オランダ水上酪農場、気候への影響減を目指す　黒字化も目前

【ロッテルダムＡＦＰ＝時事】オランダ・ロッテルダムの港には、クレーンやコンテナの他、一つ見慣れないものがある──世界初とされる水上の酪農場だ。（写真はオランダ・ロッテルダムの港に浮かぶ酪農場）
　ガラスと鉄の３階建ての酪農場は、国土の多くが低地で、土地資源に乏しく、気候変動が直接的な脅威となるオランダにおいて「畜産の未来」を示すことを目指す。
　牛たちは最上階で飼育され、２階では牛乳からチーズ、ヨーグルト、バターが作られ、１階でチーズが熟成される。
　この酪農場は、ミンケ・ファンウィンガーデンさん（６０）と夫のペーターさんが２０１９年に始めた。２人は「街の中に田舎を持ち込み」、消費者の意識を高め、農業が存在できる場所をつくりたかったと話す。
　オランダは１人当たりの温室効果ガス排出量が欧州で最も多い国の一つ。農業による排出量、特に酪農では牛が大量のメタンガスを発生させるため、大きな問題となっている。
　そしてこのガスが、オランダを水没の危機にさらす海面の上昇を促進させる。
　水上の酪農場は、長期的にも短期的にもメリットがある。長期的には持続可能であることによって、そして短期的には…浮くことによってだ。潮位の変化に伴って動くため、農地冠水の心配がない。
　持続可能性は、フードバンクから調達するブドウ、地元の醸造所から出る穀類、地元のゴルフ場や地元の有名サッカークラブ「フェイエノールト」のスタジアムから出る草をまぜて牛の飼料にすることによって確保している。廃棄物を減らすとともに、市販の家畜用飼料製造時に発生する温室効果ガスの排出量削減にも貢献できる。
　また、牛のふんを肥料ペレットにすることによって、排出されるメタンガスの量を抑えることもできる。水面の牛舎には数十枚の太陽光パネルが並び、酪農場で必要な電力は十分にまかなえる。
　ファンウィンガーデンさんは、この酪農のアイデアは、環境に優しいだけではなく、農業を「もっと心地よく、面白く、セクシーに」することでもあると語り、夫と共に初めて港湾当局に水上に酪農場をつくるアイデアを伝えた際に「正気ですか？」と言われたことを振り返った。
　酪農場は２０２１年末に初めて黒字となる見通し。スーパーマーケットで売られている１リットル約１ユーロ（約１３０円）の牛乳ではなく、ここで生産される同１．８ユーロ（約２３０円）の牛乳を選択する消費者が増えているという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/28-10:52）

Among the cranes and containers of the port of Rotterdam is a surreal sight: a herd of cows peacefully feeding on board what calls itself the world's first floating farm.
In the low-lying Netherlands where land is scarce and climate change is a daily threat, the three-storey glass and steel platform aims to show the future of breeding.
The buoyant bovines live on the top floor, while their milk is turned into cheese, yoghurt and butter on the middle level, and the cheese is matured at the bottom.
The world is under pressure, says Minke van Wingerden, 60, who runs the farm with her husband Peter.
We want the farm to be as durable and self-sufficient as possible.
The cows are a sharp contrast to the huge ships and the smoke from the refineries of Europe's biggest seaport, which accounts for 13.5 percent of the country's emissions.
With their floating farm, which opened in 2019, Peter and Minke say they wanted to bring the countryside into the town, boost consumer awareness and create agricultural space.
The Dutch are no strangers to advanced farming methods, using a network of huge greenhouses in particular to become the world's second biggest agricultural exporter after the United States.
But that has come at a cost.
- 'Moves with the tide' -
The Netherlands is one of Europe's largest per capita emitters of climate change gases and faces a major problem with agricultural emissions, particularly in the dairy sector which produces large amounts of methane from cows.
Those emissions in turn fuel the rising waters that threaten to swamp the country, a third of which lies below sea-level, and further reduce the land in one of the most densely populated nations on Earth.
The floating farm therefore aims to keep its cows' feet dry in both the long-term, by being sustainable, and the short-term, by, well, floating.
We are on the water, so the farm moves with the tide -- we rise and fall up to two metres. So in case of flooding, we can continue to produce, says Minke van Wingerden.
In terms of sustainability, the farm's cows are fed on a mixture of food including grapes from a foodbank, grain from a local brewery, and grass from local golf courses and from Rotterdam's famed Feyenoord football club -- saving on waste as well as the emissions that would be required to create commercial feed for the animals.
Their manure is turned into garden pellets -- a process that helps further cut emissions by reducing methane -- and their urine is purified and recycled into drinking water for the cows, whose stable is lined with dozens of solar panels that produce enough electricity for the farm's needs.
- 'Cows don't get seasick' -
The farm is run by a salaried farmer but the red and white cows, from the Dutch-German Meuse-Rhin-Yssel breed, are milked by robots.
The cheeses, yoghurts and pellets are sold at a roadside shop alongside fare from local producers.
The products are also sold to restaurants in town by electric vehicles.
I was immediately seduced by the concept, says Bram den Braber, 67, one of 40 volunteers at the farm, as he fills bottles of milk behind the counter of the store.
It's not blood running through my veins, it's milk.
The idea of the farm is also to make farming more agreeable, interesting and sexy, and not just to be environmentally friendly, says Minke van Wingerden.
When she and her husband first approached port authorities with the idea to build a floating farm, they said are you nuts?, she recalls.
But the farm is set to turn a profit for the first time at the end of 2021, with consumers apparently ready to pay the 1.80 euro ($2.12) a litre for milk produced there, compared to around one euro at a supermarket.
They are also aiming to build a second floating farm to grow vegetables, and to export their idea, with a project already under way in the island nation of Singapore.
Most importantly, while farming goes greener, the animals don't.
No, the cows don't get seasick, says van Wingerden. The water moves only a little bit, it's like you were on a cruise ship.