Feeding The Future
The amount of land for agriculture is finite. Nowhere is this more apparent than Singapore, which is trying to produce more of its own food with almost no land. Is this our food future?
Among the most important things scientists say must happen to reduce the impact of food production on the Earth’s climate and environment: Produce more food using less land.
Singapore — a country with nearly 6 million people and almost no farmland — has long relied on importing nearly all of its food. Now the country is trying to change that.
In 2019 Singapore launched a program called 30 by 30, designed to spur the country to produce 30% of its food by 2030, while still using less than 1% of its land for agriculture.
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Singapore's futuristic food
This "30 by 30" program has encouraged innovation that may offer a peek into the world’s food future as land and resources become more scarce around the world.
Singapore’s first commercial rooftop farm, ComCrop, produces kale, lettuce and herbs using a system that relies on nutrient-rich water instead of soil, solar power, and carefully controlled temperatures, wind and light levels.
When the pandemic closed borders — cutting off much of Singapore’s food supply — orders quadrupled overnight, said CEO Peter Barber. And the government asked him to expand, offering a grant via the 30 by 30 program.
Researchers at Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory develop varieties of plants that can flourish in extreme environments to improve food security and resilience.
Seng Choon, Singapore’s largest egg farm, can now help the nation satisfy its craving for eggs from home.
The farm produces 600,000 eggs every day from 850,000 chickens — and only about 100 staff. The company uses automated machines to feed the chickens, sort, scan and check each egg.
Robots help lift and sort crates of eggs that will be delivered to stores the same day they were laid.
The Eco-Ark, a “closed containment” aquaculture farm designed Leow Ban Tat, CEO of the Aquaculture company ACE Group, can produce 400 tons of Asian seabass and fourfinger threadfin a year.
Some tanks are placed below sea level, allowing filtered water to pour in rather than being pumped, saving electricity.
Ships pump sea water through a system that cleans the farm, traps waste, and eliminates the need for antibiotics or vaccines for the fish.
Energy is provided by solar panels.
At Vertical Oceans, shrimp are raised in large stackable tanks inside a warehouse.
The company has developed a filtration system that relies on algae to clean the water, allowing them to reuse it for months at a time.
The same day the shrimp are harvested they’re delivered to customers and restaurants. The company is now planning its first U.S. location, in California.
Singapore was the first nation to authorize the sale of meat cultured from cells in a bioreactor, sometimes known as “lab-grown” meat.
Shiok Meats is one of a number of companies developing cultivated meat products, such as shrimp and lobster.
Good Meat’s chicken is offered at Huber’s Bistro.
Good Meat is building a new facility in Singapore that will produce meat that home cooks can buy and prepare themselves.
But for all the country’s government-supported entrepreneurs and sparkling new technology,
the country is also learning that this kind of transformation is not so easy.
Consumers can be reluctant to change their buying habits.
Vendors of new products complain that it’s hard to get priority space on grocery store shelves.
And producers have found it hard to turn a profit because costs — especially energy costs — can be high when trying to grow things in unnatural environments.
Spotlight: video essay
The race to feed a growing population
By David Goldman
Like much of the rest of the world, Singapore is racing to feed a growing population with limited natural resources. But with almost no land for agriculture this small, wealthy, fast-paced and densely-packed nation is doing so by embracing and encouraging new food technologies that may someday help feed us all. The frenzied pace is conveyed through a time lapse made up of thousands of individual photographs of scenes from across the country.
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It is far from clear if Singapore will reach its 30% goal by 2030.
But along the way it may help teach the world — through successes and failures —
how to reduce the amount of land needed to produce our favorite dishes.
Spotlight: Quiz|Question 1 of 2
How well would you say you understand how to eat in a way that is environmentally friendly?
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