in ecuador who produce the world's most expensive chocolate. we visit young herders in lesotho, who are being given the chance to learn to read and write. but first head to new zealand, where dairy farmingngs jeopardizing the water quali. global meat t consption is on the se..

on average, wes eaan consume around 41 kilos per year. in 2017 alone, 322 million tons of beef, pork and poultry were produced worldwide. and that requires a lot of animals. our planet has more than 720 million pigs, nearly a billion cattle, and 23 billion chickens, many of which h are forced t toe in overcrowded cages or stalls. and vast areas of land are royed lenimal or to be usused as grazing pastures. meanwhile, the urine and feces of livestock are contaminating soils and waterways. gny, for instance, 208 billion liters of liquid manure were sprayed onto fields last year with terrible consequences for biodiversity. reporter: joyce hanna still washes h her vegetables in watr from t the tap, but t she won't drink it a anymore.

not afr wh she w went throh.h. in 2 2016,he andnd 50 othersrsn the town of f havelock nororthe down with gastroenteritis. the cause -- campylobacter in the tap p water. joyce: i felt so ill, i pray that godould take me hom becae i justelelt i uldn't handle it any loer. he dn't. iroved, but bua wholsix or eight months, i got terrible stochch cramamps. repopoer: now, she onldrininks bottled war.r. the tap wawater here is s heal chloririnated ter animal feces it's a somberastntw zealand's 100% pure image. joycyce: it's not t true no. and unfortunaty theyeye findnding out thatat the riverd the lakes arare not as pure as they used to be. i probablyly shouldn't s say t, but it is s the truth. reporter: bathers s hoping fora quicick dip are inincreasing mt wiwi signs likike this.

according to many new zealanders, these are the main culprits -- cows. over the past 15 yearsrs, the coununtry has switched from sheep-breeeeding to herdrdig cattttle. it's highly y profitable, , ss farmer ryan o'sullivan. the chese e in pticulalar e big fans of milk powder from meadow-grazing, happy new zealand cows. e country now has 6.6 millioion of thehem, and just t 4.7 miln peopople. ryan: the' juss mefication arnd but i guess as dairy farmers, we need an opportunity toto corret some of the water quality issues, and 99.9% of dairy farmers are also environmentalists. rerter: the oblem is this -- one w producesp to 50 kis ofrine and fes per day mu of which eps into t ground and contamites the ground watater

new zealaland's groundnd waters armiming nrate l levs, and drinking wat i is ofn heavavily tread to c comt it. ryan'sullivan says t c count needs time to fi a sololion. ter all,l,he dairy sector employaround 5000 0 peop. ryan: dairiry is a $15 b billn inindustry it would bgreat if whad an apple soware compa or an orac to reple dairy,nd th we woul't have rely on it like we d but we dot have many oth options f industry and enenterprise in n this cou, anand we're veryry good at da. reporter: bubut that comes ata price. signs s like this onone are pod all l too frequent n retotoo many of ththe countrys wateterways. martin t taylor works s fora hunting anand fishing asassocin ththat is also c committed o environmnmental protecectio. he sayays toxic algagae are ag problem. up to three quarters of native fish species face extinction.

martin: i have to go on my phone and see whether this is a safe ririr or streaeam. itit shoul't b be the new w zed way. having t to google to o see whr you're going to o poison your d byby going intnto a stream o ot day isis not whanew zeand'ss abouout. and it's s not what pl overseasnkashiew zeaealand's about. repoport: lake ellesmere, ononef the most polluted lakes s in te untry. it's fed by stres s and rirs that flolow past vast t cattle papastures. for year the powerful milk lobbhas s pushed envirironmentl activiststs aside, sayays marn taylor.. pure, crystatal-clear teter hs lo been n ered a aational eaeasure, something ne zealanders are pudud of or were. martrtin: everyonene sayw zealand's 100% pure. no, nono, we've 100%0% failed. we've e let the situtuation ha. and itit hasn't justst bn the la nine years o of a nationalal government, it w was the previs labourur gnment as well.l. reporterer: steppes asas far ae eye can see. much of the canterbury region once looked like this.

bubut things have chananged. exextense irirrigaon systetems provide ththwater necessary for luscious g grass to grgrow - pastures for more cows. the water is taken from the rivers, leaving them more vulnerable to environmental damage. ryan o'sullivan says there is nothing wrong withth using the water fofor irrigationon. ryan: as soon as that water hits thoceaean, is wortrthls. so it only m makes sense f fore ececonomic well-l-being of a c y toto utilize thahat water fr econonomic gain. reporter: he says wherththere is grs, theheres less g gund erosion, and that fafarmers nw cultivivate many riverbas andd use less fertilizer. whwhat more, m mern technology allows for more precise targetg and lessasteteful dosing of wateinin farng. e harsh iticism,e says, not juified. ryanit is unir and is not constructive and instead of bmiming uand throrong stones at us, whyonon't thth come and see usnd w we can wowo together as a comninity to fifind o what t thproblem and

fix itththat'srustrarang. report: babackt lakeke elsmerere. two years o,o, theovernmnmt announced itouould iest 6060 million eus inin pjects to improve fresh-r r qualy. a drop in ththe ocean, sayays mn taylor. he sees justnene answeto t the crisis, anand it has ecoconomic consequencnces. martin: less dairy? i mean yes, it does mean less dairy. it means l less cows, less mil, and d maybe farmrmers having t o switchch to somethining els. but that's the way it is. they've gogot to accept t that. now jujust because some people e mamaking money, , doesn't meanl ththe rest of usus should havo puput up with a a poisoned environment. reporter: : by 2040, the vernment wants 9 of alalnew zealanwawaterso be c can enouough tswim i in. step o o on their list, lowering standards, with instant result overght,t, watways h havbecome dramatally clean. at least oper. host: each year around four million tons of cocoa are harvested worldwide. a third comes from ivory coast

in west africa, and other big producers are ghana, indonesia, nigeria, and ecuador. the cocoa tree is native to central amererica. and that's s still home toto e world's oldest and rarest cocoa variety. we visit a small plantation in western ecuador. reporter: at 5:00 a.m., even before his chickens have crowed, servio pachard is up and about, making his morning chocolate to the accompaniment of early bird song. he's a farmer. his family has been working the land for four generations. he is also raising six children on his own.

like his forefathers before him, servio wants to live at one with nature. no large-scale cultivation, no chemicals, organic farming, which makes him something of an eccentric. servio: everyone here says i'm crazy. but ultimately this isn't my land. it's borrowed. i am just visiting for 50, 60, or 70 years. it has to be here for future generations. reporter: for a long time, other farmers mocked servio for his dedication to small-scale cultivation. but things changed dramatically when it became clear that he was integral in saving the oldest and rarest variety of cocoa bean in the world -- the nacional. servio: this variety produces very little cocoa. most farmers want trees that generate a lot of fruit. but a low yield means a highly concentrated flavor.

the quality and the taste are exactly what we're looking for. reporter: ecuador is home to perhaps the world's oldest cocoa trees. and because e manyocals depend onon cocoa for s survival,arieis whwhich produce a a lot of fruie very popular, while ancient varieties are rapidly disappeariring. or were, until jerry toth came along. he moved to ecuador from the u.s. 10 years ago. he has spent many of them fighting deforestation. when he heard that the rare nacional cocoa bean was facing extinction, he went on its trail. that's when he met servio. servio told him about some particularly old trees in the remote pieda de plata valley. he knew that from his forefathers. although illiterate, they were very knowledgeable about local vegetation. servio: my grandmother was not

interested in a life in the kitchen. she was very tough. she loved working in the fields, always had her machete with her, she was very detd. reporter: and indeed, dna tests proved that a handful of the many thousands of trees were rare, original varieties. there is only 1% of such varieties left in ecuador. they produce very small amounts of high quality cacao. for decades, local people considered them worthless. but the fruit has become a luxurious treat. this is mindful chocolate consumption. jerry: give people a reason to kind of stop what they're doing. rather thahan just kind of poppg chocololate in their mouth and going on their way, to really kind of take in what they're doing and sit down and properly taste it the way you taste a special bottle of wine. reporter: and so, the world's most expensive cocoa is harvested right here. assuming, that is, that the two farmers don't devour it all themselves. jerry: well, we all do a good

job of eating all of our chocolate. reporter: it's the first harvest of the season. and servio's neighbors are feeling festive, too. they earn good money on the small amounts they harvest. they say they are paid twice as much as elsewhere. there's real pride in this special product. and servio is no longer a crazy tree-hugger, he's a local hero. each box is clearly labeled for random quality testing. there are regular checks to make sure these are really pure nacional cocoa beans. the local climate, with its extreme weather, heavy rain and warm temperatures, plays a key role in the way the beans taste. servio: the chocolate creates a taste explosion in the mouth. it lasts for a long time, too.

it's satisfying and you just want to keep eating it forever. reporter: in ecuador's capital quito, the beans are then transfsformed into chococolate r the e careful eye e of the gros third member, austrian carl schweizer. all of servio and jerry's hard work is now in his hands. carl: if you get the timing wrong, you end up burning thte cocoa bebeans. and d you can't make any chocole from them. reporter: carl came to ecuador after finishing school, to volunteer with street kids. now he makes chocolate, very special chocolate to be consumed slowly andre. carl: industrialization has caused the loss of so much flavor and quality. and for my generation, it's now time to protect and rediscover such things.

reporter: but it doesn't come cheaply. 310 euros for 50 grams. and the price won't fall until there are more nacional cocoa trees. that's one of the aims of the farmers here. several want to go the same way as servio, cultivating small amounts in a sustainable way. servio: at first it was just a dream. and then, it works. and that makes us very happy. it feels like e a real triump. reporter: after this good first harvest, the cocoa beans have to ferment, which takes a combination of time and servio's experience. but for today at least, it's time to relax. host: and now in global snack, we head to vietnam to taste

madame thuys' delicious dumplings. reporter: quang binh is a coastal province in vietnam. like everywhere in this cotrtry, pepeople here attatach a lot off importance t to good food.d. and theyey're proud ofof their l delicacies. just r rnd the corner from the rkrket herin d dong i, thehere is a smamall restauranant runy madame t thuy. she serves freshly made banh loc dumplings. they're so popular, the restaurant even has a small production line of workers. the dough is made from tapioca flour and hot water. it's kneaded for 10 minutes and then pressed in a pasta machine.

then the filling is added. madame thuy sells 5000 banh loc every day. the dumplings can be boiled, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, or fried. but the real secret to her success is the filling. which she, of course, makes herself. hien: it contains shrimp, pork, bamboo shoots and mu err mushrooms from our forest. the filling is seasoned d with salt, pepper and chili. reporter: the ingredients have to be very finely chopped and well mixed. madame thuy has learned to cook them to perfection, never overcooked and never too raw.

hien: my mother showed me how to make banh loc when i was still a child. later i started making them for myself, or as a gift for friends and relatives. and everybody said they were so delicious. so six years ago i decided to open my own restaurant. reporter: banh loc are a popular snack here in the province of quang binh. they're usually eaten in the morning or afternoon between meals. >> i've been eating banh loc since i was a little kid. they're really typical for our region and i love them. reporter: madame thuy gives her customers a quiet spot to snack and unwind, away from the bustling streets nearby.

host: it's a basic human right -- education. yet millions of children and young people still have no access to it. last year, a staggering 264 milliochilildren were unable to attend school. around halof them m live in sub-haharan africa.. in the sma countryryf lesotho, families often c can't aord d o send their kids to schoo and ere'e's a ortagege of schools, too. the result -- many children fail to gain even basic literacy skills. reporter: when he whistles, the herd follows. every day, jeremani takes these cows many kilometers through the highlands of lesotho, looking for grass and water. he'll be 14and he's's worked as herderor more thanan half his life. jeremani: every y y i'm out hehe

grazing the animals. i have to make sure they get enough to eat. i like the work. it's also the only way to survive up here. reporter: the cows jeremani tends belong to a farming family in semonkong, a small town in central lesotho. in exchange for his labor, he gets a roof over his head and he gets to keep a cow at the end of the year. the young teenager doesn't have time for school. his parents have died, so jeremani has to fend for himself. jeremani: this isn't my first job. but it's the first time i've been treated well. the last farmer i worked for, for exe,usdidn't pay me. i'm grateful things going better here. reporter: in lesotho, one in three boys of school-age works

full-time as a livestock herder, often miles away from their family, and without any hope of going to school full-time. most of the boys are illiterera, and wiwill likely remain so fr the restst of their lives. julius majoro is familiar with the situation. he had to leave school after second grade to earn money so he could look after his mother and two sisters. he says that's common in lesotho. but it wasn't the life he had hoped for. julius: it wasn't my intention to work as a shepherd. but because of the life circumstances, and poverty, i was supposed to work a shepherd. although it wasn't nice, because even the farmers were treating us worse than the dogs. they didn't even feed us. they treat us like their slaves. reporter: julius quickly learned

that not having an education can make it difficult to fight for your rights. over the years, he paid for both his sisters's and their children's schooling with h te momoney he earned as a shepher. he also arranged to aside a tiny bit of his pay until he could complete his own education. now, every evening, he shares his knowledge with the young herders in semonkong. when they finish tending to the animals for the day, they come to julius's shepherd school. jeremani is also here. they study reading, writing, and arithmetic. julius teaches on a voluntarily basis. he believes that a basic education can change the young herders' lives. julius: at the end of the day, have lost some of the sheep.y

and they didn't even know whether it's true or not. now i am still trying to change that. reporter: another subject is health, including aids prevention. it's an importan su lesotho, which has the second hihighest rate o of hiv infects worldwide. and a warm meal is sometimes provided, when there have been enough donations. for many, it's the only proper meal of the day. socializing is central to the time spent here. julius: it's lonely work. you have to care for the animals. then youou don't have timeme tok with other people. but it only happens here at the shepherd school. it's where they learn how to socialize, it's where they learn to speak with others, it's where they learn everything. reporter: to learn everything, the herders come from far and wide. jeremani walks ten kilometers

every evening to get here. jeremani: when i can read well and write well, i want to teach, too. i want to pass on what i can. reporter: but jeremani still has a long way to go. the next morning, he returns to ry ws k in the hills, like so many other livestock herdererhere in lesotho. >> i am m >> -- - a global teen. ♪

mubunga: i'm by the names of mubunga sharif mohammed, and i live in kasese, western uganda, and i'm 17 years old. at home we are six girls and two boys, yes. what makes me happy is playing music and scoring goals when i'm playing football. i would like to become a professional player, like messi,

neymar, and ronaldo. i'd like to play for arsenal and barcelona. the big global problems in the world are being without money, no friends and parents. >> who careses about the f flr industry's's destructiveve imp? >> i do. >> who cares about lgbt ririghs in australiaia? >> i do. >> who c cares aboutut femae empowerment in senegal? >> i do. all: and that's y i follow d dw

but as ever, we'd love to hear what you thought. so write to us at global3000@dw.com or on facebook. see you next time. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is resnsible for its n content accuracy. vi]si

?o?oññgccgcgggccgggcccccccccccc0 -in moscow, political and subversive art is essential. -political art is making a new discourse and it's the only way for artists to be free. -as modern russian artists, we feel like we are aliens here. -if we are not fighting for our freedom, there is no freedom.