With an eco-mind, we get ready for surprises, for we realize it's just not possible to know what's possible.

The real cause of hunger is the powerlessness of the poor to gain access to the resources they need to feed themselves.

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.

Our food system takes abundant grain,which people can't afford,and shrinks it into meat,which better-off people will pay for.

The good life may mean doing some things that do not feel comfortable. It may mean sitting long hours just with yourself as you begin to listen to your own questions. That was the reality for me when I was 27, and it was really terrifying.

I never like to use those terms [like pessimistic].

I think of Wangari Mathai in Kenya. If she started out saying she wanted to plant 20 million trees, she would have been laughed at. In fact, the foresters and the government did laugh at her. They said, "Villagers? Un-schooled villagers? Planting trees? No, no, no, it takes foresters." So she planted trees anyway.