This is a tale of two flooded farms – the first being one of many whose land is submerged on the Somerset Levels in England’s West Country, the second being in the Po Valley, in northern Italy. Somerset’s livestock and dairy produce enjoy an illustrious reputation. The lambs that graze the salt marshes, right up to the water’s edge, take the flavour of the wild grasses and herbs into their meat. I visited Henry Fisher’s farm some years ago, and watched the tide come on to the land, filling the gullies between fields, just lapping at the edge. A young lamb bent like a giraffe to nibble the grasses closest to the water. Fisher explained that they go for the ­pasture with the strongest taste of salt. They very rarely fall in, he said.I am wondering at the fa