Wageningen University calculates that greenhouse gas emissions from Dutch peat soils account for about 2% to 3% of the country's total emissions. The same peatlands affect large parts of northern Europe, including Germany, Belgium and the Baltic states.

The only way to break the cycle is to keep the fields wet. Wet fields, however, cannot sustain grass for cows — which is where rice enters.

How does keeping peat wet help the climate?

Wet peat does not oxidize and release carbon. Rice paddies, kept flooded throughout the growing season, preserve the underlying soil while producing grain.

Julian Helfenstein, a 36-year-old researcher at Wageningen University and Research, leads the pilot alongside colleagues at nearby Leiden University. He frames the project as both climate adaptation and mitigation.

"Rice is an opportunity for this part of the world to adapt to climate change, so to grow something that previously wasn't possible," Helfenstein said. "But also to mitigate climate change because it stops this peat from degrading and emitting all the CO2 because you can keep it wet."

The team tests around 30 rice cultivars from Russia, China, Japan and Uzbekistan. Early indications favor varieties from northern Japan. The current harvest targets roughly three tonnes of short-grain rice suitable for sushi or risotto.

Are there trade-offs to growing rice on peat?

Yes. Flooded rice paddies typically emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, even as they preserve the peat. The researchers track CO2 and methane emissions from the rice plots against nearby grassland to verify that swapping one crop for the other actually reduces net warming.

"So far the results are promising," Helfenstein said, cautioning that the dataset remains small and the findings are preliminary.

He described the emotional pull of working on a solution rather than only diagnosing problems. "As an environmental scientist, you're always pointing to the problems," he said. "And then here's an opportunity for science to work also toward a solution. So I find that thrilling."

What happens next?

Guusje van der Vossen, 27, of the Wij Land association, which helps Dutch farmers transition to sustainable production, said local restaurants have already expressed interest in premium Dutch-grown rice.

She has eaten rice from a small experimental batch harvested last year. "It was a bit chewy, but also great," she said, with plans to make sushi and possibly sake from the new harvest.

The pilot remains tiny — 0.6 hectares — and scaling it up will require new harvesting equipment, milling infrastructure and, most importantly, longer-term evidence that the climate math holds.