Singapore To Host Major Multi Stakeholder Virtual Event On Food Security & Sustainability In Partnership With UNDP & APEC

12 August 2021, Singapore – To address the potential impact to the global food system from the twin effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, government officials and top-level executives from the Asia Pacific region will be attending the Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 on 17 September 2021.

Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Ms. Grace Fu will be delivering the opening address for the event. Providing the keynote address will be A/Prof Matthew Tan, the co-chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors for APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security on the topic: Global Food Security – The Next Frontier In The Agriculture And Aquaculture Industry.

Organized by The Pinnacle Group International, a leading conference organizer headquartered in Singapore, the event is formed in partnership with UNDP and APEC with the support of multi agencies and NGOs around the world. This event is positioned as the Pan Asian multi-agency and private sector event to facilitate policy, business, and technological exchanges amongst key stakeholders in the global food community.

The event is expected to feature 35 influential speakers who will cover a wide range of topics including macro and regulatory issues, food technology, food waste, financing, food security & sustainability, cold chain & logistics, and nutrition. The event agenda, set against the conference theme “Towards A Future Safe Global Food System” will be developed in consultation with members of the summit’s board of advisors.

The appointed board of advisors are:

• -  A/Prof Matthew Tan – Co-Chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors - APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security/CEO Asia, Assentoft Aqua Asia

• -  Professor William Chen - The Michael Fam Chair Professor and Director of NTU Food Science and Technology Co-Director, Future Ready Food Safety Hub @ NTU, Consultant, Asian Development Bank

• -  Mr. Lim Hui Jie - CEO, VisionTech Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Eugene Wang - Co-Founder & CEO, Sophie’s BioNutrients Pte Ltd

  (Singapore)

• -  Mr. Rohit Behl - Interim CEO of EntomoVentures Pte. Ltd & Business

  Development Lead of Cellivate Technologies Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Wee-Meng Thoo - Partner and Head Of Investments, Digital and

  Sustainability, Leonie Hill Capital

• -  Mr. Richard Hayler, CFO of Nutrition Technologies

• -  Mr. Robert (Bob) Nichol, Director Asia Pacific, Innovad Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd

• -  Mr. John Friedman, Executive Director, AgFunder Asia & GROW Accelerator

• -  Mr. Nick Hazell, CEO & Founder, v2food

• -  Ms. Mirte Gosker, Acting Managing Director, The Good Food Institute Asia

  Pacific

• -  Mr. Christoph Langwallner, Initiator of Nutritional Paradox & CEO and Co-

  Founder of WhatIF Foods

• -  Mr. John Cheng, Founder, and Managing Director Innovate 360

• -  Mr. Niels Arbjerg, Regional President of the Asia Pacific Region, Danfoss

• -  Mr. Tan Ernest, Head of Agribusiness & Animal Protein of United Overseas

  Bank Limited (UOB)’s Sector Solutions Group – Consumer Goods Group

  Wholesale Banking Division

• -  Dr. Ling Ka Yi, CTO & Co-Founder, Shiok Meats

• -  Mr. Saurabh Bajaj, CEO, Eat JUST Asia

• -  Mr. Yuki Hanyu, Founder & CEO at Integriculture Inc

• -  Ms. Elizabeth Hernandez, Head of External Affairs and Sustainability, Asia

  Pacific, Corteva Agriscience

• -  Mr. Steve Rhodes, Chairman & CEO of Trendlines Investments Group

• -  Ms. Nathalie Lung, Program Manager for the Food Technology Accelerator

  Programs, Brinc

• -  Ms. Rebecca Vaught, Founder, Van Heron Labs

• -  Mr. William Koo, Managing Director, Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator

  (‘TLA’)

• -  Dr. Andrew Powell, CEO, Asia BioBusiness

• -  Mr. Puis Chong, Managing Director, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures,

  Deloitte Financial Advisory SEA

• -  Mr. Dominique Kull, Co-Founder, and CEO, SGProtein

The current confirmed prestigious panel of speakers are:

• -  Ms. Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and The Environment - Republic of Singapore

• -  A/Prof Matthew Tan, Co-Chair for Sustainable Development in Agriculture & Fishery Sectors - APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security/ CEO Asia, Assentoft Aqua Asia

• -  Mr. Riad Meddeb, Director ad-interim of UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development(GC-TISD)

• -  Mr. Eric Paillard, Managing Director, Adisseo Asia Pacific

• -  Ms. Cecilia Ku, General Manager, Delta Electronics International Singapore

• -  Mr. Torben Funder-Kristensen, Head of Public and Industry Affairs, Danfoss

  Climate Segment, Danfoss A/S (Denmark)

• -  Dr. Sun Hui, Chief Engineer of the Academy of the National Food and Strategic

  Reserves Administration of China

• -  Ms. Mirte Gosker, Acting Managing Director, The Good Food Institute Asia

  Pacific

• -  Mr. Nick Hazell, CEO & Founder, v2food

• -  Mr. Tan Ernest, Head of Agribusiness & Animal Protein of United Overseas

  Bank Limited (UOB)’s Sector Solutions Group – Consumer Goods Group

  Wholesale Banking Division

• -  Mr. Christoph Langwallner, Initiator of Nutritional Paradox & CEO and Co-

  Founder of WhatIF Foods

• -  Dr. Viknish Krishnan-Kutty, Founder & CEO of Cellivate Technologies

• -  Mr. Eugene Wang, Co-Founder & CEO, Sophie’s BioNutrients Pte Ltd

  (Singapore)

• -  Mr. John Friedman, Executive Director, AgFunder and GROW Accelerator

• -  Mr. Robert (Bob) Nichol, Business Director - Asia Pacific, Innovad Asia Pacific

  Pte. Ltd

• -  Mr. Richard Hayler, CFO of Nutrition Technologies

• -  Mr. Rohit Behl, Interim CEO of EntomoVentures Pte. Ltd & Business

  Development Lead of Cellivate Technologies Pte Ltd

• -  Mr. Will Cowling, Marketing Manager, FMCG Gurus

• -  Mr. Wee Meng Thoo, Partner and Head Of Investments, Digital and

  Sustainability, Leonie Hill Capital

• -  Mr. Smith Taweelerdniti, CEO, Let’s Plant Meat – Managing Director, Nithi

  Foods Co. Ltd, Innovator & Entrepreneur

• -  Mr. Jean Pasternak, Strategy Director, Nasekomo

• -  Dr. Emily Chang, Professor, Department of Agriculture Economics, National

  Taiwan University

• -  Mr. Travin Singh, Founder & CEO, Crust Group

• -  Mr. Jean-Yves Chow, Agri-Food Sector Coverage Lead, Senior Vice-

  President, Asia & Oceania Corporate Banking Department, Sector Coverage

  Team, Mizuho Bank

• -  Mr. William Koo, Managing Director, Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator

  (‘TLA’)

Supporting Organisation(s):

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The organizers are expecting 700 participants to attend the online event. Global Food Security & Sustainability Virtual Summit 2021 is supported by the following sponsors:

For more information on the event, please visit:

https://pinnaclegroup.global/gfsss/ About

The Pinnacle Group International

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The Pinnacle Group International - CDMC is a leader in the conference industry in Asia, designing and launching its own brand of conferences and events. The Pinnacle Group is headquartered in Singapore with supporting regional offices in Shanghai and Philippines. The Company’s renowned brands of conferences and events cover a wide spectrum of industries including finance, energy, education, aviation, food security and sustainability and real estate.

VIDEO: California Farmers Leave Fields Fallow As Drought Grows More Dire In West

By TYNE MORGAN May 28, 2021

As rains drop needed moisture for areas of the country dealing with drought and in need of relief, the situation is growing more dire in the West.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows improvement in the Plains, especially in the Southern Plains. Heavy rains also falling across western portions of the High Plains this week, lessening the drought conditions in the western Dakotas. Those moisture improvements also pilling over into western Nebraska and Kansas.

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The drought has become a mainstay in California. The Drought Monitor released Thursday shows exceptional drought growing, including Kern County, one of the top ranked counties for ag production in the nation.

Northern California reservoirs contain only half the water they normally do in late spring. 
Both the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project have announced they intend to deliver only 5% of requested supplies this year. 

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As California farmers rely on Mother Nature and ground water this year, one farmer says it won't be enough to even grow a crop, with some farmers choosing to not plant at all. Some producers are even pulling out trees. 

"There are land areas out here that are going to get one acre foot of water from the ground. That's what they're allocated," says Tyler Ribeiro, a dairy farmer in Tulare, California. "Good luck growing cactus on one acre foot. You're not going to be able to feed with that you can't grow trees out there. And we align with a lot of these tree guys in a sense of we feed their byproduct, I need those all almond hulls, I need those orange peels. I need a lot of those things. That's how we stay efficient [as a day farmer]."

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USDA meteorologists telling AgDay there's not much relief in sight for California and the West. Forecasters expect the drought west of the Rockies to only get worse.

Securing Food Supply For The Long Term

While officially classified by the United Nations as ‘food secure’, its arid climate and widespread desert conditions, mean that the GCC is heavily dependent on food imports to meet local demand. In the UAE for instance, near­ly 90 percent of demand is met through imports.

The region’s depend­ence on imports is a significant food security risk to the region. The Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed the vulnerabilities of the global food supply chain, making it clear that any long-term disruptions to global food networks could have catastrophic consequences.

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Investing in food security
Even before Covid-19, the region’s food industry was undergoing radical transformation as governments implemented new strategies in response to population growth and climate change, while producers were reacting to rapidly changing consumer behavior, and the need for greater efficiency and sustainability.

To counter the effects of the region’s arid climate, the UAE, along with other governments in the region, has invested in cutting-edge food production and distribution techniques such as hydroponics and vertical farming, smart irrigation, and aquaponics. And it is clear that advanced technologies such as robotics and AI offer exciting new opportunities for the food F&B sector.

Building food security
Countries that have steadily worked towards strengthening their internal production capabilities and logistics networks over recent years find themselves much better placed to ride out the crisis. This is evidenced by the relative ease with which GCC governments were able to manage food demand during the pandemic.

Securing Supply, the latest briefing paper produced by MEED in partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank, discusses the food security strategies underway in the GCC and Egypt, including the shifting focus on self-sufficiency in sectors such as fisheries, dairy, and poultry; enhancing in-country reserves; and growing investments in agricultural technology.

Download the paper here.

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29 Mar 2021

Belgian Lettuce Grower De Glastuin Achieves Increased Production And Faster Growth Cycles Thanks To A Full LED Solution From Signify

December 17, 2020

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Since the introduction of Philips GreenPower LED Toplighting Compact from Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, many vegetable, fruit and horticulture growers have made the choice to fully equip their greenhouses with LEDs. By combining this LED lighting with the GrowWise Control System, it is possible to both control and dim the light, giving growers a high degree of flexibility. This solution has now also found its way into lettuce growing; De Glastuin in Belgium opted for 100% LED grow lights from Signify.

Each type of lettuce requires a different amount of light. Heat is also a limiting factor when growing lettuce. As a result, in many periods it is not possible to illuminate the crops because too much heat accumulates in the greenhouse. Thanks to LED lighting, which emits less heat, it is possible to light the crop for longer hours, resulting in a increased production and faster growth cycles. The combination with the GrowWise Control System also allows the lighting to be dimmed. For example, to keep the light intensity the same on sunny days while maintaining light uniformity or to prevent climate fluctuations.

This summer, lettuce grower De Glastuin expanded its existing 1.75 hectare greenhouse with HPS lighting by 0.75 hectares. In this new part of the greenhouse, Philips GreenPower LED Toplighting Compact is installed together with the GrowWise Control System. The modules in the new part of the LED greenhouse have an output of 1800 µmol/s and require only 520 W (3.5 µmol/J). They provide a light level of 90 µmol/s/m². De Glastuin is pleased with the high quality and longer shelf life of the lettuce."With Toplighting Compact in combination with the GrowWise Control System, we can automatically adjust the amount of LED light to the amount of daylight at any given moment. As a result, there are fewer fluctuations in light intensity during the day. The lighting is much more efficient, dimmable and it offers us flexibility by allowing us to provide less light at any time," says Wouter de Bruyn, business manager at De Glastuin.

"De Glastuin's choice of Signify reinforces our conviction that we have chosen the right approach to make it easier for growers to switch to LED," says Udo van Slooten, Business Leader Horticulture LED Solutions at Signify.

The first Toplighting Compact was introduced in 2019 as a 1-on-1 replacement of HPS lighting to enable an easy transition to LED. The Toplighting Compact can be mounted on an existing HPS connection. This saves time and money during installation. In new greenhouses, installation is even easier thanks to easy-to-install brackets. The universal design of this system gives growers the possibility to fully equip their greenhouse with LED lights or to change their current set-up into a hybrid system with LED and HPS lighting. Signify's Compact range is also equipped with optics with normal and wide beam angles. The wide beam angle is ideal for growers looking for optimal light distribution or for lower greenhouses, for example. For crops where a greater distance between the plant and the grow light is possible, the normal beam is a better option.

More information about the Philips Horticulture LED solutions from Signify is available on the website.

For further information, please contact:

 Global Marcom Manager Horticulture at Signify

Daniela Damoiseaux

Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69

E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@signify.com

www.philips.com/horti

About Signify

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT) is the global market leader in lighting for professionals and consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. Our Philips products, Interact connected lighting systems and data-enabled services, deliver business value and transform life in homes, buildings, and public spaces. In 2019, we achieved sales of EUR 6.2 billion with approximately 37,000 employees in more than 70 countries. We unlock the extraordinary potential of light for better lives and a more sustainable world. We achieved CO2 neutrality by 2020 and have been on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since our IPO in 2016. We were named Industry Leader in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Signify news can be found in the Newsroom, on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.

After The Chaos of 2020, Will Indoor Farming Be In Our Future?

VANCOUVER, Wash. — The year 2020 has forced a number of disruptions to our daily lives, so what if we have more years like it in the future? How will we make sure our communities can survive by getting vital resources, like food?

The answer may be growing inside an old Hewlett Packard plant at the Vancouver Tech Campus in Washington.

Forward Greens is probably not what you picture when you think “farm”: vertical floor to ceiling stacks of planters filled with microgreens and baby greens, growing under LED lights

Forward Greens, Vancouver, Wash.

“Rather than growing out in an outdoor field, we’re growing up,” says Forward Greens CEO and Founder, Ken Kaneko. “We’re able to control the temperature, the humidity, the airflow, as well as the lighting,” he says.
From arugula to kale to broccoli, everything growing inside this urban, indoor farm wouldn’t be growing outside on a chilly November day in the Pacific Northwest.

From start to finish, the whole process of farming is essentially done in one room. In just a week or two, the greens are on their way to grocery stores in Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle.

Kaneko, who had worked for Intel and more recently, Apple, founded Forward Greens in 2017 after a trip to Japan. There, he stumbled upon his first vertical farm.

“I thought, ‘man, it would be great if I can bring this back to the Pacific Northwest and essentially do it better, cheaper, and more efficiently,'” said Kaneko.

Kaneko says Forward Greens never uses any pesticides, fungicides or herbicides and it uses 95% less water and 99% less land than traditional outdoor farming. But, he says, it uses a lot of energy to power the lights.

“Any engineering problem has a balance of cost, time, environmental impact, but the whole mission of this business is to balance those in a positive way towards the environment,” Kaneko said.

So could this be the farming of the future?

OSU Professor of Horticulture, Gail Langellotto, is pretty certain that it’s not. “In the near future, I can’t imagine a future where only agriculture is indoor agriculture,” she says, pointing to the high start-up costs, the higher cost of labor, and the expensive and taxing energy use.

She says traditional, outdoor farming will be difficult to replace because of the efficiency, precision and scale the industry has mastered and is constantly improving.

But Langellotto adds that if we have more years like 2020, with the pandemic and destructive wildfires on top of climate change, indoor farming will be an asset. She says urban farming is robust to disruptions in the local food system.

“If there are some supply and transport issues that delay or limit the amount of food that can be brought into urban areas from more rural, further out regions, then you already have an urban food production system in the proximity of where the majority of people live,” Langellotto said.

After the chaos of 2020, will indoor farming be in our future? (KATU video){ }

Kaneko is encouraged by the fact that urban farms can be a huge asset, saying, “we don’t know what’s going to happen with respect to the wildfires, the pandemic, the climate, so we’re able to provide local and sustainable food regardless of all those parameters.”
And that may be why Kaneko says demand for indoor farms is increasing. In fact, he’s expanding and doubling production at the Vancouver location in the next couple months. But he’s looking even further ahead to an even brighter future.

He hopes to put a Forward Greens in every metropolitan area, so we don’t fall to the fate of those HP printers that used to be built where his plants now grow.

KATU2 ABC Forward Greens
by Wesleigh Ogle, Thursday, December 3rd 2020

Published by Dani Kliegerman, iGrow News

Vertical Farming Is Coming To A Store Near You

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September 9, 2020

 by Julien Muller, Maxime Cailler

Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables is among the top 10 risk factors for our health. Eating fruits and vegetables daily helps prevent major diseases, ensures an adequate intake of most micronutrients and fibers, and can help displace foods high in saturated fats, sugar or salt.

The health benefits of eating more produce can’t be denied, but what about the old adage “fresh is best”? Locally grown fruits and vegetables have distinct advantages. The less time it takes to get to your plate, the better. Once vegetables are picked and harvested, they begin to lose their nutrients. Also, produce that is grown and sold locally has minimal transportation time, which translates to reduced fossil fuel emissions.

It may soon be common for anyone to pluck a farm-fresh tomato from the vine or choose their lettuce while it’s still growing, even if they live in urban areas without gardens. Indoor farms, and even in-store farms, are fulfilling our need for more local vegetables. These semi-autonomous vertical farms offer fresh, healthy food options by bringing food production closer to consumers.

Vertical farms use state-of-the-art technologies, such as specialized LEDs, to help the vegetables grow. Simulation is used to strategically design and optimize indoor farm lighting to create an optimal environment that decreases growing times.

Vertical Farming Lighting Challenges

Engineers designing in-store vertical farms must consider many optical aspects.

First, for a row containing a certain type of plant, it is important to ensure the right illumination value. Different plants need varying amounts of light to grow, and that amount can vary during the growth cycle.

It is also important to ensure illumination homogeneity through a row so all the seeds grow at the same speed. This eases the burdens of plant care during production and allows harvests to be scheduled as needed.

Similarly, when it comes to the light spectrum, plants don’t need all the wavelengths of natural light to grow. Plants respond best to just the red and blue wavelengths, so traditional lamps mimicking sunlight are a waste of energy. Careful optical design can help to optimize LED lighting to target only necessary wavelengths, saving energy in the process.

Lastly, the amount of light absorbed by the plants should be maximized. The less light plants reflect, the faster they grow, which reduces energy consumption.

Vertical Farms Grow with Simulation

LED lights are the most efficient, effective, and customer-friendly way to illuminate plants indoors. They use low energy, produce little heat, and can be color-optimized for growth.

To show how Ansys SPEOS can be used to design grow-light LED array solutions and simulate an indoor farm, we designed a generic light array with 90 LEDs. According to the literature, a diffuse purple spectrum (containing no green light) is optimal for plant growth. Plants reflect much of green visible light and absorb the rest of the spectrum. Consequently, the light array we created has 45 LEDs in the blue spectrum and 45 LEDs in the red spectrum, combining to make purple.

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Grow light array for a purple spectrum

Inside our farm, we first designed eight rows of 15 lettuce plants. Each row is illuminated by three of our purple spectrum light arrays.

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Vertical farm isometric (left) and side view.

To take the optical properties (light absorption and reflection) of the lettuce into account, we measured some leaf samples using Ansys’ Portable Optical Measurement Device (OMD). The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) obtained was applied to all of the lettuce plants in the geometry.

We then used light simulation to measure and visualize illuminance homogeneity, as well as the vegetables’ light absorption. The results obtained for the first design are shown below.

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Illuminance sensor (left) and 3D absorption (right)

We could see that the illumination was not homogeneous on the whole row. We then iterated on the LED array’s position, the spectrum of the LED, and the material of the walls of the vertical farm to produce the most efficient solution.

Vertical Farming Simulation Results Are Illuminating

We spaced the luminaires more evenly and gave more space between the LED arrays and lettuce plants. We also changed the materials on the sides and the back from transparent (absorbing) to white (diffusing). The front of the vertical farm was kept transparent so consumers could see the plants as they shopped.

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Vertical farm isometric (left) and side view.

Our next simulation showed that the illumination reaching the lettuce plants is more evenly distributed, producing a more uniform light absorption, as shown below.

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Illuminance sensor (left) and 3D absorption (right)

However, the lettuce plants in the front and back are a bit less illuminated, so they might not grow as well as the ones in the center. Because the simulation results are so visually striking, it’s easy to determine where the vertical farming design could be improved. One idea for the front lettuce plants would be to apply a partially reflective coating on the inside face of the front glass to reflect more light toward them. The optimized system would then both ensure an optimal harvest yield and optimal energy consumption.

Vertical farming for in-store produce is an idea making its way to the mainstream. Optical simulation helps quantify and visualize the benefits of vertical farms, such as using less energy and water, and growing what is needed in small batches, which wastes less food. 

Learn more about optical simulation and Ansys SPEOS.