With organic approaches, women - who have been gardeners for millennia and mothers forever - can rise because of their intimate knowledge of nature.

What we see today is a world movement represented by the World Social Forum, involving all sorts of interactions across cultures, not to create some new "ism," but to learn as we walk and to create more democratic forms of social organization that re-embed economic life in community.

Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.

Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy.

We can't see ahead of time what actions are going to be the ones that move history in dramatic ways.

In the late 1960s, there were alarming predictions that worldwide famine was around the corner. I wondered if humans had already lost the race, overrun the Earth's capacity. I let one question lead to the next, and unearthed information that would forever change my life: Not only is there enough food in the world to feed every man, woman, and child on Earth, there is enough to make us all chubby.

For me, just showing up for the traveling and writing gave me the power to overcome my fear of fear.