We've already seen how Italian growers have built an underwater farm. An idea that speaks to the imagination, if your scuba suit is at the dry cleaner's, you may want an alternative that runs less deep. Kidding aside, the Italian agrinauts of Nemo's Garden actually inspired a student at the University of Sussex to develop another interesting way of growing crops at sea: the Floating Farm.
Originally, Leilah Clarke started her research by thinking about ways in which fresh water could be used more efficiently to grow crops. But after seeing Nemo’s Garden, she thought it’d make sense to have a floating system which would be able to receive all the sun's light and allow crops to be easily harvested. "During the research stage of my project, I was emailing with Gianni Fontanesi of Nemo’s Garden, who was very helpful in answering my questions and was pleased that I had been inspired by their work", Leilah tells us.
Making waves
"The difficulty came when I was trying to figure out how to deal with waves. For weeks, I was trying to figure out how to add a gyroscopic mechanism or similar to help plants stay upright whilst going over waves. Finally, one day it clicked. If I separated the plant housing from the main base I could! After talking to senior technician Kevin Brady at Sussex, I decided a universal joint would be best as they allow movement between 2 shafts in any direction and are built to deal with large torsion forces."
Prototype of the Floating Farm
Sunlight and nutrients
So far, Leilah has grown cress, watercress, rocket and radishes in the system. "As the prototypes are about 1/100th, the scale limits what crops I have been able to grow due to lack of space. Leafy vegetables, chard, spinach and radishes are some of the crops that would be suitable. Root vegetables and crops that rely on insects in order to pollinate are not recommended."
Future floating farm owners won't have to invest in lighting when growing those crops - sunlight is enough, Leilah says. They'll still need nutrients, however, and the Floating Farm has an ingenious solution for this: "The plant housing is divided into 3 sections where plants will be rooted. Plants requiring the same nutrient levels can be planted in the same sections. Feed can be added to the sections of plant housing as needed."
The sea is the limit
The final dimensions of Floating Farm were decided based on anthropometric and ergonomic data to allow easy harvesting of crops. If it were made bigger, plants close to the centre would be unreachable by human arms. However, many Floating Farm units could be connected in a “net”, which would increase their stability at sea. 
Dimensions of a full-scale Floating Farm unit. All measurements are in cm.
So, with such a visionary method of growing crops, surely Leilah will have a vision on the future of agriculture, right? Well, she does: "With the rising of veganism and the animal welfare issues that are brought up through this, I think we will see a reduction in the meat industry; particularly beef and also an improvement in agricultural animal welfare. There has also been a boost of interest in individuals growing crops which I hope will lead to more small-scale community farming."
As for the future of the Floating Farm project, there has not currently been any commercial interest in the system, but Leilah is interested in developing it further with the right team.
For more information:
The Floating FarmLeilah Clarke