Diet for a Small Planet: The Book That Changed the Way We Eat Is as Timely as Ever – Culture

In 1971 Berkeley, California, a 26-year-old new mother and researcher named Frances Moore Lappé was preoccupied with the idea of ending world hunger. After realizing that meat production was a major contributor to food scarcity, she set out to spread her message. What started as a DIY pamphlet became Diet for a Small Planet, a book that went on to sell millions of copies and popularize vegetarian diets, veritably changing the way many Americans eat. The 50th anniversary edition is being released on September 21st, into a world where its message is more relevant than ever. (The recipe section has also been updated to include additions from some of the most exciting chefs working today, like Bryant Terry and Brooks Headley.)

“I keep thinking, How many people are still alive and still able to do a 50th anniversary of their first book? So I’m really psyched about it,” Lappé tells me from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

If you want an example of Frances Moore Lappé’s influence, you don’t even have to look beyond the pages of GQ. Consider that our wellness columnist is plant-based. Or that we named a veggie patty the best burger in America, sent our food critic on a tour of decadent animal-free restaurants, and recently hit up Travis Barker about his vegan diet. Hell, that Travis Barker is eating a vegan diet at all.

Now 76, Lappé has cropped grey hair and, over the course of our conversation, energy so unflagging that it serves as living proof of what she’s selling. Since Diet for a Small Planet first came out, she’s written nearly 20 more books, branching out into the topics of democracy and political action, and runs the Small Planet Institute with her daughter, Anna Lappé. And, of course, she’s still deeply focused on how we eat. “You don’t buy a new computer every day, but you do choose your food every day,” Lappé says. “It’s directly related to the farmer’s wellbeing, the farmworker’s wellbeing, the soil’s wellbeing, and the species. I just like it as an act of empowerment.”

GQ: I want to go back to 1971 for a second. How did you think we would be eating in 2021?

Frances Moore Lappé: I don’t think I really thought about the future in that way. I can only talk about what was my hope. I was so shocked with what I was learning as a newbie. I wasn’t a trained person in this field of nutrition or development economics. Paul Ehrlich’s Population Bomb had just come out. A book called Famine 1975! came out. And people were saying, “Oh my God, we’ve hit the limits.”

My intuition as this 26-year-old was that if I could understand that most basic question of what causes hunger, then that would open up my pathway. I’d start to understand the economic and political pieces and I could really make intelligent choices about how to use the rest of my life. I thought if I could just tell people that hunger is needless, that would be the big wake-up call. It’s not about hitting the limits of the Earth, which felt so disempowering. I knew women who were saying, “I’m not going to have a child because we’ve hit the limits and that would be unethical to have a child if there’s not enough to go around.”