美国国家公共电台 NPR If You Think Eating Is A Political Act, Say Thanks To Frances Moore Lappe

If You Think Eating Is A Political Act, Say Thanks To Frances Moore Lappe

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Here's an idea that seemed radical² when it came out in 1971. Eating a diet based mostly on plants rather than meat can be better for the planet and also for people's health. This idea came from a best-selling book called "Diet For A Small Planet." It was written by Frances Moore Lappe. We're about to meet her and her daughter Anna Lappe, who's been continuing her mother's advocacy. We've been meeting people like them this month. We call them Boundbreakers, people who break through barriers to change the world around them.

NPR's Allison Aubrey spoke³ with mom and daughter about the social and environmental impacts of the foods we choose.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE⁴: If you turned on the evening news back in the 1970s and '80s, it was hard to escape images of famine. This old news clip evokes⁵ suffering in Ethiopia.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Across a wide sweep of Wollo and Tigray, people still stream in their thousands into the relief camps - death reduced to routine.

AUBREY: Now, at that time, some experts were predicting a doomsday scenario⁶. As the population grew, food shortages would worsen, they argued. The planet just couldn't produce enough food. But the author of "Diet For A Small Planet," Frances Moore Lappe, argued it did not need to be this way. And not surprisingly, she got several opportunities to appear here on NPR to deliver a different message. Here's Lappe from an interview on All Things Considered back in 1982.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FRANCES MOORE LAPPE: When I first started looking at these issues, I was very much influenced by the ecology movement, by "Limits To Growth" metaphors⁷ that were telling us that we'd actually reached the Earth's limits to feed people.

AUBREY: But Lappe pointed⁸ out that there were more than enough calories being produced around the world. It's just a lot of them were not going directly to feed people. Much of the corn farmers grew, for instance, was used to feed cattle to meet the demand for meat. And back then, Lappe pointed to this as one part of a very complicated problem.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

F. LAPPE: So my message was, look - in fact, we had this tremendous abundance. It is the economic, the political structures that determine whether or not that production is actually meeting the needs of human beings.

AUBREY: Now remember, back then, meat was at the center of Americans' plates. A big steak was a symbol of security and prosperity. So to promote a diet of vegetables and beans and rice, Lappe told me in a recent interview, it was radical.

F. LAPPE: Shocking. It was heresy⁹, especially coming from a girl who grew up in Cowtown, Fort Worth, Texas.

AUBREY: Leafing through "Diet For A Small Planet," there are lots of recipes. I spot one for spinach¹⁰ lasagna. Here's one for soy burgers, veggie enchiladas. None of these would seem particularly inventive today given that...

F. LAPPE: (Laughter).

AUBREY: ...We're all familiar with them. But I'm imagining back in the 1970s, was this a new idea for people?

F. LAPPE: Yeah. I was shocked that some people told me that their parents were sure that they would die of malnutrition¹¹ if they followed the advice I was giving in the book.

AUBREY: Today, lots of us have heard the arguments about the environmental costs of meat production. Recent studies have shown it can take six pounds of grain and up to 60 gallons of water to produce the meat for one hamburger. But 40 years ago, people hadn't connected these dots, so Lappe used the shock and dismay over her veggie recipes to her advantage. With the buzz her book created, she was invited onto talk shows, mostly to talk about cooking.

Was this kind of a stealth way to communicate...

F. LAPPE: (Laughter).

AUBREY: ...A much bigger agenda here?

F. LAPPE: It was. I remember when I finally made it on "The Today Show" and Bryant Gumbel asked me, Ms. Lappe, what did you have for breakfast? And I went from that question to the political and economic roots of world hunger.

AUBREY: Lappe has never given up on this work, trying to make people more aware of the consequences of their food choices. She's written more books and traveled widely, researching and exploring where our food comes from and the environmental and political implications of the way it's produced, not just in the developing world but here in the U.S., too. Her daughter Anna, who's now in her 40s, has been along for much of the ride.

F. LAPPE: Anna, were you 11 when we went to Ohio?

ANNA LAPPE: Yes. I'll never forget going into these farm workers' homes. They opened up their homes to us. My mother was interviewing them for this research project she was doing. And as a middle schooler, you know, to hear people living in this country producing food for our tables - to hear these farm workers talk about the exploitation they were experiencing, the suffering they were experiencing - talk about an eye-opening experience for me.

AUBREY: Anna's now an advocate and author in her own right. She's pushing for change on a range of issues in the food system, from worker rights, protecting natural resources, to the way snacks and sugary drinks are marketed, an issue that she says has become big for her as the mom of two girls.

A. LAPPE: Recently, I was showing my daughters some of the amazing strong women gymnasts from the Olympics. But in order to watch, we had to sit through a Coca-Cola ad. My 7-year-old said, but Mom, why is there an ad for soda¹² when, you know, when this is supposed to be, you know, athletic¹³ and these gymnasts are supposed to be so healthy?

AUBREY: Anna says there's still a lot of work to do to promote food choices that are healthy for people and the planet. But she's also encouraged. She says the conversation that her mom helped to start 45 years ago has gained a lot of traction¹⁴.

A. LAPPE: I think there has been enormous change. I mean, think about when my mom was writing "Diet For A Small Planet," for instance, there were just several hundred farmers' markets left in this country. Today, there are now more than 4,000 farmers' markets across the country. And I think about how much more access there is to healthy food in places like schools where you now have a farm-to-school movement across the country.

AUBREY: She says one particularly sweet moment for her came last year on "Mad Money," a popular CNBC show. The host, Jim Cramer, did a whole segment on how sustainably farmed organic fruits and vegetables are becoming more mainstream¹⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MAD MONEY")

JIM CRAMER: Most people would probably tell you that organic food is really just for rich people - that it's not an economical way to approach agriculture, that it can't feed the world. Well, guess what. None of that's true.

F. LAPPE: I love it.

A. LAPPE: So I feel like when Jim Cramer is starting to sound like Frances Moore Lappe, I think we can say some progress has been made.

AUBREY: Frances says she, too, is optimistic. She acknowledges that there's still hunger and malnutrition around the globe. But earlier this week, she tweeted out a quote. It read, (reading) if you expect to see the final results of your work, you simply haven't asked a big enough question.

Allison Aubrey, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 evokes   

产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• Each type evokes antibodies which protect against the homologous. 每一种类型都能产生抗同种病毒的抗体。

6 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

7 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 heresy   

n.异端邪说；异教

参考例句：

• We should denounce a heresy.我们应该公开指责异端邪说。
• It might be considered heresy to suggest such a notion.提出这样一个观点可能会被视为异端邪说。

10 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

11 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

12 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

13 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

14 traction   

n.牵引；附着摩擦力

参考例句：

• I'll show you how the traction is applied.我会让你看如何做这种牵引。
• She's injured her back and is in traction for a month.她背部受伤，正在作一个月的牵引治疗。

15 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。