The project’s open atmosphere and practical approach are also attracting lots of attention abroad. The New York Times reporter Michael Kimmelmann is impressed by its innovative strength and regards it as a model for water-rich major cities in the USA, such as New York and New Orleans. “In this small water-soaked country, climate change is regarded not as a problem but as an opportunity,” he says. In Rotterdam he experienced urban diversity on the water, including the city’s latest project, which combines two core areas of Dutch expertise: seafaring and agriculture. The architects’ firm Beladon is creating a floating farm called Merve4Heaven in the harbor. Soon cows will be grazing here on three levels, fed by a closed organic circuit of solar energy, rainwater, and animal feed. “We’re bringing agriculture into the city and fresh milk closer to the consumers, thus shortening transport routes and saving energy,” says the head of Beladon, Peter van Wingerden. Thanks to the popular urban farming movement, this kind of water-based cultivation should also be possible for another traditional Dutch product: greenhouse tomatoes. Peter van Wingerden is convinced that his pilot project will have many imitators. “Cities will continue to grow, and most conurbations are located along rivers and other bodies of water. Why shouldn’t we take advantage of that?”