Forty years after her mother’s work changed the way we eat, Anna Lappé's Diet for a Hot Planet changed the way we think about food production and global warming.

Fifty years ago, Frances Moore Lappé's Diet for a Small Planet sparked a revolution in thinking about the social and environmental impact of what we eat. Ten years ago, her daughter, Anna Lappé, controversially picked up the conversation with Diet for a Hot Planet, examining another hidden cost of our food choices: the climate crisis. Lappé predicted that food system-related greenhouse gas emissions would be catastrophic unless we radically shifted the trends of what we ate and how we produced it. She exposed the political interests with a stake in our food system, and foresaw the spin food companies would use to avoid system-wide reform. She visited the pioneering farmers of a future food system where good could outweigh harm, demonstrating the potential of sustainable farming. She also offered six eternal principles for a climate friendly diet.

This measured and intelligent call to action is the perfect companion to the fiftieth anniversary edition of Diet for a Small Planet; like her mother before her, Lappé reminds us that food, and our perilously large food system, is still a powerful access point for solutions to the climate crisis.

Anna Lappé is the co-author of Grubb and Hope's Edge (with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé). She is currently host for MSN's Practical Guide to Healthy Living and is co-host for the public television series, The Endless Feast. Named one of Time magazine's "Eco-Who's Who," she is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute. Anna's writing has been published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, and Canada's Globe and Mail. She writes a bi-monthly column on sustainability for Spirituality and Health and contributes book reviews to the San Francisco Chronicle and the New Scientist. Her Web site is www.takeabite.cc.

“[This book] is a wake-up call to happy, complacent eaters, not unlike Rachel Carson’s iconic Silent Spring. Lappé shows how modern agriculture contributes to global warming and how we can and should work to adapt it but also eat around it. Like her mother, food activist and writer Frances Moore Lappé, Anna Lappé’s scope is global. This is not a book about where to get the best goat cheese. It’s about how to keep people around the world from starving while we in the Western world die of diabetes.” - Los Angeles Times

“Anna 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

“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, chef and owner of Chez Panisse

“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, author of 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?” - Raj Patel, author of STUFFED AND STARVED

“Anna Lappé has written a critique of our food system that will not make you lose your appetite, and a book about climate change that will actually give you hope!” - Jim Harkness, Director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

“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, author of RECIPE FOR AMERICA

“Responsibly researched and cogently articulated . . . 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.” - Booklist (starred review)

“Diet for a Hot Planet exposes the myths of industrial agriculture and focuses attention on the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in our current food system. It should be required reading for all environmental activists looking for practical steps to address climate change by reforming food production, processing, and distribution.” - Nevin Cohen

“This book has the power to lift us out of our despair and propel us toward a sustainable future. With the dexterity of a true story-teller, Anna Lappé clearly outlines the complexity in the connections between our food system, our health, and the health of our planet.” - Ana Joanesl

“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 Reviews

“This is an excellent book, well-worth the read, and likely to change our discourse about the role of sustainable agriculture not only as a source of food but as a way of mitigating the emissions of greenhouse gases.” - J Agric Environ Ethics, vol 24

Coverage from NPR