Diet for a Small Planet

by Frances Moore Lappé

The book that started a revolution in the way Americans eat

The extraordinary book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating is still a complete guide for eating well in the twenty-first century.

Sharing her personal evolution and how this groundbreaking book changed her own life, world-renowned food expert Frances Moore Lappé offers an all-new, even more fascinating philosophy on changing yourself—and the world—by changing the way you eat.

The  Diet for a Small Planet  
• simple rules for a healthy diet
• streamlined, easy-to-use format
• food combinations that make delicious, protein-rich meals without meat
• indispensable kitchen hints—a comprehensive reference guide for planning and preparing meals and snacks
• hundreds of wonderful recipes

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Health, Cooking, Nutrition, Politics

528 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1971

About the author

Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet --distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity - their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide."
Frances Moore Lappé is married to Dr. Marc Lappé a former experimental pathologist interested in the problem of environmental contamination.

Reviews

[lp · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my mom became a vegetarian in the early 90s, she read Diet For A Small Planet. I remember thinking, “wah wah wah my mom is such a boring loser moron head.” I pitied her for picking up a book with the words “diet” and “small planet” on it—and a pile of grain, to top it all off. This was around the time that I hid all the “Now Serving Veggie Burgers!” pamphlets from our favorite diner, because I didn’t want that nasty crap on my table. But Mom was onto something. Although it was written in 1991, Lappe’s book is forward thinking about the social and personal importance of eating simply, healthfully, and meatlessly. I lost my paper copy years ago when it fell to pieces, and I’m bummed, because there was a killer recipe for Mulligatawny stew inside. (Oh, look! I found it. I love the internet.) And come to think of it, the idea of eating for a small planet is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? God I was such a loser moron head when I was a kid.

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book ruined my childhood. This book made my mom put soy grits in spaghetti sauce, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with her delivering a lecture on carob to my second grade class, too.

But I'll give it this: Walnut cheddar loaf sure makes the planet FEEL small. Because as far as I'm concerned, the planet isn't big enough for the both of us. I hate you, walnut cheddar loaf.

[Vanessa M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very happy to have come across this updated edition of Lappé's 1971 work. I must admit I was reading it for personal health reasons but was appreciative that she expounded on the food industry and food politics in the first part, and eating for health in the second. The updated recipes are helpful too. This was a good companion read to van Tulleken's Ultra-Processed People.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ijust saw this was reviewed and I recalled that I and dozens of people I knew bought an dog-eared ths book in the early seventies. It had sections on food politics and the food industry as well as healthy recipes. Clearly she was a minority voice in that healthy eating los to fast food and frankenfood culture, though there are still strong options in cookbooks and food politics books today.

[ALLEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was Frances Moore Lappé's great gift to us to throw out the concept that something called an "entree" must center the dinner table, be it a great sullen lump of animal protein or a substitute like tofurkey. Instead, she focuses on protein complementarity, the technique of melding vegetable sources with incomplete amino acids into full proteins (for example, corn and legume beans; milk and peanuts). It's a wonderful way to think, plan, and cook; as a result this wonderful little book has braved the test of time and is now in its fifth decade.

Oh, and may I say: There's some darn tasty stuff in here, too. Bon appetit!

[Bionic Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important book on Nutrition and Politics I have ever read. If you don't immediately see the relationship, then read this book.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, read back in the 70s. I understand that she later recanted her emphasis on incomplete proteins and the need to combine. But it seemed no one got the memo. Still, the book was hugely successful in getting many Americans off their meat obsession.

Now that we're reeling from climate change, the message is more relevant than ever.

[Ben Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though many such books exist today, this book was akin to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in that it brought to life an entirely new way of looking at or thinking about food. It encouraged people to look more deeply, to see that food contains a hell of a lot more than the obvious elements one normally is exposed to. I read this book after completing my first semester of college, read it late into the night, feeling a new sort of excitement well up as the pages went on. Almost seven years later, the book remains, for my life, a turning point.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book when I read it, but I thought it hadn't made a huge impression on me. Looking back, I realize that I became a (lacto-ovo) vegetarian a few years after I read this, and I'm wondering if it had more of an influence than I've ever realized. Highly recommended - probably suggest reading the 20th anniversary edition that's out if you've never read the book, although I have not read that edition.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

My next door neighbor Leslie introduced me to this book. She was a hippie who gave my Nixon-loving parents fits. Later she died tragically of an unspecified genetic cancer. In the 70's she was skinny and long-haired and had hip-bones like Twiggy and I thought she was the bees knees.

What she said when she loaned me her copy of the book was that meat was very expensive and hard-on-the-planet to produce whereas grains were not. Because I was ten I thought she was talking about eating grass and that made me sad that we were all going to be relegated to eating grass one day because we had poisoned the planet.

What Ms. Lappé said then was that we needed to think about how our food choices were more than just local choices--they were planetary in nature. I had the great good fortune to see her speak in 2009 at a TED conference during which time she asked, "How do you want future generations to look at you? Like gods of change? Or like selfish little shoppers ?" Still saying profound things forty years later.

[Kerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion this book is a bit of a mess. There are innumerable forwards to prior versions that were reissued. The actual preface to this 50th edition does not begin until page 171. However, the main explanation of the food system in the U.S. hasn't been updated so that all the references are to the 80's at the latest. I would guess that much of the audience for this book is savvy enough to know all of the shocking revelations already. And, there is not much to show what might have changed - for better or worse since the last revision. (There is a 4 page section on protein myths updated as of 2021.) The new recipes are nothing that anyone who follows food writing would not already know how to make. Although, there are some contributions from chefs such as Jose Andres and Alice Waters. Overall, I was disappointed as I would have preferred to either read the original or an actual updated book relevant to today.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this a couple of months ago and was prompted to read it by seeing author Frances Moore Lappé's daughter Anna speak this weekend. What's astonishing is quite how thoroughly she stated, 25 years ago, everything that current food politics writers (Pollan, Nestle) are still reiterating. The message is evidently still sinking in!
Her recipes themselves are intriguing - I think she might be single-handedly responsible for an entire generation always shaking gomasio on top of their rice and beans concoctions (to "complete" the protein). On the other hand, she recommends a lot of margarine, dried milk and other things I wouldn't consider using. No doubt in 1980, when one referred to "Worcestershire sauce" or "Italian dressing", HFCS had not yet become quite so ubiquitous an ingredient.

[Adam Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me want to go vegan. This book is very eye opening about just how much garbage we eat on a daily basis.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

ONE OF THE FOUNDING BOOKS OF THE "NUTRITION REVOLUTION"

Frances Moore Lappé (born 1944) is the founder of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) and the Small Planet Institute, as well as the author of books such as 'Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet,'' Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life,' etc. This book was first published in 1971. (NOTE: Page numbers below are for the 498-page 1982 10th Anniversary Edition.)

She explains in the first chapter, "In 1969 I discovered that half of our harvested acreage went to feed livestock. At the same time, I learned that ... it takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce just 1 pound of beef in the United States today. The final blow was discovering that much of what I had grown up believing about a healthy diet was false... Americans eat twice the protein our bodies can even use..." (Pg. 9) She added, "While most Americans believe our grain exports 'feed a hungry world,' TWO-THIRDS of our agricultural exports actually go to livestock---and the hungry abroad cannot afford meat." (Pg. 11)

She states, "for me the message of [the book] is abundance, not scarcity. The issue is how we use that abundance. Do we expand the kind of production which degrades the soil and water resources on which all our future food security rests?... The answers lie in the political and economic order we create. The 'small planet' image should simply remind us that what we eat helps determine whether our planet IS too small or whether its abundance can be sustained and enjoyed by everyone. My book might better be called 'Diet for an Abundant Planet'..." (Pg. 12)

She elaborates, "questions about the roots of needless hunger had to focus not on the simple physical limits of the earth, but on the economic and political forces that determine what is planted and who eats... the experts' single-minded focus on greater production as the solution to world hunger was wrongheaded. You could have more food and still more hunger." (Pg. 21)

Later, she adds, "The first edition of this book explained how our production system takes abundant grain, which hungry people can't afford, and shrinks it into meat, which better-off people will pay for. But I didn't fully appreciate that our production system not only reduces abundance but actually mines the very resources on which our future food security rests." (Pg. 65) She suggests, "The solution can be found only by addressing the issue of power... Democracy must be the process of moving toward genuine democracy, understood as the ever more just sharing of political and economic power." (Pg. 112)

Perhaps surprisingly, however, she states, "I am not a vegetarian. Over the last ten years I've hardly ever served or eaten meat, but I try hard to distinguish what I advocate from what people think of as 'vegetarianism.' ... what I advocate is the return to the traditional diet on which our bodies evolved... centered on plant foods, with animal foods playing a supplementary role." (Pg. 13)

This book is essential reading for progressives, ecologically-minded people, vegetarians/vegans, and lots of other people.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 20th anniversary edition of this book (which is nearly 20 years old itself) and recommend that anyone else who do so start with the actual book, then read the intros and comments in chronological order. I just read it in page order, so I got a lot of updates and somewhat self-congratulatory and very earnest statements about the impact of the book until I got to the actual book that had such a big impact.

If Lappe feels self-important, it is because to a real extent her book (or at least the type of work that she and others have done) really does represent groundbreaking ideas on American diet, consumption, health, world markets, sustainability, and hunger. Through various college classes, discussions with friends, and articles I've consumed over the years I've already been exposed to nearly all of the concepts in the book, but that is likely in large part because of the book.

The breakdown, for those who haven't been as fortunate as me to have been previously exposed, goes something like this: we don't need nearly as much meat in our diets as we consume; meat production is a huge sink of our grain, soil, and water resources; lots of subsidies go into producing meat and various other non-necessary food products both in the U.S. and in other cultures; world hunger is solveable, but the "food aid" that we currently send to places is often in the form of grain to feed meat that the hungry cannot afford (I would add that a lot of world hunger is politically manipulated; Lappe doesn't really go into this). Perhaps the most important lesson stressed by Lappe in the various intros is that the decisions to continue our foolhardy production, aid, and diet patterns are not being made democratically and that a true participatory democracy driven by informed people is the only way to create a sensible and sustainable world food economy.

I haven't tried the recipes yet, and I can't really take Lappe up on the command that we visit local food co-ops, but I'm sticking to my mostly-veg diet and trying to eat as local as possible in a desert in the middle of nowhere, and remain excited about the concept of others catching on as well. Who knows, maybe some day Tuba City will have a salad restaurant and a food co-op, and people will know what tofu is!

[Muriel Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this when I was about 12 years old. I was already deciding that I didn't want to eat animals simply because I loved them, and I believed that taking their lives for food was wrong. It always felt so "unnatural" to me. This book opened my eyes to the environmental consequences and I knew that my decision was the right one.
I am now 59 years old and re-reading this amazing book with the 50th anniversary edition!

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Well researched and even though it's a bit dated, most of the tips given still hold up. Do read it only if you're interested in the environment and feeding the world, because if you're not very interested in these topics it can get quite boring.

[Diana N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never look at food the same again. This book is very inciteful on the impact of our food on us and our environment. The processed food section was pretty interesting and I never really spent much time thinking about the details relatedto that. Plus fun recipes to try!

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not convinced that completely omitting meat from everyone's diet is something to strive for, though I do agree that cutting back is in everyone's best interest. I am completely convinced by Lappé's rousing calls for people to take back power from business and government. I wasn't expecting so much revolutionary rhetoric from what I assumed was a vegetarian bible. Come for the pro-democracy screeds! Leave the recipes behind! (Though the bean pie is good.)

[Julia Segre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this kind of felt like reading a 1970s berkeley period piece. That being said I learned a lot of really valuable information and I think I've developed a fear of safeway now. Omg also I totally called it when she divorced from her husband after the gazillion Joe name drops like one page beforehand 🤣 mf who is joe 🤣🤣

[Marc Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1971 and is now out with a revised and updated 50th-anniversary version! Diet for a Small Plant is indeed extraordinary and one of those books I'm so happy to have come across. It's and was a Revolutionary book.

This edition expands on the idea of diet as a powerful agent of social change, emphasizing how plant-centered eating can help restore our damaged ecology, address the climate crisis, and move us toward real democracy.
Frances was sharing her stories and views in the podcast Inside Ideas. You can find episode 132 here:
https://youtu.be/iaOTXTWpyis

Or follow any of the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/how-can...
https://www.dietforasmallplanet.org/

[Devon Trevarrow Flaherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun to read this book, because I felt like I was returning to the roots of a lot of the modern whole foods/vegetarian movement (if that's what you would call it). Honestly, though, it's the kind of information that you can now get in an abundance in a myriad of other, more modern, more up-to-date, even more interesting books and other sources. Even my current reading of The Omnivore's Dilemma is proving to be more engaging, and has much of the same info as Small Planet. And another thing: no one warned me that Small Planet dips and out of political treatise. The author is very interested in sharing her findings on modern democracy and her opinions about it, which is appropriate, at least from her stand point, but does get repetitive and is hardly the informational recipe book for vegetarians that I expected.

I have not yet tried any of the recipes. Review on that forthcoming.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ideas behind this book—centering on the serious economic, social, and environmental costs associated with a meat-based diet—are important. And Lappe seems thoughtful, if earnest. But reading this feels like slogging through a book-length Mother Jones article. There’s little life or texture to the writing. It’s like a potluck dinner at a Quaker meeting, a good thing both to have done and to be finished with. I remembered being inspired by this book in the 1970s, and so decided to revisit it. Having done so, I feel glad it was written, and glad not to need to read it again.

[Muriel Reilly]

I first read this when I was about 12 years old. I was already deciding that I didn't want to eat animals simply because I loved them, and I believed that taking their lives for food was wrong. I always felt so "unnatural" to me. This book opened my eyes to the environmental consequences and I knew that my decision was the right one.
I am now 59 years old and re-reading this amazing book with the 50th anniversary edition!

[Milena Boyadzhieva · Rating 1 out of 5]

It certainly has a ton of research and good ideas but I haven’t read anything so dry and boring lately.
The fiftieth edition has, I don’t know how many prefaces and introductions and explanations on how and why the book was written there are. Way too many. I don’t even know where the actual original book began but it seems past page 170!
Not just boring but frustratingly bad writing, repetitive and all over the place.

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frances Moore Lappe was one of the pioneers of the vegetarian diet in the U.S. She emphasized food combining. The latest research shows food combining is unnecessary, since most foods have some complete proteins in them (albeit in small amounts). Still, this book influenced me to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, so it changed my life.

[Carolyn Fitzpatrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it would be more of a how to. 90% of the book talks about WHY we need to switch to a home-grown, vegetarian diet. About 10% is left for HOW. And that mostly consists of overly fancy vegetarian recipes with way too many ingredients. Nothing about how to transition to a vegetarian diet, or how to cook or plan meals around vegetarian entrees.

[Alex Balcom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book drives a hard ethical question that begs the readers to look at their behavior and how it is shape world we live in. I felt what she presented and asked each reader to ponder was reasonable. It helped foster a perspective that with small changes we can do a lot of good for the planet.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one a while back and started making soybean loaves. Good ideas, but wow, were some of the original recipes heavy on the stomach. Wonder if they've changed them over the years.

[Neha Gandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

good messages, boring format, feels outdated but also it is outdated so idk how unfair that comment is