With a spotlight on the Brazilian Amazon, where agriculture drives a significant chunk of Brazil's deforestation and planet-warming emissions, food has become a key issue for many activists, lobbyists, scientists and country leaders at United Nations Climate talks, known informally as COP30.

There’s been some beef.

Protesters have gathered outside a new space at COP, the industry-sponsored “Agrizone,” to call for a transition toward a more grassroots food system, while hundreds of lobbyists are attending the talks. Vegan groups have marched through the streets of Belem past street vendors searing sizzling cuts of asado gaucho, named for the cowboys across South America famous for their livestock farming. And at a COP that was supposed to center the ecosystems and cuisines of the Amazon, elites from the Global North have called for climate spaces to go vegetarian or vegan.

This comes at a climate conference focused on moving away from lofty agreements and toward concrete action. Agriculture-themed days are on the schedule for Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The food system is thorny because while it accounts for about a third of emissions worldwide, it's also layered with cultural significance and deeply held personal beliefs. But many of the debates at this COP are less about exactly what those choices are for individuals, and more about the system: how exactly to grow food sustainably, and who should be deciding what that even means.

Even before this COP started, celebrities stirred the pot.

Prince William got into a tiff with Saulo Jennings, a chef from northern Brazil and a UN gastronomy ambassador who refused to cook a fully vegan menu for an environmental awards ceremony, wanting instead to highlight the culturally important rainforest fish called pirarucu.

Then world-famous musician Paul McCartney then criticized COP30 event organizers for putting meat on the conference menu, likening it to offering cigarettes at an event on cancer prevention.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization released multiple reports this week detailing the latest research on the specifics of how climate change, agriculture and food are interconnected. They found that the vast majority of money dedicated to addressing climate change goes to causes other than agriculture. But they didn't offer a one-sized-fits-all answer to how that money should be spent or what specific foods people should be eating.

“All the countries are coming together. I don’t think we can impose on them one specific worldview,” said Kaveh Zahedi, director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at FAO.

Research has generally shown that a plant-based diet can be better for health and the planet. But people in developed countries tend to contribute more to climate change with their dietary choices, and higher-income people have more options to eat a healthy diet without meat. Many in poverty around the world, though, who are hardest hit by climate change, depend on animal sources of protein for survival.

"We have to be very, very aware and conscious of those nuances, those differences that exist,” Zahedi said.

When world leaders gather to duke it out on the politics of climate change every year, they spend much of their time in a giant, artificial city that gets deconstructed as soon as the talks are over.

This year, in the alternate universe of the Agrizone, attendees step into a world of immersive videos and carefully curated exhibits with live plants and food products. They can spend a day on the research farm that Brazilian national agricultural research corporation Embrapa built to showcase what they call low-carbon farming methods for raising cattle, and growing crops like corn and soy as well as ways to integrate cover crops like legumes or trees like teak and eucalyptus.

Positioning her industry as offering solutions needed especially in the Global South where climate change is hitting hardest, "we need to be part of the discussions in terms of climate funds," said Ana Euler, executive director of innovation, business and technology transfer at Embrapa. “We researchers, we speak loud, but nobody listens.”

A DeSmog analysis showed that more than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists are in attendance, an increase from last year and a contingent larger than those of several major economies, according to Rachel Sherrington, who carried out the investigation. About a quarter of them are attending with badges provided by their countries, and a small subset are allowed in negotiation rooms.

Around 2,000 visitors have checked into the Agrizone every day since COP30 started, with over 10,000 unique vistors signing in, said Gabriel Faria, on Embrapa's communications team. They've given tours to the Queen of Denmark, COP president André Corrêa do Lago and other Brazilian state and local officials.

“The message that we would like to send to the world is like, this is only the beginning. No more COP without AgriZone,” Euler said.

On a humid evening last week as COP kicked off, a group of activists gathered on the grassy center of a busy roundabout in front of the Agrizone to call for food systems that prioritize good working conditions and sustainability and for industry lobbyists to not be allowed at the talks.

As Indigenous people push for their voices to be heard at a COP that was supposed to be about them, some are also calling for countries to better take into consideration their knowledge of land stewardship.

“We have to decolonize our thoughts. It’s not just about changing to a different food,” said Sara Omi, from the Embera people of Panama and president of the Coordination of Territorial Leaders of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests.

“The agro-industrial systems are not the solution," she added. "The solution is our own ancestral systems that we maintain as Indigenous peoples."

AP Video by Joshua A. Bickel

Produced by Julián Trejo Bax

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.