EPISODE · Jun 3, 2026 · 37 MIN
How Cows and Congress are Raising Your Grocery Bill
from Second Nature · host Commons
You don't have to look much further than your grocery receipt to see how climate change can affect our food supply chain. But some of the key drivers of climate change are sitting right in our carts. It's a chicken-or-egg debacle that we're happy to explore on this episode if it means understanding how we can create a more adaptable, equitable food supply chain. Farms are dealing with historic heat waves slashing wheat and maize yields, record rainfall collapsing corn harvests, sea level rise swallowing farmland on the East Coast, and disappearing pollinators that one-third of our food supply depends on. And we're paying the price. We hear from our community about how the rising price of groceries has meant making sustainability tradeoffs on what they buy at the store. Food insecurity and the climate crisis are also intertwined. Maggie Baird, founder of Support and Feed, helps us understand how the animal agriculture industry is at the center of many climate (and health woes), challenging us to rethink food traditions rooted in culture and family identity. To better understand how we got here, Commons founder Sanchali Seth Pal follows the money through animal agriculture subsidies. Episode rundown: (00:54) - How our food choices and the climate crisis feed each other (02:30) - How climate change is affecting food prices (04:41) - When sustainable food becomes a luxury you can't afford (09:07) - Animal agriculture, culinary tradition, and food inequity with Maggie Baird (27:49) - Our tax dollars are making meat cheaper? (33:59) - Changing what we eat can change the climate 📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.Episode CreditsListener contributions: Sophia Anderson, Jeanne, Mary Klene, Molly Barton, Katherine, Dom AltomariResearch : Makenna McBriertyEditing and engineering: Evan GoodchildHosting and production: Katelan Cunningham
What this episode covers
You don't have to look much further than your grocery receipt to see how climate change can affect our food supply chain. But some of the key drivers of climate change are sitting right in our carts. It's a chicken-or-egg debacle that we're happy to explore on this episode if it means understanding how we can create a more adaptable, equitable food supply chain. Farms are dealing with historic heat waves slashing wheat and maize yields, record rainfall collapsing corn harvests, sea level rise swallowing farmland on the East Coast, and disappearing pollinators that one-third of our food supply depends on. And we're paying the price. We hear from our community about how the rising price of groceries has meant making sustainability tradeoffs on what they buy at the store. Food insecurity and the climate crisis are also intertwined. Maggie Baird, founder of Support and Feed, helps us understand how the animal agriculture industry is at the center of many climate (and health woes), challenging us to rethink food traditions rooted in culture and family identity. To better understand how we got here, Commons founder Sanchali Seth Pal follows the money through animal agriculture subsidies. Episode rundown: (00:54) - How our food choices and the climate crisis feed each other (02:30) - How climate change is affecting food prices (04:41) - When sustainable food becomes a luxury you can't afford (09:07) - Animal agriculture, culinary tradition, and food inequity with Maggie Baird (27:49) - Our tax dollars are making meat cheaper? (33:59) - Changing what we eat can change the climate 📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.Episode CreditsListener contributions: Sophia Anderson, Jeanne, Mary Klene, Molly Barton, Katherine, Dom AltomariResearch : Makenna McBriertyEditing and engineering: Evan GoodchildHosting and production: Katelan Cunningham
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How Cows and Congress are Raising Your Grocery Bill
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