Joined a group of water researchers for a field trip to the Floating Farm in Rotterdam. Along the way, I chatted with a visiting researcher from Greece. I asked him if my water filter can is legit or just a scam. He confirmed it actually works. Then we spoke about Dutch water infrastructure. He told me that leakage rates for purified water here are just 3%. He was deeply impressed by the efficiency of it all.

We boarded the farm via a steep metal bridge. The Floating Farm is a layered cubic structure with a concrete base, designed to carry the weight of a herd. The cows are carefully selected, only calm and friendly ones are kept. But none of them seemed particularly welcoming. They looked grumpy and preoccupied with eating.

The researcher was excited and asked me to take a photo of him with the cows. He tried to approach one and was met with an aggressively clear rejection. I captured that exact moment. He laughed awkwardly, “A real moment!”

Niet voeren signs were posted everywhere, reminding human visitors to regulate their interactions with the cows. It’s always feeding, isn’t it? Feeding as the most immediate, symbolic gesture of human–animal relations. Zoos, too (a sad example). For both humans and confined non-human animals, food signals non-threat, familiarity, even friendship.

And it’s also about dependence. If we look at domestication as an ongoing process, then feeding is never innocent. At the Floating Farm, dependence is interpreted as locality. The cows are fed with food waste from the surrounding urban neighborhoods: stale bread, orange peels, tomato purée. Even grass clippings from football stadiums with the taste of sweat.

The floor was covered in manure and urine. A robot works around the clock to separate the two and reduce odor. Cows stood in gridded pens—digesting, producing.

On the presentation slides, they were described as “perfect biomass machines.”

I tried the dairy products and immediately felt sick. Maybe my body was rejecting the lactose. Or maybe it was the rocking of the water taxi. Do the cows get seasick, too?

Not far from the floating farm, a giant old cruise ship was docked. The guide told us it’s currently used as a refugee camp. She praised Rotterdam as an open city that willing to offer water as space when land is limited.

I found it wild to see. As wild as cows being milked on water. Floating cows and floating homes. Once again, humans are taking over the sea. Just like hundreds of years ago, when people first began traveling the world upon it. This time, it’s not about finding new lands. It’s about creating them, against the rising sea levels.

If the sea will hold the greedy weight.