{"id":1562,"date":"2016-06-02T07:44:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/?p=1562"},"modified":"2016-06-02T07:48:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:48:26","slug":"behind-the-plate-anna-lappe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/2016\/06\/02\/behind-the-plate-anna-lappe\/","title":{"rendered":"BEHIND THE PLATE: ANNA LAPP\u00c9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anna_Lappe_foodstand_behind_the_plate\"<\/a>

Photo credit: Paige Green<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Anna Lapp\u00e9<\/a> is a bestselling author and food educator, focusing on food systems and sustainability. She has started numerous highly acclaimed food sustainability projects, and her latest book was named one of the best environmental books of the year. As one of TIME<\/em> magazine’s “Eco” Who’s-Who and a mother of two, Anna is a total #ladyboss.<\/p>\n

Tell us about how you got your start as a food author and educator?<\/strong>
\nBecoming a food author and educator was kind of like going into the family business: My mother, Frances Moore Lapp\u00e9, wrote her 3.5-million copy bestselling book, Diet for a Small Planet<\/em>, more than 40 years ago when she was 26 and has been a leading voice in addressing the root causes of hunger ever since. I never thought this would be my career, though. In fact, I had graduated from Brown and was getting a masters at Columbia on a path to work in public education and economic development, when I leapt at the chance to help my mom write a sequel to Diet. <\/em>The process ultimately led to my first book, Hope\u2019s Edge<\/em>, and a journey around the world with my mother that sparked a lifelong passion for promoting food justice, sustainable food systems and a world where everyone everywhere has access to life-supporting foods.<\/p>\n

How do you define good food?<\/strong>
\nGood food is healthy; it supports local economies; it\u2019s raised in ways that promote environmental sustainability, biodiversity and animal welfare alongside worker well being. Not so coincidentally these are the five values at the heart of the Good Food Purchasing Policy<\/a>, which I am working to help expand from the city of Los Angeles\u2026 to the rest of the country!
\n<\/span>
\nWe just launched our second #NoFoodWaste campaign. What are some #NoFoodWaste practices that you incorporate into your daily life?<\/strong>
\nOn a weekly basis, I try to make \u201cdinners from the back of the fridge,\u201d incorporating leftovers or wilting produce into some delicious dish. Luckily, there are countless ways to do so: revive old veggies in a pot of risotto; make a fresh stock with old onions; cook a soup with yesterday\u2019s broccoli. The list goes on. In addition, we try as much as possible to cook from whole foods: packaging is one of the biggest forms of \u201cfood\u201d waste we can kick out of our home.<\/p>\n

Your book Diet For A Hot Planet<\/i> addresses the climate crisis in relation to our food system. What’s one aspect of our diet that really needs to change?<\/strong>
\nBy \u201cour\u201d if you mean the average American, the one aspect of our diet that could stand to change\u2014and it would be a boon to both our waistline and the environment\u2014is the amount of meat and dairy we consume. Americans consume three times more meat and dairy than the global average, with over half of that coming from red meat. (Check out this white paper<\/a> from the Culinary Institute of America and their new project called The Protein Flip.) From the environmental impact of industrial meat production to the inhumane treatment of the workers in the industry, there are countless reasons to reduce our consumption. Thankfully, there is a growing market of sustainably produced meat and dairy, so consumers can choose, should they want to, less but better <\/i>meat.<\/p>\n

Who is your food inspiration?<\/strong>
\nMy kids. It\u2019s clich\u00e9, I know, but my two daughters are my inspiration: I see how happy and healthy they are eating nutritious and sustainably grown food and so I fight hard every day to ensure they can have access to food that nourishes them and so that our food system brings more of this kind of food to more kids.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the Small Planet Fund.<\/strong>
\nMy mother and I started the Fund in 2002 on the heels of our research for Hope\u2019s Edge<\/i>. We were so inspired by the groups we met on the ground; we wanted to give back\u2014and more than just a book. We ran the Fund as a project of love for years, hosting an annual party at a friend\u2019s loft in SoHo. For the past six years, we\u2019ve received an annual grant from an anonymous donor to support the most exciting change agents we can find. All told, we\u2019ve given away more than $1 million since our very humble beginnings.<\/p>\n

What’s the most challenging moment you’ve had?<\/strong>
\nThere are challenges, sure, to the work I do. My colleagues and I are going up against some of the most ruthless and deep-pocketed corporations out there. (Don\u2019t believe me, check out examples of these companies infiltrating grassroots groups<\/a>, and\u00a0pounding farmers and non-profits with lawsuits and attacks<\/a>\u2014and those are just two of many). But I don\u2019t pretend my job is \u201cdifficult\u201d in the truest sense of that word: Difficult are the jobs of the Tyson poultry processors who risk injury and death every day on ever-faster processing lines. Difficult are the jobs of farmworkers who toil in the hot sun, who risk sexual assault and harassment to do their work and are rarely fairly compensated. Those jobs, and the more than 20 million other in the U.S. food industry, are truly difficult.<\/p>\n

Food issues have barely made it into the race for President. If you could ask the future President to consider a food issue that needs to be addressed, what would it be?<\/strong>
\nYes, the candidates\u2014all of them\u2014have been mostly mute when it comes to food. Though I would argue many of the topics that have gotten some attention\u2014energy, climate change, fracking\u2014are also food issues. There are so many issues that need to be addressed, but if I could have them consider one, it would be to promote across the country\u2014in ever municipality and school district\u2014what\u2019s known as the Good Food Purchasing Policy<\/a>. The Policy, developed by the LA Food Policy Council, and passed there in 2012, allows vendors for government contracts to be evaluated along five core values: nutrition, local economies, animal welfare, the environment and worker well being. This policy has unleashed millions of dollars for the kind of food we all should be eating and farmers should be producing. Embraced nationwide it would spark the food system changes so desperately needed; from getting antibiotics out of meat production, to boosting the wages of food sector workers and more.<\/p>\n

WANT TO BE FEATURED ON BEHIND THE PLATE?
\nDOWNLOAD THE FOODSTAND APP<\/a>!<\/h3>\n

You launched your annual Real Food Films contest three years ago. What have you learned from the submissions you have received?<\/strong>
\nWow. So much. When we launched the Real Food Films<\/a> competition three years ago for short videos under four minutes, I was honestly afraid we might just get a handful of entries from hipsters in Brooklyn making odes to their artisanal kombucha. What we\u2019ve received has blown us away: more than 400 films from dozens of countries. 260 Pop-Up Film Fests have been hosted from Denmark to New Zealand and across the United States. We\u2019ve discovered countless stories of farmers and communities bringing to life a food system that\u2019s better for our bodies, producers and the planet. Now, we\u2019ve got a library of more than 70 films online that anyone anywhere can watch and get inspired by\u2014and not one of them is about bespoke kombucha.<\/p>\n

What’s one of your first (and most memorable) interactions with food?<\/strong>
\nHmmm\u2026 that one really makes me think. I\u2019m guessing it would to be the boiled cabbage and rugelah my great-grandmother Hench would make for my brother and me. When we would visit her small apartment in New Jersey, the smell of the cabbage would waft down the hall before we even rung the doorbell and would envelop us along with her huge bear hugs. The smells and the tastes connected me to my family and to our great-grandparents who had made their way from the eastern borders of Poland across the continents and the ocean to Ellis Island.<\/p>\n

You have a project called Food MythBusters\u2014what are your favorite three myths that you’ve busted?<\/strong>
\nMy favorite big myths pushed by farm chemical giants like Syngenta, agribusiness companies like Cargill and junk food peddlers like Pepsi include: \u201cWe need industrial agriculture to feed the world.\u201d \u201cOrganic food is no better for you than chemically grown food.\u201d \u201cJunk food marketing to kids is harmless free speech.\u201d We launched Food MythBusters<\/a> to fight back against these myths.<\/p>\n

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?<\/strong>
\nI would be a singer in a rock band. I can\u2019t carry a tune or remember lyrics to songs, so it would not be very successful.<\/p>\n

What was your biggest #foodfail?<\/strong>
\nWhen I moved to California after 17 years in New York City, I finally had a kitchen and dining room big enough to host family holidays\u2014and we\u2019ve hosted Christmas dinner ever since. There have been a few mishaps. One such #foodfail: I was making my favorite apple pie and just about to throw the apples tossed with cinnamon, lemon zest and sugar onto the awaiting pastry dough, when I sneakily grabbed a slice to enjoy. Luckily, it turns out: the bulk sugar I had pulled from my pantry was actually bulk salt and the entire bowl of apples was ruined. A few phone calls later and a sister saved the day: dessert was on its way and the apple pie was never missed.<\/p>\n

What’s always in your fridge? How do you use it?<\/strong>
\nSriracha. On everything.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite meal-on-the-go?<\/strong>
\nNuts. No recipe required.<\/p>\n

Favorite new recipe?<\/strong>
\nMy favorite new recipe is the soba noodle soup from Mark Bittman\u2019s new (wonderful) cookbook, The Kitchen Matrix<\/i>. When my kids took the first sip, they both looked up wide-eyed and happy. The little one said: \u201cMom\u2026 I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Lapp\u00e9 is a bestselling author and food educator, focusing on food systems and sustainability. She has started numerous highly acclaimed food sustainability projects, and her latest book was named one of the best environmental books of the year. As one of TIME magazine’s “Eco” Who’s-Who and a mother of two, Anna is a total #ladyboss. Tell us about how you got your start as a food author and educator? Becoming a food author and educator was kind of like going into the family business: My mother, Frances Moore Lapp\u00e9, wrote her 3.5-million copy bestselling book, Diet for a Small Planet, more than 40 years ago when she was 26 and has been a leading voice in addressing the root causes of hunger ever since. I never thought this would be my career, though. In fact, I had graduated from Brown and was getting a masters at Columbia on a path to work in public education and economic development, when I leapt at the chance to help my mom write a sequel to Diet. The process ultimately led to my first book, Hope\u2019s Edge, and a journey around the world with my mother that sparked a lifelong passion for promoting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[125,118,76,127,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1562"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1582,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions\/1582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thefoodstand.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}