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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ibnanv" data-source="post: 23533000" data-attributes="member: 218596">The world's first floating farm making waves in RotterdamThe world's first floating farm making waves in Rotterdam<img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7B69/production/_103039513_floatingfarmlely__lely-astronaut-a5---barn-view-1-lr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />The floating farm will start with about 40 cows milked by robots The world's first offshore dairy  farm opens in the Port of Rotterdam this year, with the aim of helping  the city produce more of its own food sustainably. But will such farms  ever be able to produce enough to feed the world's growing urban  populations?A Dutch property company, Beladon, is launching the world's first "floating farm" in a city port.It  has built the offshore facility right in the middle of Rotterdam's  Merwehaven harbour and will use it to farm 40 Meuse-Rhine-Issel cows  milked by robots.Built-up urban areas may not seem like the most  sensible places to run farms, but reducing the distance food travels  before it reaches consumers' plates makes environmental sense as it  reduces transport pollution.And if the global population grows to 9.8 billion by 2050 as expected, 70% are forecast to live in cities - up from 55% today.<img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/F1C5/production/_103039816_floatingfarm.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />An artist's impression of how Beladon's floating farm will look when finished So urban indoor farms, where produce is grown vertically on stacks of  shelves under ultraviolet lights, are - literally - on the rise.Beladon's farm, which is on three levels and is anchored to the ocean  floor, is expected to open at the end of 2018 and produce about 800  litres of milk a day. Peter van Wingerden, an engineer at  Beladon, came up with the idea in 2012 when he was in New York working  on a floating housing project on the Hudson river.While there,  Hurricane Sandy struck, flooding the city streets and crippling its  transport networks. Deliveries struggled to get through and within two  days it was hard to find fresh produce in shops. "Seeing the  devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy I was struck by the need for food  to be produced as near as possible to consumers," says Mr van Wingerden.<img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/C989/production/_103039515_3f995997-4bd0-4997-b4a7-0d1b4859ebbd.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Minke van Wingerden thinks floating farms have great potential for cities built near water "So the idea came up to produce fresh food in a climate-adaptive way on the water." The concept would be resilient against hurricanes, too, he adds. At first people thought the idea was "weird, funny or unbelievable", he says, but they have started to come round."With  increasing demand for healthy food, fast-growing urbanisation and  climate change, we can't rely on the food production systems of the past  any more," he says. Later in 2012, his team began working on the  design and talking to the Port Authority in Rotterdam. Despite its  initial hesitations about the potential noise and smell, the port gave  Beladon a space to build a prototype. Since then the farm has  taken shape, and earlier this summer its floating platform was moved by  barge from Zaandam in the north of Holland, to Rotterdam.Peter's  wife and business partner, Minke van Wingerden, says the farm will start  with 40 cows, enough for the venture to break even. But she says it is  "easily scalable", with larger operations promising "obvious  efficiencies".The farm also aims to reuse and recycle as much as it can. "At least 80% of what our cows eat will be waste products from  Rotterdam's food industry," says the farm's general manager, Albert  Boersen.    That might include grains discarded by local  breweries, leftovers from restaurants and cafes, by-products from local  wheat mills, and even grass clippings, all collected and delivered in  electric trucks provided by local "green waste" firm GroenCollect."We  will grow duckweed as an animal feed, too," says Ms van Wingerden. "It  is high in protein, fast-growing and can be nurtured with cow urine. We  will have an installation of four or five vertical platforms growing the  plant under special LED lights."<img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/A34D/production/_103050814_797945b9-338b-4c04-9a51-31b1656ecfe8.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Waste fodder for the cows will be collected from restaurants and breweries in electric vans The project will even generate some of its own energy - hydrogen produced through electrolysis powered by solar panels.Once  up and running, the farm will produce and pasteurise milk and yoghurt  on-site and sell it in Rotterdam. It will also process and sell its own  cow manure. Dr Fenton Beed, a team leader at the UN's Food and  Agriculture Organisation, thinks urban farms are useful because they  tend to use less water, fertiliser and pesticide than conventional  production systems.But he also acknowledges that space  limitations may prevent enough food being produced to supply the world's  burgeoning urban populations. "Constraints to producing food in  controlled environments include costs for initial investment, LED  lighting and continuous energy supplies," says Dr Beed. "That  means that unless policies incentivise the engagement of smaller  producers, this technology will be reserved for income-rich private and  public entities."                                                                <img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/594E/production/_102926822_floatingfarmplentyfarm6.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Plenty grows its crops vertically indoors                 But such concerns aren't stopping companies like Plenty from attracting significant investment.The  San Francisco-based start-up produces leafy greens in indoor farms and  claims it can grow up to 350 times more per square metre than outdoor  field farms. Its crops are grown on six-metre vertical poles,  using hydroponics - a water-only feeding system - and LED lights. No  soil or pesticides are used. Infrared sensors monitor how the crops are  faring so that the system can adjust light, heat and water flow  accordingly.Since it was founded in 2013, Plenty has raised $226m  (£177m) from investors such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, SoftBank's Vision  Fund and Innovation Endeavors. This year it will expand its US  operations and open its first farm in the Middle East.<img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/3131/production/_103039521_s1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Spread's Techno Farm concept is attracting investment Japan's Spread is another firm developing automated vegetable-growing in vertical urban settings with its Techno Farm concept.  Back  in the Netherlands, Peter and Minke van Wingerden are looking at  opportunities to build more floating farms around the country, as well  as in Asia."We hope to make many more floating farms, but also  welcome others copying us or coming up with concepts contributing to  these goals," says Mr van Wingerden. "Healthy, sufficient food production is key to a better, cleaner, safer world."</blockquote>

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