A floating farm in Rotterdam rises to meet the challenge of climate change

A project that houses cows in a floating barn aims to demonstrate how farming can change its relationship with water and energy.

Transcript

00:00A little corner of the countryside right in the middle of Europe's biggest port.

00:13Here in Rotterdam 30 cows occupy this farm on the water, producing 600 litres of milk

00:19a day.

00:20But behind this local agricultural enterprise lies an ecological project designed to meet

00:24the challenges of climate change.

00:27The floating barn, the only one of its kind in the world, deploys a range of technologies

00:31to limit its carbon footprint.

00:34A robot regularly passes through the barn for that purpose.

00:38It soaks up the manure and then it brings the manure to the separator and the manure

00:44is immediately separated between the urine and the dry part of the manure.

00:50And that is really important because if you do so, within three hours you have 60% less

00:57emission.

00:59So that is about sustainable farming.

01:02The floating farm has been in operation for five years now.

01:06Water is at the heart of its concept as a response to the risks of flooding in rising

01:11oceans and seas caused by global warming.

01:16Rising temperatures are exacerbating the water stress that affects 20% of Europe and

01:2030% of the Union's population every year.

01:24The cowshed in the port of Rotterdam is equipped with two systems to reduce this pressure.

01:32The first one is we collect rainwater on the rooftop and we purify it downstairs and then

01:37we reuse it on the farm.

01:40The other one is that we pump up brackish port water and we like to desalinate it but

01:46desalination without chemicals.

01:49We only need heat and what we do, we use the heat of the manure.

01:56In its latest report on water, the European Environment Agency points out that agriculture

02:02represents the biggest pressure on this resource.

02:06Emission from the sector affects 32% of groundwater and 29% of surface water.

02:14The agency therefore suggests a change in agricultural practices, the use of new technologies

02:20and to get the sector to operate with less water, just as they do in Rotterdam.