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Summary
Summary
Beyond what we already know about "food miles" and eating locally, the global food system is a major contributor to climate change, producing as much as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. How we farm, what we eat, and how our food gets to the table all have an impact. And our government and the food industry are willfully ignoring the issue rather than addressing it.
In Anna Lappé's controversial new book, she predicts that unless we radically shift the trends of what food we're eating and how we're producing it, food system-related greenhouse gas emissions will go up and up and up. She exposes the interests that will resist the change, and the spin food companies will generate to avoid system-wide reform. And she offers a vision of a future in which our food system does more good than harm, with six principles for a climate friendly diet as well as visits to farmers who are demonstrating the potential of sustainable farming.
In this measured and intelligent call to action, Lappé helps readers understand that food can be a powerful starting point for solutions to global environmental problems.
Author Notes
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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lappe, daughter of green food writer Frances Moore Lappe, evokes her mother's 1971 classic, Diet for a Small Planet, to critique industrial farming and its carbon costs and give her own updated, upbeat prescription for a climate-friendly food system. Chock-full of statistics, how-to lists, and stories from her wide-ranging investigative travels, Lappe's book proposes a farming method that is "nature mentored, restorative, regenerative, resilient, and community empowered"; and a diet to reduce carbon and cool the planet. "Put plants on your plate," she advises; go organic, avoid packaging, eating out, and wasting food. Much of this will sound familiar to Michael Pollan's readers, and unfortunately, Lappe pales by comparison. Her stories tend to be shallow, unfinished, and sometimes marginally relevant, and her prose is sloppy. And although the book's message may have been ripe when Lappe began her research, extensive media coverage on the subject since may have put this book past its freshness date. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*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.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
Diet for a Hot Planet must be read by everyone interested in climate change and each person's contribution to this problem. Writer Lappe (Small Planet Institute) provides an in-depth analysis of the global food industry's greenhouse gas production. She completely addresses the valid argument that food has an enormous effect yet gains very little attention in the media and in the scientific community. The author discusses every aspect of food growth, ranging from livestock, corporate and organic farming, and transportation to genetic engineering and packaging. She uncovers the hidden costs and frailties of the current system while providing positive steps that individuals can take to minimize their impact. This reviewer agrees that the situation is alarming and needs a thorough vetting, but a more balanced perspective might hold more sway since black-and-white views seem to result in polarization rather than consensus. Extensive notes, a list of resources, and bibliography provide additional information. The impact of global food production has been ignored for too long in the discussion of how humans affect climate change. Lappe clearly rectifies this problem. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Libraries serving academic audiences, two-year technical program students, and general readers, all levels. M. Schaab Maine Maritime Academy
Kirkus Review
MSN "Practical Guide for Healthy Living" host Lapp 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, Lapp writes, we are faced with either supporting or resisting industrial food production. So-called conventional food production and distributionecologically and economically fragilecontributes 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. Lapp 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 stabilityeat real foods, mostly plants, from organic, local sources. Yes, Michael Pollan owns this territory, but Lapp 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.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Until recently, conversations about climate change have often overlooked the global food systems impact; this book is designed to change that. Lappe, whose mother wrote the now-classic Diet for a Small Planet in 1971, asserts that global food production accounts for as much as 30 percent of human-caused global warming effects. Contending that Western-style industrial agriculture causes most of the damage, the author proposes numerous ways big agricultural companies can improve their environmental track records. She rightly points out that consumers wield tremendous power in forcing companies to change, and she provides a helpful list of principles for a climate-friendly diet. Unfortunately, most of Lappe's arguments are one-sided rather than nuanced, a disappointment with such a complex public policy issue. Lacking scientific rigor, the book should be viewed as a consciousness raiser for general readers rather than those in an academic setting. VERDICT Lappe is a well-known environmental advocate, and her book will be heavily marketed; expect demand. Readers seeking practical advice on cooking and eating in environmentally healthy ways may prefer Mark Bittman's Food Matters or Kate Heyhoe's Cooking Green.-Kelsy Peterson, Prairie Village, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. xi |
| Introduction: Why This Book? | p. xiii |
| How to Read This Book | p. xxi |
| I Crisis | |
| The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork | p. 3 |
| The Shape of Things to Come | p. 42 |
| II Spin | |
| Blinded by the Bite | p. 59 |
| Playing with Our Food | p. 85 |
| Capitalizing on Climate Change | p. 115 |
| III Hope | |
| Cool Food: Five Ingredients of Climate-Friendly Farming | p. 129 |
| Myth-Informed: Answering the Critics | p. 151 |
| The Hunger Scare | p. 165 |
| The Biotech Ballyhoo | p. 174 |
| 10 Eat the Sky: Seven Principles of a Climate-Friendly Diet | p. 201 |
| 11 Beyond the Fork | p. 230 |
| Conclusion | p. 249 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 253 |
| Notes | p. 255 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 283 |
| Action & Learning Resources | p. 287 |
| Index | p. 297 |
