it sounds like it might be difficult to determine, unless you were using permaculture/biointensive type techniques.
    Second, the main reason livestock contributes to greenhouse gases, according to the UN report that everybody seems to use, is because of the deforestation undertaken in order to clear land for livestock.  Is there any way to identify meat that has not been grown in deforested areas?

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  4. vakibs's avatar

    vakibs Posted 2:31 am
    16 Sep 2008

    principal causes for deforestationAre available on the bible of deforestation resources.
    Along with clearing forests for livestock, the 2nd biggest culprit is small subsistence farming..
    Why doesn't anybody speak out on this ?? Because it is not the big agro-businesses that are at fault ?



    Let's think in terms of eco-dollars.

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  5. vakibs's avatar

    vakibs Posted 2:32 am
    16 Sep 2008

    sorry wrong chart linkedthe correct link is here : the causes for deforestation.



    Let's think in terms of eco-dollars.

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