Risotto rice under threat from flamingoes in north-eastern Italy

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/12/risotto-rice-paddies-flamingoes-ferrara-italy

Risotto rice under threat from flamingoes in north-eastern Italy

Farmers are seeking ways to fend off birds who are stirring up soil in flooded paddy fields in Ferrara province

Associated Press
Sat 12 Jul 2025 00.00 EDT

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Flamingos are relatively recent arrivals in the area, and have settled into the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna.

The birds aren’t targeting the rice seedlings but use their webbed feet to stir up the soil and snatch molluscs, algae or insects from the shallow water. The rice is collateral damage.
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The birds have been there since 2000, after drought in southern Spain sent them searching for nesting grounds farther east, according to Roberto Tinarelli, the president of AsOER, the Emilia-Romagna ornithologists’ association.

Previously, the flamingos had been based in lakes in north Africa, parts of Spain and some of the Camargue region in France, Tinarelli said.

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