Day 9: Today, I woke up with excitement as it was the day we finally got to see the cows at the floating farm! I quickly got ready, ate breakfast, and met with the group as we were taking public transportation to Floating Farm Rotterdam. We arrived just a bit late, but this did not diminish our site visit. We started off with a presentation on the importance of floating farms. Three major problems contribute to the implementation of Floating Farm Rotterdam: limited land space, urbanization, and climate change. On top of this, food systems are under pressure in the Netherlands. The country faces long periods of droughts then long periods of rain causing non-ideal food production conditions. Floating Farm Rotterdam consists of 3 floor with the bottom floor, basement, housing space for the vertical vegetable farm, cheese ripening, and date management and bio based materials. The ground floor is where rain and saltwater purification takes place, as well as dairy processing and manure/urine treatment. The top floor, my personal favorite, holds the organic feed mix and the cow shed, where all the cows live.
We first toured the basement, specifically the vertical vegetable farm. Here, the plants are rotated by a giant robot, and they are grown using grow lights. These grow lights are powered by solar; the solar panels near the farm supply 50% of all power the Floating Farm needs. Fun fact, having a vertical garden saves 85% of the water a horizontal garden needs. After the basement, we explored the ground floor. We were able to see one of the workers in the dairy production space, as well as workers unloading food scraps. These food scraps are used to feed the cows and come from local businesses to reduce food waste. Here, we also looked at the rain water collection and purification station. The rainwater is collected, purified, and given to the cows to drink, promoting healthy water circulation. We then traveled to the top floor, where we saw the cows in full action. The cows are living lavishly with a milking machine, a robotic maure collector, and an automatic feeding conveyor belt. Because this is a dairy farm, these 40 cows produce milk and can be used for meat in certain circumstances. The cows can choose to be on the farm or in the grassy patch below, and being on the farm does not negatively impact their mental health. Rather, they seem to enjoy their lives as their milk production continues to increase. Seeing the cows was amazing and fun despite the rainy weather. The milk the cows produce is sold in all different dairy variations at their on site market. The funds from this market go back into the business, and after seven years of being in business, they were finally able to break even with their original money spent.
After the Floating Farm, we took a water taxi to Dokhaven in the Port of Rotterdam to explore Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM). We quickly grabbed a bite to eat at the RDM Kantine before meeting with our tour guide. RDM was an old shipyard that has since been turned into an innovation hub, housing academic and business sides. First, we looked at the academic side, where the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Techniek College Rotterdam work with RDM, offering technical classes for students.
We then explored the business and entrepreneurial side of RDM, where I found a business that fancied my interests. The business, Paebble, is an aqueous mineral carbonation process executed using their technology. This process allows carbon dioxide to be captured and stored in building materials. Paebbl has set out to mitigate the emissions of the construction industry, as they are one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. We got to see and touch an example of this building material, which feels just like concrete! Afterwards, I did my own research and found this very helpful diagram, picture two.
Paebbl Website: https://paebbl.com/technology
Following RDM, we used public transportation to return to the hotel before having dinner. We decided to try this local Turkish restaurant, which was so amazing, fresh, and comforting. It was a perfect way to end our fun-filled day.
