Beladon, a Dutch company, is about to make history by launching the world’s first floating dairy farm in Rotterdam.
The Dutch firm Beladon, creator of the high-tech, multilevel floating dairy farm, is planning to launch their flagship off the coast of Rotterdam in the near future. The facility is expected to produce an average of 211 gallons (800 liters) of milk every day.
The offshore, 89-by-89 foot facility will house 40 Meuse-Rhine-Issel cows that will be milked by robots. Van Wingerden came up with the idea of a floating dairy farm after she and her husband were exposed to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York City back in 2012. According to her, deliveries of fresh produce struggled then and within two days, it was already difficult to obtain them.
“We can potentially deliver 320,000 liters of milk a year, 7,000 eggs per day and a million crops per year,” Wingerden said. “Rotterdam is a perfect test location for this alternative farm, but the real demand is in Asia and Africa, continents that are still rapidly growing and have a demand for alternative food production.”
The facility is composed of three levels and is specifically designed to withstand hurricane onslaught. The bottom level of the facility is where the dairy products will be processed and packed. The second floor is where the cows will be sheltered and milked. Lastly, the top floor will be used to grow the grass needed to feed the cows.
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Once the floating dairy farm starts its operation, it will produce pasteurized milk and yogurt that will be sold to the people of Rotterdam.
Van Wingerden also said that Beladon is planning to open more floating farms in the future. Aside from dairy farms, the company is also designing floating chicken farms and floating vertical farming greenhouses.
“…we do many other water projects in big cities. We were recently invited to exhibit our projects in Singapore and also work together with the Olympian committee, to supply fresh local products to the athletes during the Summer Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo. And we were approached by the government of Nicaragua to clean up the polluted city lagoon in the capital in a sustainable way,” Van Wingerden said.
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