By Richard Carter
In a soggy field between Amsterdam and The Hague, farmer Sander Roeleveld plows a small white combine harvester into his crops, gathering a grain never before harvested in the Netherlands: rice.
The surroundings could scarcely be more Dutch. Canals crisscross polders lying 2 meters (6.6 feet) below sea level. Windmills grace the horizon as cows—for centuries the country's agricultural staple—graze in the nearby grassland.
But the warming climate is allowing Dutch farmers to produce wine and now even experiment with rice, previously unthinkable in such a wet, temperate country.
And researchers behind the project hope rice cultivation could help address one of the country's most pressing environmental challenges: peat soils that are sinking as they dry out, pushin
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