DIET FOR A HOT PLANET: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It by Anna Lappé

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.

(Author tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Durham, N.C., Ann Arbor, Mich., Minneapolis, Northampton, Mass., Boston, Washington, D.C., New York. Agent: Sam Stoloff/Frances Goldin Literary Agency)

I’m excited – and honored – that so many great organizations are sponsoring this launch, including The Food Studies Program at The New School, with Bloomsbury USA, Edible Manhattan, Glynwood Institute, Just Food, Sustainable Table, and WhyHunger.

More info – including where you can RSVP – on the events page.

Hope to see you on April 1st!

The Small Planet Institute is proud to be a co-sponsor of this event, along with the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of NY, in partnership with WhyHunger and the Brooklyn Food Coalition.

This event is free and open to the public – bring your friends!

For more info, contact cbalbertolovera@gmail.com

I knew this trip would fall in heart of “Eat In” week, but I imagined packing myself off with meals to carry me through at least a day. But getting out of the house, and setting up my seventh-month old with her babysitter, proved a bit preoccupying. As a result, I was reminded of a few of the basic principles of sort-of eating in, on the road. And I decided I would only eat out what I could make at home. That meant, of course, cutting out all processed foods and most of what you find in airports. It also meant planning ahead. So the first night in DC, when I was heading back to my hotel, and before ducking into the Metro, I spied a café with handmade sandwiches and just-made soups and salads and dove in. A half-hour later, popping up somewhere in Maryland, I was glad I had. The only so-called food options out there were golden arches and a strip mall’s Chinese takeout.

Eating well on the road is tough, but not impossible. And, it’s getting easier, at least marginally so.

When we landed at DCA on Thursday and I was famished–despite the stomach-turning in-flight experience–I discovered Cibo stocked a self-declared “vegan sandwich” with hummous, eggplant, and squash on 7-grain bread. It was certainly not as good as what any of us could make for ourselves, but at least it met my cardinal rule. I would make it at home.

Here are some more tips for eating well on the road:

1. Bring your own gear: Grist’s Umbra has a great video on the benefits and sourcing of cool to-go food gear. When traveling, I always try to remember to grab my coffee mug and bring my own tea bags, especially nice for late nights in hotel rooms when you’ve got a coffee maker and not much else.

2. Make your own to-go snacks: I love to bring along nuts and dried fruit: cashews and dried cranberries, almonds and raisins. Your own personalized trail mix is always a great snack in a pinch.

3. Keep your eyes peeled: When you see good food, go for it. You never know when you’ll find it again.

4. Tap online resources before you go: Use the Eat Well Guide to find farmers market hours, stores with great food options, and restaurants carrying sustainably raised and locally grown foods.

5. Ask the locals: Peep up on Twitter, check out Chowhound, see what the Slow Food USA chapters have to say. Even if you don’t know any locals where you’re headed, you can ask informed sustainable food devotees. You’ll be glad you did.

And, in many cases they are backed by the same big money corporations and lobbyists. But we shouldn’t be fooled – we need to listen to the climate scientists who have issued a clear warning about the human impact on the climate – and then we need to act.

–posted by Kate

Problem: 12:30pm lunch date at DUMBO restaurant Superfine with Slow Food USA’s Josh Viertel.

Solution: Turn a lunch into a picnic (at the office).

The Result: Cheaper lunch. Better food. More fun.

Carrying a bag of homemade treats into the cavernous 20 Jay Street (a convenient two blocks down from my shared green offices), I got to see Slow Food up-close-and-personal and was charmed by the friendly staff who communed at a communal table over food from their home fridges.

Josh enjoyed my husband’s leftover veggie chili, garnished with slices of radish and scooped from last night’s big pot. For “dessert” we had apple slices with yogurt (and some chocolate, of course). ["Tempeh Chili with Black Beans," How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman, pp.678-679]

While Josh was making us espressos–yes, Slow Food has its own mini-Lavazza machine in their office kitchen thanks to Slow Food International’s relationship with the company–one of the staff squeezed past him.

“Sorry, just trying to get the compost,” she said as she opened the freezer, popped open a Tupperware container, and tossed in the day’s food scraps.

Seems Slow Food peeps are really walking their talk.

After we finished our chat, Josh introduced me to some of the staff, most of whom I’d only “met” online and it was lovely to put faces to names.

In the end, Josh and I agreed the conversation was much more fruitful and fun than if we’d dined at Superfine down the street.

Conclusion: Challenge met.

TIP 1: Get Inspired

As we explore the challenges, and joys, of eating in this week, I thought I would share some tips along the way. My first: Get inspired.

Though I love food, I’m no chef nor am I one of those cooks who can walk into a kitchen and whip up a feast from whatever is in the fridge. Nope. I need direction. I need cookbooks. And I love them. I love learning how to put together new and unusual flavors. I love getting to know different cookbook “palettes.” Peter Berley is fond of maple syrup. Lorna Sass has a thing for lentils. And so on.
In honor of the week, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite sources of inspiration:

• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Bittman has a refreshingly simple way of presenting his recipes and explaining steps. He demystifies techniques and whether you’re a seasoned home chef or a total newbie, there’s soemthing in here for everyone.

• The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen: I would keep this cookbook on my shelf for the vegan skillet cornbread alone, but it’s also chockful of other great ideas.

• The Joy of Cooking: Indispensible for the basics.

• Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen: Lorna Sass was green long before it was hip. Most of the eco-minded messages that I highlight in my work, she’s been saying for a long time. Lorna’s soups are especially divine. Make a pot and have it all week.

• The Cheeseboard Cookbook: The scones are devilishly good and the pizzas are creative concoctions: Try the zucchini, feta, lime, and cilantro. Yum.

• Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen: Half of my last book includes my take on what we call grub–healthy, local, sustainably raised and fairly made food–why it’s important and how we can fight for it. The second half is filled with recipes by my co-author Bryant Terry who created seasonal menus complete with suggested soundtracks to consume will you cook and dine. What’s the soundtrack to your food?

• Lucid Food: My friend Louisa Shafia has a new cookbook and it’s as gorgeous to look at as it is to cook from.

• Super Natural Cooking: Heidi Swanson, the goddess behind 101cookbooks.com got a deserved James Beard Award for this cookbook. Dive in. You won’t be sorry.

Those are just some of my favs. What are yours?

Off to think about what to make for dinner…

I read an advance copy of Cathy’s book and loved it, had fun with helping with her Hungry Filmmakers here in the city, and am in the midst of final touches on a tour for my new book, Diet for a Hot Planet.

Like Cathy, and the thousands of us across the country participating in the Week of Eating In, I care about where my food comes from and believe what we eat makes a whopping difference not only to our own happiness and waistline but to the health of the planet and its climate, too. So I figured it’d be the least I could do to throw in my lot with the Week of Eating In. I also thought it would be easy.

But then I remembered…

Choice, arguably the best café in all of the lovely borough of Brooklyn, opened a second restaurant six days ago. It’s a half a block from my office. Last week the lunch lines were so long they wound out the restaurant door. Can I really resist their scones for one more week?

Plus, there’s the coffee problem. I swore it off during nine months of pregnancy and most of nursing so far. But now that I’m back in the coffee boat it’s hard to resist the brewing barrels down the hall from my office. (Note to self: Remember to brew more in the morning and take those to-go mugs to work.)

Then I looked at my calendar: I had planned three business lunch dates this week. I’m also headed down the east coast on Thursday for a presentation in Washington D.C. and have a talk on Friday in Maryland. There’s a dinner birthday party on Friday night and we had committed to a brunch with the moms and dads we see every week at our daughter’s YMCA swim class. And, in complete Eating In irony, there’s my dinner date Tuesday with one of the women who got me eating in in the first place: my friend Mollie Katzen. Hmm. All of a sudden not eating out seemed a lot more challenging.

Now I’m wondering what I got myself into.

It’s full of ideas that came out of the fantastic food and climate conference held in December. The report is the first unified and comprehensive set of “food policy” proposals aimed at improving health and the environment, and creating jobs – good news for New Yorkers.

It’s inspiring to see real work and tangible proposals coming out of the summit in which so many people participated!

For suggested discussion topics for her books or to set up a 30-minute phone visit with Anna and your reading group, please e-mail kate@smallplanet.org.

Numerous universities use Anna’s books in coursework and she has spoken in dozens of classrooms to engage students in the subject matter. Professors requiring desk copies or interested in sample syllabi that use Anna’s work can write to kate@smallplanet.org.

Professor Nancy Romer
Brooklyn College, CUNY
Brooklyn, New York