Against the Grain

Lentils and Countercultural Eating on the Palouse, 1916-2024 

In 1989, Pullman, Washington, was named the Lentil Capital of the World. The reason was simple: the Palouse region produced 98 percent of the lentils grown in the United States. Most were shipped to customers in Europe, Africa, and Asia, where they had been enjoyed for hundreds and even thousands of years. Lentils have deep roots in cultures worldwide, but how did they arrive in the Palouse? To answer that question, one must consider countercultural communities in the United States—vegetarians, vegans, back-to-earthers, environmentalists, activists, and pacifists who chose a diet that lay outside of the norm.