Four hundred years after monks transformed a patch of marshlands in northwest Italy into rice fields, farmer Alice Cerutti has restored a third to their natural state, prioritising biodiversity over crop yield. Golden rice fields stretch across the Vercelli plain between Milan and Turin, a parcelled landscape broken only by the wood and wetlands created by Cerutti, now home to rare birds and insects.
"We have planted over 10,000 native plants, such as oaks, alders, ash, and hornbeams. It is amazing to see how quickly nature responds," Cerutti told AFP, as she stood in a coppice set around a natural spring. "Since the first trees were planted, there has been a spectacular increase in butterflies, dragonflies, and biodiversity in general," said the 43-year-old, who took over running the family's Cascina Oschina farm in 2012.
