The Dutch moved the sea to build their nation – and became the world’s tallest people in the process.
By Gavin Haines via BBC
Heading west out of Rotterdam I walked along red-brick pavements, past crooked townhouses and pellucid canals, past fragrant Surinamese restaurants and out-of-town supermarkets, until I got to the port. And that’s when I saw them: the cows, a herd of them, at sea, chewing the cud on a floating farm.
Moored up in a murky marina, the offshore farm looked more like a barn. It had a curved roof that reminded me of waves, and a gangplank that gave the cows access to an uninviting strip of grass on the dock. The see breeze brought with it wafts of manure. In the distance, cranes loaded cargo onto ships and barges cruised by laden with petrochemicals. The herd looked incongruous in the industrial landscape.
A life raft for the dairy industry in a changing world, Rotterdam’s floating farm was designed to be adaptable to rising seas and to reduce dairy’s sizeable carbon hoofprint, hence the solar panels and rainwater-harvesting roof, which provides drinking water for the cows.
The animals themselves are also unwitting recyclers; their diet consists of grass cuttings from parks and golf courses, and potato peelings from Rotterdam’s frites industry, which churns out the chunky chips Dutch people like to eat at almost any time of day, ideally slathered in mayo.
“Our cows eat the biomass residue from the city and upcycle it into fresh and healthy milk,” explained Minke van Wingerden, a partner in the project.
Since opening last year, the floating farm has become a curious attraction in Rotterdam. Believed to be the first of its kind, the project continues two longstanding Dutch traditions: conquering the ocean and dairy farming, which between them have not only helped shape the Netherlands, much of which was stolen from the sea, but also its people, whose appetite for dairy has fuelled their remarkable growth. Read more from BBC.
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