The floating dairy farm in the Netherlands, opened in the Port of Rotterdam in May 2019 as a way to produce food sustainably without the usual tie to land, has changed direction again.
Recently the owners put the farm up for sale after a disagreement with the local environmental department, which said a newly fitted floor did not comply with regulations. The 28 resident Dutch MRI cows were taken off the farm and were to be sold, and milk production was to cease.
As it now stands, the farm is not being sold. The cows have been moved to several farms around 20 km away, and a vertical salad-growing enterprise occupies the basement of the floating structure.
Peter van Wingerden, who developed the project with Minke van Wingerden on a €4 million investment, confirmed that milk and other dairy production were continuing and that the vertical farm was performing well. He said the cows had been transported to a few different farms near the floating farm.
He attributed the dispute to certification rather than emissions. According to Peter, the farm has the lowest emissions possible because of its modern technology and system, but the rubber floor is German and holds no certificate of compliance in the Netherlands.
Milk now reaches the farm along a stainless steel pipeline running from the quay. A regular dairy truck delivers from the dairy twice a week, at roughly 1,500 L per batch. Peter noted that the distance from the milk supplier is just 20 km, so transport time is short.
From cows to conveyor trays
The original Floating Farm was designed with on-site feeding, milking, slurry handling and dairy production. Its milk and dairy produce were sold to local consumers through vending machines at the farm, and the concept drew hundreds of thousands of curious visitors from around the world to the port to see the cows at work.
The vertical unit in the basement is a fully controlled, automated growing space built on three layers with conveyor belts, combining grow-room and warehouse technology. Four types of crops are grown there: micro-greens harvested every two weeks, herbs every three weeks, leafy greens every four weeks, and edible flowers every four to five weeks.
Those crops are turned into tea, pesto, herb-infused salts and herb-infused whey, alongside the farm's Parmigiano cheese. Because the unit sits below the waterline of the floating structure, it is cooled by the surrounding water.
There is a further deadline ahead. According to Peter, the Floating Farm will have to leave the port in just over two years, as the entire area is to become residential. "This is not the vision we initially started off with, but we are coping with this system," he said.