Reviews of Diet for A Hot Planet
*Starred Review* Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet (1971) launched an essential inquiry into the connections among food, justice, and ecology. She teamed up with her daughter, Anna, in another incisive overview, Hope’s Edge (2002), and now Anna addresses the major role industrial agriculture plays in today’s climate crisis. Responsibly researched and cogently articulated, Lappé’s far-reaching investigation entails questioning scientists; attending UN, governmental, corporate, and grassroots agriculture conferences; plowing through daunting reports and studies, and, most pleasurably, visiting organic farms around the world. She gathers facts proving that global industrial agriculture—specifically the use of hazardous chemicals, concentrated animal feeding operations, biotech crops, and processed foods—is impoverishing the land, destroying rain forests, polluting waterways, and emitting nearly a third of the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. In contrast, well-designed organic-farming techniques reduce carbon emissions and toxic waste while nurturing soil and biodiversity. Convinced that eating wisely is one way to influence the marketplace and, ultimately, help combat world hunger and climate change, Lappé decodes food labeling, dissects Big Ag’s “greenwashing” tactics, and offers “seven principles of a climate-friendly diet” in an impeccable, informative, and inspiring contribution to the quest for environmental reform. –Donna Seaman
—Booklist
“MSN “Practical Guide for Healthy Living” host Lappé elaborates on her mother’s conviction, elucidated in the classic Diet for a Small Planet (1971), that individual food choices can lead to massive social consequences.
“The author convincingly argues that food is “the integrating lens” for the innumerable responses to climate change. At three meals or more per day, Lappé writes, we are faced with either supporting or resisting industrial food production. So-called conventional food production and distribution—ecologically and economically fragile—contributes to nearly one-third of total human-caused global warming and paradoxically creates hunger out of plenty. Organic, local, plant-based foods, on the other hand, have the potential to not only mitigate but ultimately repair this damage. Lappé bolsters her support for a local, organic diet with a substantial bibliography of peer-reviewed science, studies, policies and interviews. Her journalism and science is rock-solid, as are her clear-headed critiques of scare-mongering by corporations (like Monsanto or Dow) invested in biotech or industrial food production. The author offers simple solutions to our near-future food security and climate stability—eat real foods, mostly plants, from organic, local sources. Yes, Michael Pollan owns this territory, but Lappé helpfully recontextualizes the argument, noting that one mealtime choice, multiplied by millions, offers benefits toward planetary health and food security. Accessibly written, rationally argued and focused on action over rhetoric, the book will interest parents, foodies, economists, committed vegetarians, moral omnivores, environmentalists, health enthusiasts and anyone interested in actually doing something about climate change while government responses stagnate.
“An essential toolkit for readers looking for a pragmatic climate-response action plan of their own.”
—Kirkus
“As Anna Lappé reveals in this important book, we must be conscious of what we eat – not only for our own health, but for the health of the planet. When it comes to climate change, junk food may prove even more destructive than S.U.V.s. Lappé’s message is timely and empowering. Instead of waiting for politicians to do the right thing, we can make simple changes to our diet, enjoy it, and help change the world.”
—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness
“Nothing is more important than connecting the way we eat to global warming. After all, food is an everyday need for everyone. Anna Lappé shows us that eating with intention is our responsibility and our pleasure.”
—Alice Waters, founder and proprietor of Chez Panisse and author of The Art of Simple Food
“Anna Lappé’s Diet for a Hot Planet does for the present generation what her mother’s Diet for a Small Planet did for the last: empower us to think in a new way about how food affects our own health as well as that of the planet. Her inspiring book makes it clear that food choices matter to climate change and that each of us, voting with our forks, can make a real difference in ensuring a more sustainable food system. I want all my students to read this powerful book.”
—Marion Nestle, New York University, author of What to Eat and Food Politics
“In this tour-de-force, Anna Lappé provides readable, lively, and much-needed answers to question that all too few of us understand: how does our food affect the planet? By guiding us with a sure hand through the fog of claims and counterclaims around climate change and agriculture, she inoculates us from the corporate lies that stand between us and a just, sustainable, and delicious food system..”
—Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing and Stuffed and Starved
“Many people have laid out the dire news of climate change, but with Diet for a Hot Planet, Anna Lappé offers a path to avert disaster that is well within our grasp. This book will inspire readers to eat thoughtfully and teach future generations to do the same. It should be required reading for all families, farmers and framers of our laws as well.”
—Destin Joy Layne, Sustainable Table
“Diet for a Hot Planet should revolutionize our debate – and our diet – just as much as Diet for a Small Planet did back in 1971.”
—Jill Richardson, Founder of lavidalocavore.org
Author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do To Fix It
“Eloquent and enlightening, Anna’s latest book examines the critical connection between the food we eat and our changing climate. In addition to exploring the massive carbon impact of our industrial food system and the tactics used by companies to evade responsibility, Diet For A Hot Planet offers a vision of a sustainable food system that will help heal the planet. The book also provides seven principles for a climate-friendly diet and extensive learning resources to help guide you towards a greener Earth Day feast. (Be sure to read about the Media That Inspires Lappé.)”
—10 Green Books to Read on Earth Day by Danny Jensen
