Climate Change vs. Coffee, Wine, and Chocolate ☕️🍷🍫 with Sam Kass

32 snips

Oct 10, 2025

In this lively discussion, Sam Kass, former White House chef and nutrition advisor, reveals the growing climate threats to our favorite foods like coffee, wine, and chocolate. He highlights the disproportionate burden on smallholder farmers and the need for greater awareness of agriculture's environmental impact. Kass shares insights from his recent book, emphasizing culture's role in food systems and the urgency for practical solutions. He touches on the historic White House garden and concludes with a hopeful vision of diverse, plant-forward diets as climate solutions.

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INSIGHT

Specialty Crops Face Rapid Shifts

Climate is already harming specialty crops like coffee, wine, and chocolate, shifting where they can be grown.
These losses will make such items scarcer and elevate cultural and economic impacts worldwide.

ANECDOTE

Champagne In England, Cava Workers Laid Off

Sam Kass recounted champagne growers buying land in England and Spain cava producers laying off workers after grape losses.
He used these examples to show real economic and cultural disruptions already occurring.

INSIGHT

Chocolate Growers Face Existential Risk

Chocolate production is concentrated near the equator and smallholder farmers face disproportionate climate risk.
Modeling shows major chocolate-growing regions may become unsuitable by 2050, threatening livelihoods.

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Food is a major driver of our environmental problems. It uses ~38% of Earth’s land, drives ~70% of our water use, and emits ~22-34% of our greenhouse gas pollution globally. I know it’s not popular to say it, but a lot of that impact is driven by beef and dairy.

On the one hand, agriculture is driving deforestation and warming the planet. And on the other hand, our changed climate is determining what foods we can continue to grow and where.

So, this week I’m sharing what turned out to be, notwithstanding those terrible stats I just rattled off, an utterly delightful conversation with food mega nerd Sam Kass.

Sam was Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition in the White House during the Obama administration, and he was also White House chef. He is the founder of TROVE and a partner in Acre Venture Partners. In 2012, he helped create the American Chef Corps, which is dedicated to promoting diplomacy through culinary initiatives. And he has a new book that just came out on October 7 called The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis.

This conversation, recorded live during Climate Week in NYC at an event organized by PlanetFWD, is a sneak peak into what Sam covers in the book — from what our last supper might be missing (sorry to the coffee, chocolate and wine lovers), the enormously important role of culture, stories from his time in the White House (like the organic vegetable garden he created with FL Michelle Obama), and how what we eat and how we farm can be SOLUTIONS.

And I can’t miss the chance to say that it is my fervent belief that the climate movement needs more dinner parties! So when you’re done listening, make a plan to gather with good people over nourishing food and conspire about implementing climate solutions.

Notes:

If you’re enjoying the show, please help others find us — follow, rate, review, tell your crew! ✅

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

Special thanks to Julia Collins and the team at PlanetFWD for hosting this live taping. This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

Bon appetite, Earthlings 🌎 xo

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