Jill Rosenbaum Meyer

Just over 50 years ago, on June 26, 1976, I graduated from high school. Along with 700 other “bicentennial seniors,” I received my diploma on a stage decked out in red, white, and blue bunting celebrating the country’s 200th birthday. Though almost all white, my classmates and I were not homogeneous. Our town, Trumbull, Conn., was heavily blue-collar. But it was changing quickly, as large corporations like General Electric moved their headquarters and executives into the area.

The contraceptive pill, approved in 1960, had a profound political, economic and social impact on modern America. The pill gave many women something earlier generations lacked: the ability to plan when to have children. Before it became available, many women married young and had children soon after, often with limited control over timing. As access expanded, so did options. In 1965, the Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v.

When Frances Moore Lappé began asking why there was hunger in the world, she uncovered a system built on waste and inequality. Her search for answers led to “Diet for a Small Planet,” a book that blended political insights with plant-based recipes that helped introduce vegetarian eating to Americans. In this short video, Lappé describes how examining the limits of the planet’s food supply led her to see that reducing the focus on livestock production could free up resources for millions of people.