Is this floating farm the future of our food?

Barcelona-based design firm Forward Thinking Architecture has proposed a 2.2 million square foot, solar-powered offshore floating farm, Smithsonian.com reports. The barge would be 656 x 1,050 feet, multi-leveled and rectangular. The bottom level would include fish farms, a slaughterhouse, a packaging area, and a desalination plant. The next floor would have a greenhouse equipped with automatic hydroponics, complete with climate control to make growing crops possible. Because plants grown with hydroponics can be stacked on top of each other and don’t need rain, land, or pesticides, this could be the barge’s most important innovation.

The roof will feature a photovoltaic power plant, as well as skylights that will bring in natural light for the hydroponic plants. Energy needs could be further supplemented by wind turbines and wave energy. The barge could also potentially turn its own waste into biogas to power the massive structure.

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