Hope's Edge finding our path in uncertain times.

• Author: Lappe, Frances Moore

We were finishing this article when we Learned of the terrorist attack on the United States. One of us was in a plane headed to Nairobi, the other in a train headed to New York City. We were both turned back and have since spent the days alternating between numb shock and renewed commitment, between hope that this horror will awaken people to the futility of violence and fear that it will trigger yet more violence against the innocent. As our emotions swung moment to moment, we realized they are a sped-up version of what we have been feeling for some time. Last year, we travelled on five continents to write Hope's Edge, a sequel to my 1971 Diet for a Small Planet. The more we saw and the more we experienced, the more we knew that it is impossible to find clear grounds for hope. As a planet, we are moving in two contradictory directions at once. For women, this paradox is especially acute.

In Kenya, we saw women defying the judements of government foresters to create a nationwide network of 6,000 village nurseries as part of the Green Belt Movement, founded by Dr. Wangari Mathaai. Twenty years and twenty million trees later, the village-based movement has been a key player in averting desertification in Kenya. In a drought that, we were told, was one of the worst in history, we saw the brutal consequences of a single-minded focus on export crops that has been the path encouraged by "development experts". Sitting with 72-year-old Green Belt member Lea Kisomo, she explained to us how the root crops and traditional plants that could withstand the drought have long since been replaced by cash crops like coffee, whose market price is now at lows not seen in decades.

Asked what food she missed most, she paused pensively before saying, "porridge made from millet--it's sweet and strong", almost as if she was tasting it again. We thought of the lifeless white bread and powdered coffee we were served for breakfast. As we were leaving, Lea looked us straight in the eyes and said: "When you go home, tell your people that we Kamba people had lost our food culture, but we're going to regain it." With the strength of the Green Belt Movement igniting self-confidence and teaching basic household food security among Kenyan women, Lea may be absolutely right. Yet, a recent survey reports that the majority of Kenyan women are beaten by their husbands. We were also told how powerless women there feel about protecting themselves from AIDS when their husbands are...