The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of strengthening Singapore’s food security.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
An article by SAFEF in July 2020, ‘How Will COVID-19 Impact Singapore’s Food Security’, reported that though it was clarified by the government that Singapore’s food security was not disrupted during the panic buying at the start of the pandemic, there are still long term concerns to consider, such as accessibility to global food sources and the special types of nutrition.
“In some countries, there were labour shortages, lacking people to harvest and maintain the farm,” Jayden said. “Causing a lot of supply chain disruptions and also manpower disruptions in those farms.”
According to an article by Channel News Asia published in April 2020, ‘COVID-19 pandemic highlights importance of strengthening Singapore's food security, say experts’, Vietnam suspended exports of rice to prioritise their own national food security during Covid-19. Due to the pandemic, Singapore’s international suppliers may face difficulties in the exportation of food in their countries. Moreover, the pandemic caused a suspension in flights, resulting in a more expensive cost for shipment of food from some countries, such as chilled pork from Australia.
From an international viewpoint, Jayden explained, “Countries will always look out for their own citizens first. Hence, when there is great tension in the world, where do we get our food?”
According to an article by Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises in June 2020, ‘How Buying Local Produce Supports Singapore’s Future’, local produce travel a shorter distance to supermarkets. This equates to lesser fuel used and wastage in packaging, hence it is more eco-friendly. Therefore, to ensure food security, it is essential to practise sustainability and support more locally grown foods.
With reduced distance and time in transportation between Singapore’s farms and local supermarkets, locally grown vegetables are much fresher and more nutritious than those that are imported into Singapore.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Sign boards are found in supermarkets to encourage shoppers to support local produce.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
In view of this, the government has launched the 30 by 30 plan earlier in 2019, which aims to produce 30% of Singaporeans’ nutritional needs by 2030. Strategies like urban farming - the production of food in highly populated cities by using technology and innovation, need to be implemented.
Jayden explained, “Urban farming is important in terms of food resilience because food is a necessity. Urban farming is able to achieve sustainability with the way we farm, as it is used as a means to grow a large quantity of food without harming the environment and depleting natural resources.”
To maximise our limited land, more of these producers are now applying agriculture technology to increase the production of fresh, nutritious and safe food for the residents of Singapore. Such technology includes greenhouse hydroponics, vertical farming and indoor farming.
To maximise our limited land, agriculture technology such as controlling irrigation, creates the optimal environment in which plants grow in, increasing the yield of crops.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
In hydroponics, Jayden explained that one is able to control the irrigation, light intensity and temperature of the environment in which the plants grow. According to an article by The Straits Times in May 2019, ‘Singapore's high-tech farms: Sowing the seeds of a farming nation’, ‘growing vertically’ maximises land usage while indoor farming protects crops from weather conditions. Carpark rooftops were also converted into urban farms.
‘Grow your own mushrooms’ farmer kits found in Singapore’s supermarkets to encourage indoor farming at home.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Aside from the incorporation of agricultural technology, the government also promotes the participation of citizens to meet the goal. According to the survey, 70.2% of the respondents were very open to the idea of growing their own food. NParks launched “Gardening with Edibles” in 2020 to encourage indoor farming by distributing seed packets nationwide, and doubling the number of community and allotment gardens for gardening enthusiasts.
Construction of new allotment gardens to achieve the aim of increasing gardening plots twofold by 2030.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
The Allotment Gardening Scheme allows aspiring gardeners to lease gardening plots to hone their skills and grow their own greens.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Futhermore, the Singapore government has recently introduced the “SG Fresh Produce" logo. This red logo would be used to label the local produce so that shoppers can easily identify them.
“Support home grown products,” Jayden said. “We can keep depending on overseas produce but you never know when it will stop.”
Fresh, local vegetables grown in Singapore’s farms, sold at supermarkets with red labels to help shoppers identify local produce with greater ease.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Look out for the red logo on the packaging which indicates local produce harvested fresh from the farms.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Sustainability drives food independence
in Singapore
Aahana K, Krista, Cassie Ng and Qi En (The Green Ink) conducted a study to explore the efforts made by Singapore to ensure sustainability in terms of food resilience.
An overview of Punggol Allotment Garden, where gardening plots are lush with a wide variety of plants, including fruits and vegetables.
(Photo by: Muk Qi En)
Sustainability has become increasingly important in today’s world and in order to maintain food security, Singapore has turned to locally grown food.
The United Nations defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainability is crucial as there is a limited amount of resources in the world, which could decline rapidly due to human indifference.
“We cannot escape from the undesirable outcomes of the decisions that we make so we have to play our part to mitigate environmental challenges,” emphasised Jayden Ong, co-lead of SLICE - a company dedicated to the innovation of locally grown foods.
As the demand for more resources exceed the supply from our planet, the rate of depletion of earth’s natural resources has rapidly increased. The rise in climate change also increases the strain on sustainability, especially in terms of food security.
Climate change is increasingly prevalent in people’s lives. A survey conducted by The Green Ink shows that 94.4% of the 124 respondents were aware that it will threaten Singapore’s food supply.
According to the recently released IPCC Report 2021, climate change will only worsen over the next 20 years. Climate change can cause severe changes in temperatures and this may result in floods, droughts or undesirable temperatures for crops. This reduces crop yield and deters the exportation of food in agricultural countries. An article by the Singapore Food Agency in June 2020, 'Singapore's Food Supply', stated this would be extremely undesirable for Singapore, which currently imports more than 90% of its food supply.
Furthermore, the current pandemic plays a part in endangering Singapore’s food security. Jayden explained, “Covid-19 uncovered how heavily dependent Singapore is on the importation of food, causing impending worries of food shortages and more catastrophic events where we may not have food at all.”