The Floating Farm in Rotterdam, a Dutch project built to test new forms of sustainable food production without conventional land use, has changed direction again. After the owners put the facility up for sale amid a dispute with the local environmental department over a newly fitted floor, the farm is now not being sold. Its cows have been moved to several farms about 20 km away, and a vertical crop-growing enterprise is operating in the basement of the floating structure.
A revised operating model
The project was conceived by Peter and Minke van Wingerden, who invested €4 million to create a farm with on-site feeding, milking, slurry and dairy production facilities. It opened in May 2019 in the Port of Rotterdam as a futuristic attempt to produce food sustainably without the traditional tie to land. The farm produced milk and dairy products for local consumers, who could buy them from vending machines at the site. Hundreds of thousands of visitors travelled from around the world to see the cows at work.
Cows moved and milk supply adjusted
The dispute centred on a new floor. Peter van Wingerden said the farm had the lowest emissions possible because of its modern technology and system, but the rubber floor is German and has no certificate of compliance in the Netherlands. Initially, the 28 resident Dutch MRI cows were taken off the farm and were to be sold, and milk production was to stop. In the revised arrangement, the cows are at other farms nearby and production of milk and other dairy produce is continuing.
Van Wingerden confirmed that production of milk and other dairy produce was continuing and that the vertical farm was performing well. He said a regular dairy truck brings milk from the dairy to the farm twice a week, approximately 1,500 litres per batch, and that a stainless-steel pipeline runs from the quay to the farm. The distance from the milk supplier is just 20 km, giving a short transport time.
Vertical farm below the waterline
The vertical farm is a fully controlled, automated growing space with three layers, conveyor belts and a combination of grow-room and warehouse technology. Four types of crops are grown: microgreens harvested every two weeks, herbs every three weeks, leafy greens every four weeks and edible flowers every four to five weeks. The farm turns these crops into tea, pesto, Parmigiano cheese, herb-infused salts and herb-infused whey. The unit sits below the waterline of the floating farm and is cooled by the water, Van Wingerden said.
Port departure ahead
The Floating Farm will have to leave the port in just over two years because the entire area will become residential, Van Wingerden said. He described the current arrangement as different from the original vision but said the operation was coping with the system. The project therefore continues at the port for now with a different mix of dairy and crop production from the one first envisaged.