meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep111: Lorenzo Fiori reports that climate change is threatening Italian food production, particularly cheese, due to drought and heat waves in the south, especially the Puglia region, where stressed cows are reducing milk production and impacting specialty chees

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lorenzo Fiori reports that climate change is threatening Italian food production, particularly cheese, due to drought and heat waves in the south, especially the Puglia region, where stressed cows are reducing milk production and impacting specialty cheeses like mozzarella and burrata. Milk cannot be shipped from the north because local water and hay are essential to the unique flavor of southern cheese. Fiori emphasizes that Italian food is a famous brand precisely because it belongs to its territory, criticizing pre-prepared sauces found in Brussels as inauthentic carbonara, which must be made fresh. In Milan, Christmas preparations are underway, with shop windows decorated festively and street lights scheduled to be switched on December 7th.
1947


Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

There's no better feeling than waking up surrounded by comfort from Dunelm, the home of your kind of cosy.

0:08.0

Keep the heat where you want it with our range of thermal curtains and cuddly hot water bottles.

0:15.0

Discover hundreds of snug ways to style up your space at your local Dunelm, or online with free click and collect in as little as two hours.

0:24.9

The home of your kind of cozy, Denelm.

0:27.8

The Home of Homes.

0:31.5

This is CBS, I on the World. I'm John Batchel.

0:34.9

I go to Milan, Italy.

0:42.8

My dear good friend Lorenzo Fiore reporting for us the news of the Mediterranean basin, where Italy is happily ensconced, and also Italy itself, especially

0:49.9

cheese. I learned from the New York Times headline. The climate is changing. Cows are stressed,

0:57.8

and Italy's cheesemakers are worried. Lorenzo, a very good day to you. Of course, we've worried

1:04.0

about cheese before. That summer that it was so hot and there was damage all the way through Italy, but especially, as I recall,

1:13.7

there was also a dearth of rain, like a drought in the north, and the rivers were receding,

1:20.2

and the salt water was coming up towards the fields that were raising very important crops.

1:26.9

So we've worried about climate before threatening the food of Italy.

1:31.1

Now there's a new concern that the climate has changed so much that the cheeses are threatened.

1:38.2

It has to do in the South.

1:39.7

What's happened, Lorenzo?

1:41.0

Good evening to you.

1:42.6

Good evening, good evening to the radio listener. Let me reassure the radio listener that

1:48.0

this season, winter season, or let's say we are still in autumn in the fall season, seems

1:54.0

to be in the normal. I mean that we are having cold weather, we are having rain, there is some snow

2:00.0

coming to the Alps. Even rain in the

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.