Hello! Today we travelled to Rotterdam, another city in The Netherlands. In comparison to Amsterdam, Rotterdam is a considerably more modern city. The city was destroyed in WWII and has since been rebuilt with high skyscrapers, modern public transportation, and an overall well planned layout. We took the train this morning, after some unfortunate delays, and arrived around noon. I really like how accessible public transportation is in this country.
After dropping our bags off in the hostel, we traveled to the very first floating farm. The process, from the concept of a sustainable farm, to the average grocer was shown to us in a presentation. This a cow farm that floats on top of a body of water. It is able to move up and down with the tide. The major advantage of this farm is it doesn’t take up land space, can be placed next to major cities on water, and is more sustainable overall. At the moment, this farm is just for cows. However, our presenter, Minke, mentioned that they have designs for chicken farms and vegetation farms. What I found interesting is if they are able to create an efficient plant farm, the design has potential to have a circular supply chain. This would be highly sustainable, as it will not need any outsourced materials. Currently the cows eat recycled beer broth, leftover bakery bread, and grass from the Feyenoord football pitch. This is super cool because it is the famous football club in Rotterdam. According to Minke, this helped there business gain recognition and educate kids about the importance of sustainability.
Next, we got to walk on the actual farm. While it did smell like manure, the farm was super cool. The cows have room to move around, eat, and live. Interestingly, the manure is collected by a Roomba-like vacuum. This is then separated into dry and wet to create fertilizer pellets and recycled water. Both of which makes the company more sustainable and generates profit. Additionally, the farm is powered by solar panels. One more business tactic that I found interesting is a large source of the revenue for the company is through tourism and their gift shop. They also sell delicious milk and a signature ginger buttermilk for drinking.
Afterwards, we took a boat cruise through the Rotterdam harbor. We got to enjoy the sun (finally!) and see the shipping docks. Rotterdam is the hub for transporting goods in The Netherlands. It was very cool to see the mechanisms that load the shipping barges.
Finally, we went to a delicious dinner of Kebabs. It was nice to have a full, hearty meal with the whole group. We also got to walk around the city afterwards. It was super interesting to see the difference in architecture from city to city. Tomorrow, we are going to a museum and looking at how the city attacks rising water levels on the coasts.
Until tomorrow, doei!
