Floating Urban Farms on Recycled Tourist Boats

July 22, 2010 by

Ahoy, bok choy! You got it: boat+botanic=boatanic, a floating greenhouse. Take an existing tourist boat, remove the tourists, add seeds and water regularly, make sure the boat gets plenty of sunshine, then harvest the produce. The resulting bounty will be distributed by bike to hungry inner city folks and restaurants in search of fresh food. Boatanic, a Dutch project led by Damian O’Sullivan and supported by the Enviu team and a crew of volunteers, expects to be afloat in Amsterdam by the beginning of 2011, with plans to expand to other cities in Europe and North America.

The floating farm will reach cities accessible by a combination of navigable waterways (canals or rivers), urban areas that also enjoy good climate (not too warm or too hot) and are home to plenty of locavores. Customers can track Boatanic’s produce and location via its website and iPhone app., where they will also be able to place their orders. For direct incidental sales, the iPhone App will indicate the location of the Boatanic at all times–like a chalkboard menu would advertise the pick of the day.

Boatanic will provide a limited supply (500 Kg) of fruit, vegetables and herbs year round which will be complimented with a conventional out-of-town greenhouse in order to boost supply according to demand. The greenhouse will also double as Boatanic’s overnight berth where it charge up its batteries.

The current business model is three-tiered:
1. Retail to customers in close proximity to canals based on subscription
2. Wholesale to restaurants
3. Educational programs to teach schoolchildren about growing food on-board

I’m picturing Boatanic docking at the piers in Manhattan, setting anchor at Le Pont Neuf on the Seine in Paris, and at London’s Tower Bridge…

6 Comments »

  1. Georgia said:

    Somewhere along the south stretch of the Hudson in Manhattan, please. Reminded me of http://www.thewaterpod.org/ project.

    — July 22, 2010 @ 19:30

  2. Urban Farm Concept Cultivates More Than Food | Urban Gardens | Unlimited Thinking For Limited Spaces Pingback said:

    […] and sophisticated design for a public space that responds to the increasing public interest in urban agriculture, beautifies a neighborhood, and at the same time, engages the community. The Huntington Urban Farm, […]

    — December 16, 2010 @ 21:11

  3. Holy Cow! The World's First Floating Urban Dairy Farm - Urban Gardens Pingback said:

    […] world’s rapidly growing population and land scarcity in mind, the Dutch companies behind the floating farm concept aim to address the challenges of the future–the ever-increasing demand for food as well […]

    — August 9, 2016 @ 19:37

  4. Urban Farming | richard2496 Pingback said:

    […] the rapidly rising world population and land scarcity in mind, the Dutch companies behind thefloating farm concept aim to address the challenges of the future–the ever-increasing demand for food as well […]

    — August 11, 2016 @ 07:14

  5. Urban Farming – Keith Swiednicki International – Blog Pingback said:

    […] the rapidly rising world population and land scarcity in mind, the Dutch companies behind thefloating farm concept aim to address the challenges of the future–the ever-increasing demand for food as well […]

    — August 11, 2016 @ 07:17

  6. Guerrilla Gardening by Bicycle in Holland by Dutch Urban Gardeners Pingback said:

    […] winter, so we wanted to give people an instant happy spring feeling when they returned to their bicycle from a day of work or a long train travel,” Halkes told […]

    — July 13, 2022 @ 16:06

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

The freshest innovative and eco-friendly designs, trends, and ideas for urban gardens and stylish small places.

Visit Robin Horton @UrbanGardens's profile on Pinterest.

Discover more from Urban Gardens

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading