Sustainability speaker series hosts living democracy expert Frances Moore Lappé

The Office of Sustainability is partnering with the Academic Sustainability Program, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, the Hunger Solutions Institute, the Master of Community Planning Program and the School of Communication and Journalism in hosting Frances Moore Lappé for the Fall 2024 Sustainability Speaker Series. Lappé’s talk, “Hope is Power: Pathways to Living Democracy” will be held at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct 15.  

Lappé will take the audience on a journey that started with addressing food scarcity and diet and led to unraveling the root causes of societal challenges and how we make policy decisions. With her insights and engaging storytelling, she will challenge us to see the world not “as it is” but “as we are,” revealing the determining filters that shape our perceptions and actions.   

Lappé is the author or co-author of 20 books, many focused on the themes of “Living Democracy.” She has received 20 honorary doctorates. In 1987, Lappé received the Right Livelihood Award, “considered an 'Alternative Nobel,'" "for revealing the political and economic causes of world hunger and how citizens can help to remedy them." In 1985, she was a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, Berkeley and from 2000-01, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008, she received the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition and agriculture.    

Other notable awards include the International Studies Association's 2009 Outstanding Public Scholar Award, and in 2011, the Nonino Prize in Italy for her life's work. In 2007, Lappé became a founding member of the World Future Council, based in Hamburg, Germany. Lappé is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland-based think tank Food First and the Small Planet Institute. Lappé and her daughter, Anna Lappé, also cofounded the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide.   

The audience will leave this talk knowing more about what everyone can do to sustain our democracy.     

Following the talk, Lappé will sign books. Thanks to Well Red, copies of three of her works — Daring Democracy, Hope’s Edge and Diet for a Small Planet, 50th Anniversary Edition — will be available for purchase at the event.