Page 24 - aruba-today-20190701

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 1 July 2019
Dutch farm floats possibilities of urban dairy production

By MIKE CORDER into yogurt on the middle
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands floor of the pontoon. Ma-
(AP) — Peter van Wing- nure is processed for use as
erden's dairy farm smells fertilizer.
just like any other farm — Jan Willem van der Schans,
the rich aroma of cow ma- a senior researcher at Wa-
nure and grass hangs in geningen Economic Re-
the air around the unusual search who specializes in
stable housing the cattle. urban farming and circular
The farm itself is far from tra- economy issues, said float-
ditional. ing farms could be the fu-
Moored in a small harbor in ture for some sectors of ag-
Rotterdam's busy port, the riculture such as fruit and
farm is a futuristic three-sto- some vegetables in some
ry floating structure where parts of the world. But he
one robot milks the cows thinks that the level of au-
and another automatically tomation and the unnatu-
scoops up the manure that ral surroundings of the cows
gives the enterprise its fa- may create opposition to
miliar smell. the project.
Its roof collects rainwater "These are animals that we
and a raft of solar panels In this photo taken Monday, June 24, 2019, a futuristic three-storey floating farm is moored in Rot- all like and then we like to
floating alongside produc- terdam harbour, Netherlands. see them in a meadow,"
es 40% of the energy the Associated Press he said. "And then we bring
farm needs. them into a very industrial
The cows, gazing out over able way, Van Wingerden bring it much closer to the food, but we should start environment and I think
ships transporting gas and believes the farm, which citizens. And that's what exporting knowledge and that's something that many
yellow cranes unload- opened in May and cost we're showing over here." technology," Van Wing- people think is not the right
ing ships, eat a mixture of about 3 million euros ($3.4 The fully functioning show- erden said. direction for livestock farm-
grass cut from a local golf million), demonstrates a case of circular-economy When the herd reaches its ing to go into."
course and the field used new sustainable way of pro- farming combines Dutch target capacity of 40 cows Van Wingerden said that
by Rotterdam's top soccer ducing food close to where expertise in recycling, build- — there are currently 35 — animal welfare is his top
team, grain used by a local most of it is consumed — in ing on water and automat- it will produce 800 liters (211 priority, pointing to many
brewer to make beer and the world's cities. ed agriculture is drawing gallons) of milk each day. design elements in the con-
potato peelings — all au- "Transporting all this food all interest from around the The brown and white cows struction that are intended
tomatically cut, mixed and over the world is really pol- world. Van Wingerden said are a breed called Maas- to make life as easy as pos-
transported to food troughs luting the world. It's doing he is already discussing Rijn-Ijssel — named for three sible for the cows such as
by conveyer belts. damage to food quality, floating farms in Singapore rivers that flow through the rubber floors and poles in
As countries around the it creates food losses," he and China. A group is look- Dutch region they originate the stable. A small mead-
world seek to meet the said in a recent interview. ing into locating one in Red from. ow of grass speckled with
challenge of feeding grow- "So we have to find a dif- Hook, Brooklyn. The farm pasteurizes the wildflowers grows on land
ing populations in a sustain- ferent model. We have to "We should stop exporting milk and turns some of it next to the pontoon.q

Kudlow: US sales to Huawei won't imperil national security

Associated Press cy problem." Huawei of facilitating Chi-
WASHINGTON (AP) — White Several Republican sena- nese spying, a charge the
House economic adviser tors immediately expressed company denies, and see
Larry Kudlow insisted Sun- concerns. In a tweet Satur- it as a growing competitive
day that President Donald day, Sen. Marco Rubio of threat to U.S. technology
Trump won't back off na- Florida called the decision industries.
tional security concerns a "catastrophic mistake." Huawei's founder, Ren
after agreeing to allow U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- Zhengfei, said earlier this
companies to sell some S.C., told CBS that Trump's month it has cut its project
components to Chinese agreement was "clearly sales by $30 billion over the
telecommunications giant a concession," and also next two years due to curbs
Huawei. said it would be a mistake on access to American
Kudlow told "Fox News Sun- if sales to Huawei involved chips and other compo-
day" and CBS' "Face the "major technology." nents. He said smartphone
Nation" that Huawei will People walk past a Huawei retail store in Beijing, Sunday, June Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., sales outside China will fall
remain on an American 30, 2019. described the Chinese 40%. Huawei's U.S. sales of
blacklist as a potential se- Associated Press company as a clear threat network gear evaporated
curity threat. He stressed to U.S. national security. "To after a U.S. congressional
that additional U.S. licens- "What's happening now ter meeting with China's me, Huawei in the United panel labeled the compa-
ing "will be for what we call is simply a loosening up Xi Jinping at the Group of States would be like a Tro- ny a security threat in 2012
general merchandise, not for general merchandise," 20 summit in Japan. Trump jan horse ready to steal and told phone carriers to
national security sensitive," Kudlow said. "This is not a said U.S. companies could more information from us," avoid it. The Chinese com-
such as chips and software general amnesty." make the sales if the trans- he told NBC's "Meet the pany still has a patent port-
generally available around Trump made the an- actions don't present a Press." folio it licenses to manufac-
the world. nouncement Saturday af- "great, national emergen- American officials accuse turers and carriers.q