Celebrating 50 years of 'Diet for a Small Planet' with Frances Moore Lappé and daughter Anna Lappé

Vegetarian and vegan options are standard on restaurant menus these days. But that wasn’t the case decades ago.

One book sits at the center of generational change in food and eating: Frances Moore Lappé‘s “Diet for a Small Planet.” First published in 1971, the book argues that a plant-centered approach promotes healthy people and a healthier planet.

Since then, “Diet for a Small Planet” has sold 3.5 million copies and gone through 10th and 20th-anniversary editions. For the new 50th anniversary version, Moore Lappé’s daughter, Anna Lappé, brought the original recipes into the 21st century.

For Moore Lappé, the recipes are central to the book.

“The book is an invitation to enjoy, to experiment, to be healthier, to really excite people about this way of eating,” Moore Lappé says, “and not thinking of it as giving up, but as embracing.”

The book includes tasty, filling recipes like Frankie’s Feijoada, which Lappé only slightly tweaked. Some updated recipes now include butter