We’re taking a break today for the holiday. Here’s a favorite episode from December that you might have missed–and one that’s still very much in the news. We’ll be back on Monday with a new episode. Have a great weekend. And thanks for listening!

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. 

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This podcast is produced by the Big Take Podcast team: Supervising Producer: Vicki Vergolina, Senior Producer: Kathryn Fink, Producers: Mo Barrow, Rebecca Chaisson, Michael Falero and Federica Romaniello, Associate Producers: Sam Gebauer and Zaynab Siddiqui. Sound Design/Engineers: Raphael Amsili and Gilda Garcia.