Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It by Anna Lappe

The ongoing debate over how to combat climate change has been missing a key component - sustainable eating. In Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It, Anna Lappe offers an urgent yet hopeful call to action. Her comprehensive guide to the intersection between diet and climate change is both inspiring and motivating.

The book begins by providing a foundational understanding of the current food system and the climate crisis. Lappe explains how the industrial animal production system is a leading source of global greenhouse gas emissions, how land-intensive animal foods heavily degrade soils and how intensively-farmed monocrops are using up resources rapidly. She also makes the connection between massive food companies and the multinational trade agreement TPP, and explains why industrial agriculture is a direct contributor to agribusiness monopolies.

From here, Lappe dives into assessing the individual’s role in the food system. She encourages readers to stop relying on corporate giants, instead encouraging them to turn to sustainable alternatives. She offers guidance on moving away from animal foods, buying organic and local, and focusing on plant-based eating. She emphasizes the importance of eating seasonally, and rejects the all-or-nothing approach, acknowledging it may be hard for many to adopt a fully vegan lifestyle.

The book also examines the broader food system and its political implications. Lappe argues for rethinking who plays a role in ensuring food security and nutrition, discussing how smallholder farmers and formerly marginalized communities can be empowered under a model of social and environmental justice.

The book concludes with a powerful call to action. Lappe calls readers to pressure governments to implement stronger laws on animal agriculture, such as supporting international efforts to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. She suggests economic incentives for sustainable agriculture and reducing meat consumption, and outlines the importance of a living wage for food production.

Diet for a Hot Planet is an essential read for anyone looking to understand the direct connection between diet and climate change. Lappe motivates readers not only to act on their own, but also to push for change on a political level. With both scientific evidence and inspiring actionable steps, Lappe effectively argues that sustainable eating is our last best hope to combat the climate crisis.