Food First

by Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins

Book by Lappe, Frances Moore

Genres: Food, Politics, Health, Economics, Social Justice, Cooking, Nonfiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet --distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity - their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide."
Frances Moore Lappé is married to Dr. Marc Lappé a former experimental pathologist interested in the problem of environmental contamination.

Reviews

[P.J. Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Argues that the solution to world hunger is to grow food first before non-edible cash crops for export to the affluent First World. Discusses the political and economic reasons why so many nations devote their resources to cultivating export crops while their own people starve. Why American cats and dogs grow fat while Third World children suffer from chronic hunger.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this now 40 year old book is one that still perplexes me-why are there still hungry people in the world, when there is an excess of per capita calories produced most years? The authors argue that the reasons are political and provide documentation to back up this point.

I was following with them, and was surprised at many of their facts, till they got to the Green Revolution. To be transparent, I have not done the research to counter their facts; however, I find that the back-and-white of their pronunciation of the failure of the Green Revolution for the poor to be too drastic. There have been overall net gains, and poor farmers have indeed been able to use these seeds. Was it perfect? No, but it wasn't the failure or fraud they make it seem. I stopped reading after this section and skipped to the end to the recommended actions.

The question-answer format makes the book easy to read and understand their point. I do want to read one of the updated versions of the book, "World Hunger: 10 (12) Myths".

[Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lappe's 1981 book was spot-on then, and is so now, almost 40 years later. There is enough food, or at least the capacity to produce nutritious food, to end global starvation. Global agribusiness, or BigAg, does not look at the big picture so much as the bottom line. Profits over people cause starvation, malnutrition, obesity, and a host of food-related illnesses and diseases. Lappe spells these out in detail. Given the purveyance of the profit motive over the welfare of humanity, significant reform is hard to achieve, but worth the fight.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly appreciated this read, but it's not one that I can easily recommend to others. It's quite lengthy and dated per se, but it covers the most important laws and other social changes about food production in America--and the imported food (and the respective countries) in which we depend. If you care about the poor and starving of the world, this book is an eye-opener. It inspired me to make several changes about the food I buy and eat.

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love everything Lappe has ever done. She is an incredible explainer and she has always been on the right side of history. She lost only because profit is the reason that America exists. Without it, there is no reason for anyone to get out of bed. Right? So those abominations called feedlots still flourish and millions of innocent animals are treated horribly so humans can eat them. And we call ourselves civilized.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

First edition is a bit dated and bloated upon re-reading, but still a book that changed my life.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book completely changed my understanding of agriculture, agribusiness and world hunger. It's an oldie but a must read!

[Hussin Kenyar]

very good book