Day 8 was composed of some of my favorite site visits, I think everytime I think a site visit is my favorite they just keep getting better.
We started out at a floating farm that had some cows and a farm underneath it. The whole farm is supported on a big piece of boyant concrete kind of like the floating village was. The main goal of the farm was to have a secondary source of farming which could still be used in the event of a flood, with a secondary goal of course being sustainability and land minimization. If there ever was a flood in the Rotterdam area you would be still be able to access the floating farm and use it to upkeep the population while water is cleared and food is limited. Since it was just a prototype they were just now breaking even on profit and they hope to expand over Europe in the future with cheaper and better models of the farm. To make that goal possible and sustainable at the same time the farm uses some smart tactics. To feed their cows they collect waste food from local businesses and grind it up, and they ensure that they collect the ratio of nutrients to keep the cows healthy. Honestly I don’t really see a huge for these types of farms in America. I like the adoption of local waste food for feed, but I just don’t think there’s enough spots that have flooding or even areas with enough water to make it a viable option over a typical land farm.
After some delicious raw meat sandwiches we had the second site visit of the day at RDM. It’s the technical college of Rotterdam, and it is operated in an old abandoned ship factory. Walking into the main space which is flooded with natural light and you can see all of the classrooms. The whole space made me a little bit jelous of all of their facilities and amenities but nonetheless it was amazing. We walked around their labs on the bottom floor but which was interesting but then we got to the business part. One of the main selling points of RDM is that they have a big connection between companies and students, so early in their careers students can get in touch and help out people in their industry of interest. The businesses had a warehouse where they could rent out space to develop from a small startup and get off their feet. One of my personal favorites was a startup that had a metal 3d printer and they were planning on developing an underwater workspace/housing in the ocean. I would say their warehouse at RDM is kind of like a big job fair and co-op combined and it would be something that would definitely be beneficial for students and companies alike.
