Diet for a Small Planet
Frances Moore Lappe was a young researcher at the University of California, Berkeley when she wrote Diet for a Small Planet, an argument that the industrial meat system wastes most of the protein it produces. The book lays out, in plain numbers, how much grain it takes to produce a pound of beef and traces the global hunger crisis to choices about land, feed, and policy rather than to a shortage of food. The second half of the book is a cookbook of low-meat and meatless recipes, organized around what Lappe called complementary proteins from grains, beans, and dairy. Published by Ballantine in 1971, it sold more than three million copies and became one of the founding texts of modern vegetarian eating in the United States. Later editions revisited the science as nutrition research caught up to her ideas.
What you might want to know about Diet for a Small Planet
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A research-driven argument that a plant-centered diet can feed the planet, paired with recipes that use grains, beans, and dairy in complementary protein combinations.
Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs reports that he read Lappe's book in 1971 and that it cemented his commitment to a vegetarian diet, a shift that shaped his eating habits for the rest of his life.
Lappe revisited the science in later editions and walked back her original emphasis on protein combining, which newer research showed was not strictly required at every meal.
Diet for a Small Planet was written by Frances Moore Lappe, published in 1971 by Ballantine Books.
Diet for a Small Planet is 322 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Diet for a Small Planet takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Diet for a Small Planet is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.