Floating urban dairy farms as an alernative to traditional dairy production

With cities having an increasing number of inhabitants, the need for an equally increasing amount of food has grown. Meanwhile, fertile land scarcity is becoming a larger problem as well. The Floating Farm initiative attempts to show how urban environments themselves can contribute to the production of dairy, combining it with educating urban dwellers. They had a circular design in mind which uses urban waste flows as much as possible, as well as processing the dairy themselves and sell the products in their own store and as locally as they can. This thesis analyses the practicalities that come into play when floating dairy farms become reality. The initiative is compared to traditional rural dairy farms with different sizes. With the help of estimations for the frequency and distance needed to provide the farms with feed and distribute the manure and dairy product, the total distance required was calculated for each farm. The farm in Scharendijke had the lowest distance to liter...Show moreWith cities having an increasing number of inhabitants, the need for an equally increasing amount of food has grown. Meanwhile, fertile land scarcity is becoming a larger problem as well. The Floating Farm initiative attempts to show how urban environments themselves can contribute to the production of dairy, combining it with educating urban dwellers. They had a circular design in mind which uses urban waste flows as much as possible, as well as processing the dairy themselves and sell the products in their own store and as locally as they can. This thesis analyses the practicalities that come into play when floating dairy farms become reality. The initiative is compared to traditional rural dairy farms with different sizes. With the help of estimations for the frequency and distance needed to provide the farms with feed and distribute the manure and dairy product, the total distance required was calculated for each farm. The farm in Scharendijke had the lowest distance to liter milk ratio, and the Floating Farm in Rotterdam the highest. This is due to the estimations for the many different parties involved in the feed and dairy products distributions. The high ratio for the Floating Farm makes the initiative not a great alternative, but a nice addition to urban life. Additionally, the farm can have a positive influence on the respiratory health of visitors.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Floating urban dairy farms as an alernative to traditional dairy production