Culture, Food, and Climate Collide at UN Week Conversation

Support + Feed founder Maggie Baird made a sweeping case for plant-based food as one of the most potent — and most underfunded — tools in the climate fight during a Climate Week conversation at Axios House. Interviewed by Axios senior energy reporter Ben Gaiman, Baird laid out a strategy that links concert tours, federal farm policy, and a new TV show to the goal of shifting how Americans eat.

• Support + Feed founder calls food the climate issue hiding in plain sight, noting only 7% of climate funding targets food systems despite their outsized emissions
• Disinformation campaigns funded by animal agriculture lobbies — anti-bean, anti-oatmeal, anti-seed oil messaging — named as a major barrier to plant-based adoption
• Farm Bill reform, school nutrition changes, and subsidy equity outlined as concrete federal policy asks
• New show "Climate Kitchen" announced, covering plant-based cooking, induction stoves, heat pumps, and ocean science with Sylvia Earle
• Concert partnerships with Billie Eilish, Hayley Williams, and Metallica drive plant-based food drives and 30-day pledges to tens of thousands of fans

Why it matters: Food systems are among the largest contributors to global emissions, yet receive a fraction of climate investment. Baird's organization is betting that cultural influence — not lectures — can move behavior at scale.