Feast or Famine

Feast or Famine: Climate on the Table

Sponsored by POW

With support from Athletic Brewing

First Episode Launches on YouTube April 23, 2026

What happens to the food on our plates as the climate continues to change? Feast or Famine: Climate on the Table is a new short film series from Chef Chris Cosentino in partnership with Protect Our Winters (POW) with support from Athletic Brewing that centers on that question.

Feast or Famine explores the urgent and deeply personal intersection of climate change and our food systems. As both a celebrated chef and passionate cyclist, Chris brings a unique perspective — riding alongside the very farms, ranches, and fisheries where he sources his ingredients, and witnessing firsthand the destruction that wildfires, drought, floods, and extreme weather have inflicted on California's food systems. This issue is not unique to California. There's an old saying, "As California goes, so goes the nation." A large percentage of the country’s food comes from California, and extreme weather due to climate change is affecting the entire world. 

For Chris, the connection between cycling, food, and climate change is not abstract — it's personal. Cyclists know all too well how extreme weather forces trail closures to prevent erosion and damage, just as a farmer cannot drive a tractor into a rain-saturated field to plant or harvest our food. These are two worlds that share the same vulnerability, and the same foundation: healthy soil and clean water. It is precisely that soil and water that climate change is putting at risk — and that is what this series sets out to explore.

The series will feature five short films, each diving into a different area of our food system through insightful conversations with the producers, growers, and makers on the front lines of climate change. Soil and water specialists provide additional scientific context and perspective. Together, these expert voices paint a vivid and urgent picture of the human toll behind extreme weather, unpredictable seasons, increasingly precarious water supplies, and rising food prices. The five episodes will also be woven together into a single short documentary — telling the full, powerful story of how climate change is transforming our food systems from the ground up.

Each episode focuses on a distinct area of food production. Seafood explores how warming and acidifying waters are threatening fisheries and oyster farming. Wine examines how rising temperatures, water issues, and wildfires are transforming viticulture. Meat looks at how extreme heat, water scarcity, and shifting grazing lands are challenging cattle ranching. Vegetables visits produce farms where drought, flooding, and unpredictable seasons are forcing growers to adapt in real time. Finally, Restaurants brings the conversation to the kitchen, where chefs confront the difficult choices that climate change is forcing onto menus.

Feast or Famine calls on all of us to know where our food comes from, make more thoughtful food choices, and join the movement for climate action. The food we love — and the planet we depend on — is worth fighting for. We hope you'll follow along and help us spread the word.

~Chris Cosentino, Tatiana Graf, & Blake Smith