She is the co-founder with daughter Anna Lappé of the Small Planet Institute (2002, Cambridge MA) and the Small Planet Fund. She is also co-founder with Joseph Collins of Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy (1975, Oakland CA), a founding councilor of the World Future Council (Hamburg, Germany, 2007), a member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture (2003), and advisory board member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Lappé is widely-known as the author of ;

• Diet for a Small Planet (1971),
• Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (2002)
• World Hunger: Ten Myths (2015)
• EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want (2017)
• Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want (2017).

She has been awarded 18 honorary doctorates, the Right Livelihood Award (1987), the James Beard Foundation “Humanitarian of the Year” (2008), the Nonino Prize (2011), etc.