Our insatiable appetite for meat, eggs and cheese means there are billions of chickens, pigs and cows the world over. One consequence: animal agriculture is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants like ammonia and nitrogen.

In Europe, governments are starting to crack down—demanding farms dramatically cut the size of their herds to meet environmental goals. Farmers are, to put it mildly, furious. 

Bloomberg reporter Diederik Baazil joins this episode from Amsterdam to talk about how farmer’s protests against the new rules are boiling over in the Netherlands. And Wes also catches up with reporter Agnieszka de Sousa, Bloomberg’s “food czar” based in London,  for a look at how this problem has spread across Europe–and possible ways to fix it. 

Learn more about this story here: https://bloom.bg/3FgxSSL

Listen to The Big Take podcast every weekday and subscribe to our daily newsletter: https://bloom.bg/3F3EJAK 

Have questions or comments for Wes and the team? Reach us at bigtake@bloomberg.net.