Frances Moore Lappé is the author or coauthor of fifteen books. Her 1971
three-million-copy bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet, continues to awaken
readers to the human-made causes of hunger and the power of our everyday
choices to create the world we want.

Her newly released Democracy's Edge has been widely praised. Historian
Howard Zinn called the book "poetic and passionate," adding: "A small number
of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit,
who swerve past the barriers of greed and power to hold a torch high for the
rest of us. Lappé is one of those."

Democracy's Edge is the completion of a trilogy which began in 2002 with
Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé. It is the 30th
anniversary sequel to Lappé's first book. Jane Goodall said of Hope's Edge:
"Absolutely one of the most important books as we enter the 21st century."
Second in the trilogy is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture
of Fear, written with Jeffrey Perkins.

Frances and Anna Lappé lead the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a
collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy
to life. Together they founded the Small Planet Fund which solicits and
channels resources to democratic social movements, especially those featured
in Hope's Edge.

In 1975, with Joseph Collins Lappé launched the California-based Institute
for Food and Development Policy (Food First). Its publications continue to
shape the international debate on the root causes of hunger and poverty. The
Institute was described by The New York Times as one of the nation's "most
respected food think tanks."

In 1990, Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy, a ten-year
initiative to help accelerate the spread of democratic innovations. Lappé
served as founding editor of the Center's American News Service, which
placed solutions-oriented news stories in almost 300 newspapers nationwide.

Lappé's books have been used in a broad array of courses in hundreds of
colleges and universities and in more than 50 countries. Her articles and
opinion pieces have appeared in publications as diverse as the New York
Times, O Magazine and Christian Century. Her television and radio
appearances have included PBS with Bill Moyers, the Today Show, CBS Radio,
and National Public Radio. She is a contributing editor to Yes! Magazine, a
founding councilor of the World Future Council, and serves on the National
Advisory Council of the Union of Concerned Scientists as well as on the
Mercy Corps Advisory Council for the World Hunger Education Center (part of
revitalizing the New York Twin Towers site).

Lappé is a sought after public speaker and has received 17 honorary
doctorates from distinguished institutions. In 1987 in Sweden, Lappé became
the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called
the "Alternative Nobel," for her "vision and work healing our planet and
uplifting humanity." Frances' most recent honor was an award for "Lifetime
Service to Increase Planetary Awareness," granted to her and to biologist
E.O. Wilson, at the AltWheels Alternative Transportation Festival, 2006.