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USA: Zenat Begum Turned A Bustling Brooklyn Street Corner Into A Working Greenhouse
She reached out to Jasper Kerbs of the Cooper Union Garden Project and, with the help of several volunteers, the structure was erected in October of last year. The shop is utilizing one of the city’s outdoor vending permits and they’re in the midst of harvesting this month
The owner of Playground Coffee Shop transformed the cafe’s outdoor dining space into a project centered around care, creativity, and community
April 21, 2021
“I’m inviting people that I love to come and dress up the facade,” Zenat says of the greenhouse's verdant mural by artist Tiffany Baker. “I’m inviting people that I really respect to come and build these things because we deserve the best.”Image courtesy of Zenat Begum
To understand how a fully functioning greenhouse ended up at the busy intersection of Quincy Street and Bedford Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, it’s important to get to know Zenat Begum, the owner of Playground Coffee Shop.
Zenat opened the shop back in 2016, in a space that previously housed her father’s hardware store, and quickly expanded to include the Playground Annex, which houses a radio station and bookstore, as well as Playground Youth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to issues confronting the community, including literacy and food equity.
“I believe in Bed-Stuy. I believe in myself. I believe in the shop. I believe in the greenhouse,” says Playground Coffee Shop owner Zenat Begum. “These are things that are active radical attempts. We are imagining our futures because these things aren’t going to be built for us.”Image courtesy of Zenat Begum
Providing for the community is fundamental to each project that the Playground team takes on. “Every time we do something, we change and raise the bar of what should be done in our communities,” Zenat explains. “I’m talking about being able to keep implementing this really large notion and understanding of entrepreneurship into taking care of your communities.”
Shortly after the pandemic hit, Playground got to work on several mutual aid projects. The team established a take-one-leave-one library that distributes works exclusively by writers of color, assembled a network of volunteers distributing PPE and essential supplies at Black Lives Matter protests, and they worked with organizers to create a network of community fridges providing free produce 24 hours a day.
It was while working on the fridge project that the idea for the greenhouse began to crystalize, in realizing that fundamentally addressing the issues surrounding food sovereignty wasn’t, as she says, “as simple as just donating a fridge.”
Zenat cites the statistics: One in three kids in New York City are food insecure, and one in 10 in public schools experience homelessness. She probed further, looking at obesity and food deserts and gentrification. “Let’s reel it back: Why aren’t there programs that support Black and brown families who can’t support their children with adequate nourishment and nutrition?”
“It made me really frustrated. We need to have a plot of land that grows for this. We need to get an actual farm to be able to grow food for this,” Zenat says. And never having built a greenhouse before didn’t scare her off. “I don’t really have the tools,” she thought. “But I also know that, for the understanding that I have and the experience that I’ve had growing up in New York, I know what a New Yorker deserves, which is a lot more.”
She reached out to Jasper Kerbs of the Cooper Union Garden Project and, with the help of several volunteers, the structure was erected in October of last year. The shop is utilizing one of the city’s outdoor vending permits and they’re in the midst of harvesting this month.
When they’re able to resume programming, Zenat intends to teach kids in the neighborhood how to get involved and have plots so they can start growing together. “The most important thing about this is that this will be an opportunity for kids who live in Bed-Stuy to see food growing, to show them that there is life that starts at fertilizing and that we can be involved in the process of food distribution and food harvesting from the very beginning.”
“Our greenhouse is straight up on the street. I want people to see that these structures have to and should exist.”Image courtesy of Zenat Begum
And she acknowledges the responsibility and history that comes with this endeavor. “We’re on stolen land right now,” Zenat says. “We’re thinking about farming practices that date back to East Asia, which is where my family is from, and sharecropping that was implemented during the period just after slavery, which is one of the darkest times in history, period. But with all of those tragedies and travesties occurring, there is this sense of land and relationship that we have that we need to bring back to ourselves. It’s ancestral, of course, and it’s spiritual, but most importantly it’s territorial. Why is it that Black and brown people have a hard time with housing and food insecurity when we have literally created some of the most adequate and sophisticated food systems in the world? Our bodies are used to actually supply people with this type of food and nourishment.”
“So there’s many things that we’re addressing here, but I only hope that at surface level we’re talking about things that actually make a difference, which is ultimately feeding children.”
In true Playground style, the greenhouse is one of many initiatives in the works—from financial literacy courses and book clubs to bystander intervention trainings. Given Zenat’s dedication, there’s no doubt they’ll come to fruition. “The way that I love New York is so poetic. I’m like one of those gnarly girlfriends, ‘Did you eat today? Do you want water?’” She asks the city: “Did you eat today, New York? Do you want water? Do you want a pillow?”
If you’d like to support Playground Youth, there is a fundraiser underway for programming and operational costs.
Turning Empty Spaces Into Urban Farms
With a lower occupancy rate in both retail and office spaces, property developers probably could redevelop the buildings for another usage – urban or vertical farming as done in Singapore with tremendous success
EVEN as many ordinary Malaysians struggle to make ends meet arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, empty shop lots continue to mount along the streets and some even display signs that say “available for rent”.
With the growing importance of food self-sufficiency, now is the time for Malaysia to turn empty spaces into urban farms – tackling food security-related issues besides making good use of the existing sites.
Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in or around urban areas.
Although Malaysia is rich in natural resources, we are highly dependent on high-value imported foods. Presently, our self-sufficiency level for fruits, vegetables and meat products stands at 78.4%, 44.6% and 22.9%, respectively.
With a lower occupancy rate in both retail and office spaces, property developers probably could redevelop the buildings for another usage – urban or vertical farming as done in Singapore with tremendous success.
According to the National Property Information Centre, the occupancy rate for shopping malls in Malaysia has dropped consecutively for five years. It declined from 79.2% in 2019 to 77.5% in 2020, the lowest level since 2003.
Penang recorded the lowest occupancy rate at 72.8%, followed by Johor Baru and Kuching (75.3%), Selangor (80%), Kuala Lumpur (82%), and Kota Kinabalu (82.1%).
In addition, the Valuation and Property Services Department revealed a lower occupancy rate at Malaysia’s privately-owned office buildings compared to the pre-pandemic era.
For instance, Johor Baru recorded the lowest occupancy rate of privately-owned office buildings at 61.9%, followed by Selangor (67.5%), the city centre of Kuala Lumpur (77.8%), Penang (79.8%), Kota Kinabalu (86.5%), and Kuching (87.1%).
Aquaponics – pesticide-free farming that combines aquaculture (growing fish) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) – would be the way forward.
To summarise, aquaponics is one of the soilless farming techniques that allow fish to do most of the work by eating and producing waste. The beneficial bacteria in the water will convert waste into nutrient-rich water and is fed into the soil-less plants.
Following are the steps for vertical aquaponic farming:
1. Small growth cups are filled with coco peat, which are then sterilised under ultraviolet light, preventing bacteria and viruses from entering into the water pumps. There is an additional control over the environment with regard to temperature and daylight through the use of LED growth lights.
2. A hole is poked in the middle of the cup, where a plant seed is placed inside. The use of non-genetically modified organism seeds, where the majority are imported from reliable sources, is very much encouraged.
3. The seed is germinated for one to three days in a room.
4. Once the seed has germinated and grown to about two centimetres, the pots can be placed in the vertical harvest tower.
5. Nutrient-filled water from the fish pond flows to the plants automatically. Big plants grow within 30 days.
While enabling the growth of many varieties of vegetables with indoor temperature conditions, aquaponics can generate fish production, sustaining economic livelihoods particularly for the underprivileged and disabled communities, as well as fresh graduates who are still struggling to secure a decent job.
Although Sunway FutureX Farm, Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, and Urban Hijau, for instance, are good urban farming initiatives in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, there are still many potential sites that could be transformed into urban farms.
Therefore, Malaysia perhaps can adopt Singapore’s approach by using hydroponics on roofs of car park structures and installing urban farms into existing unutilised buildings.
As it requires only a quarter of the size of a traditional farm to produce the same quantity of vegetables, the vertical rooftop system would yield more than four times compared with conventional farming. At the same time, it also reduces the need to clear land for agricultural use while avoiding price fluctuation.
Besides reducing over-reliance on imports and cutting carbon emissions, indoor vertical farming within the existing building also allows local food production as part of the supply chain.
It could expand into workshops, demos and expos besides offering guided and educational tours that promote the joy of urban farming.
Through urban farming structure inside a building, stressed-out office workers and the elderly, in particular, can enjoy a good indoor environment, air quality and well-ventilated indoor spaces. They can also relax their mind through gardening and walking around urban farms.
To increase the portion of food supplied locally, the government needs to empower farmers and the relevant stakeholders, incentivising the private sector in urban farming and providing other support through facilitating, brokering and investing.
This in turn would enhance the supply and affordability of a wide range of minimally processed plant-based foods as suggested under the latest Malaysia Economic Monitor “Sowing the Seeds” report by the World Bank.
With the current administration’s laudable commitment to tackling food security-related issues, this would provide an opportunity for Malaysia to review the current national food security policy by addressing productivity, resources optimisation, sustainable consumption, climate change, water and land scarcity.
By putting greater emphasis on urban farming, the government could empower farmers to plant more nutritious, higher-value crops; to improve their soil through modern technologies application (i.e., Internet of Things, Big Data and artificial intelligence); and to benefit from increased opportunities by earning higher returns on their generally small landholdings.
The government could also provide seeds, fertilisers and pesticides-related subsidies paid directly to the urban farmers through a voucher system.
For instance, the urban farming operators could use the voucher to buy high-quality seeds from any vendor or company.
The vendor also can use the voucher to claim payment from the government.
Not only would this approach create healthy competition among vendors, but it would also stimulate agricultural activities.
And given that current youth involvement in the agriculture sector is only 240,000 or 15% of total farmers in Malaysia as noted by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries (Mafi) I, Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah, Mafi, the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives and Ministry of Youth and Sports have to craft training programmes and develop grant initiatives together – attracting the younger generation of agropreneurs to get involved in urban farming.
These ministries can also work with the Department of Agriculture, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, and Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority to develop more comprehensive urban farming initiatives.
While providing job opportunities for youths to embark on urban farming, young agropreneurs can enjoy higher income and productivity, and yields, on top of increasing the contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product.
For urban farming to thrive in Malaysia, the government perhaps can adopt and adapt the Singapore government’s approach: developing specific targets to encourage local food production.
Even though Singapore has limited resources, it is still setting an ambitious target – increasing the portion of food supplied locally to 30% by 2030.
The upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan also will provide timely opportunities for the government to turn empty spaces into urban farming in the context of the ongoing impact of Covid-19 besides fostering agricultural modernisation by leveraging on Industrial 4.0.
In a nutshell, every Malaysian can do their part to help Malaysia become more food resilient. By converting empty spaces into urban farms, it can reduce food waste, encourage local products purchase and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Amanda Yeo is a research analyst at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research. Comment: letters@thesundaily.com
Three Ways Singapore Is Designing Urban Farms To Create Food Security
Securing food during a crisis and preserving land for a livable climate is changing the focus of farming from rural areas to cities
FARMING IN THE CITY
Urban farming in Singapore
How Singapore has stimulated innovation in urban farming on a massive scale
By Clarisa Diaz | Things Reporter
March 31, 2021
Securing food during a crisis and preserving land for a livable climate is changing the focus of farming from rural areas to cities. At the forefront of this shift is Singapore, a city-sized country that aims to produce 30% of its own food by 2030. But with 90% of Singapore’s food coming from abroad, the challenge is a tall order. The plan calls for everyone in the city to grow what they can, with government grants going to those who can use technology to yield greater amounts.
“This target took into consideration the land available for agri-food production and the potential advances in technologies and innovation,” said Goh Wee Hou, the director of the Food Supply Strategies Department at the Singapore Food Agency. “Local food production currently accounts for less than 10% of our nutritional needs.”
The food items with potential for increased domestic production include vegetables, eggs, and fish. According to the Singapore Food Agency, these three types of goods are commonly consumed but are perishable and more susceptible to supply disruptions. Alternative proteins such as plant-based and lab-grown meats could also contribute to the “30 by 30” goal. In 2020, there were 238 licensed farms in Singapore.
Only 1% of Singapore’s land is being used for conventional farming. That created the constraint of growing more with less. The government has put its hopes in technology, stating that multi-story LED vegetable farms and recirculating aquaculture systems can produce 10 to 15 times more vegetables and fish than conventional farms.
Since 2017, land has been leased in two districts on the edge of the city—Lim Chu Kang and Sungei Tengah—to large-scale commercial farm projects. While the optimization of these farms to produce at maximum capacity is being determined, the idea of growing food in the more urban spaces of Singapore has emerged: from carpark rooftops to reused outdoor spaces and retrofitted building interiors.
Urban farms in Singapore
Urban farms using hydroponics on parking structure roofs
Citiponics is one of Singapore’s first rooftop farms. The hydroponic farm is on top of a carpark, a structure that services almost every neighborhood in Singapore.
Read more: How a parking lot roof was turned into an urban farm in Singapore
Installing urban farms into existing buildings
Sustenir Agriculture has created an indoor vertical farm that can retrofit into existing buildings (including office buildings). The company grows foods that can’t be produced locally, displacing imports and cutting carbon emissions.
Read more: The indoor urban farm start up that’s undercutting importers by 30%
Building a better greenhouse for urban farms in tropical climates
Natsuki’s Garden is a greenhouse in the center of the city, occupying reused space in a former schoolyard. The greenhouse is custom designed for the tropical climate to allow for better air circulation. Yielding 60-80 kg of food per square meter, the greenhouse caters to a small local market.
Read more: How a Singaporean farmer is building a better greenhouse for tropical urban farming
High production urban farms still need to be sustainable
Open to applications later this year, a new $60 million government fund will provide funding for more agritech businesses. According to the Singapore Food Agency, the fund will assist with start-up costs catering to large-scale commercial farms, no matter the location.
But as Singapore tries to advance, there are some left behind. The traditional farms that do exist in Singapore are being displaced, their knowledge no longer valued because they are not seen as hi-tech, according to Lionel Wong, the founding director at Upgrown Farming Company, a consultancy that helps equip new farming business owners across Singapore. “While we are trying to increase production, the net result could actually be reduced production because the traditional growers are being removed from the equation in the long term.”
In the long-run, high production of food within Singapore will need a sustainable market of consumers, to Wong that market isn’t completely clear at the moment. “‘30 by 30’ is really just a vision. The Food Agency deserves a lot of credit in terms of what they’re trying to push, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.” Wong continued, “productivity doesn’t necessarily equate to sustainability or profitability.”
Whether Singapore is able to produce its own food sustainably for the long-run remains to be seen. But the endeavor is certainly an exciting moment for entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of what farming and cities can be.
Lead photo: COURTESY CITIPONICS | Singapore aims to produce 30% of its food by 2030.
This Vertical Farming System Was Designed To Build Up Community And Accommodate The Urban Lifestyle!
Urban farming takes different shapes in different cities. Some cities can accommodate thriving backyard gardens for produce, some take to hydroponics for growing plants, and then some might keep their gardens on rooftops
03/19/2021
Following interviews with local residents, Andersson set out to create a farming system that works for the city’s green-thumb community.
Urban farming takes different shapes in different cities. Some cities can accommodate thriving backyard gardens for produce, some take to hydroponics for growing plants, and then some might keep their gardens on rooftops. In Malmö, small-scale farming initiatives are growing in size and Jacob Alm Andersson has designed his own vertical farming system called Nivå, directly inspired by his community and the local narratives of Malmö’s urban farmers.
Through interviews, Andersson learned that most farmers in Malmö began farming after feeling inspired by their neighbors, who also grew their own produce. Noticing the cyclical nature of community farming, Andersson set out to create a more focused space where that cyclical inspiration could flourish and where younger generations could learn about city farming along with the importance of sustainability.
Speaking more to this, Andersson notes, “People need to feel able and motivated to grow food. A communal solution where neighbors can share ideas, inspire and help one another is one way to introduce spaces that will create long-lasting motivation to grow food.”
Since most cities have limited space available, Andersson had to get creative in designing his small-scale urban farming system in Malmö. He found that for an urban farm to be successful in Malmö, the design had to be adaptable and operable on a vertical plane– it all came down to the build of Nivå.
Inspired by the local architecture of Malmö, Andersson constructed each system by stacking steel beams together to create shelves and then reinforced those with wooden beams, providing plenty of stability. Deciding against the use of screws, Nivå’s deep, heat-treated pine planters latch onto the steel beams using a hook and latch method. Ultimately, Nivå’s final form is a type of urban farming workstation, even including a center workbench ideal for activities like chopping produce or pruning crops.
Taking inspiration from community gardens and the local residents’ needs, Andersson found communal inspiration in Malmö.
Backyard and patio gardens are popular options for those living in cities who’d still like to have their very own gardening space.
Lead photo: Designer: Jacob Alm Andersson.
Kalera Announces Newest Vertical Farming Facility To Open In St. Paul, Minnesota
With millions of heads of lettuce to be grown per year, Kalera’s St. Paul facility will provide a source of fresh, non-GMO, clean, living lettuces and microgreens to retailers, restaurants and other customers. Kalera’s location in the heart of the city will shorten travel time for greens from days to mere hours, preserving nutrients, freshness, and flavor
The New Facility Will Provide Fresh,
Hydroponically-Grown Produce To The Western Midwest
ORLANDO, Fla., March 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kalera (Euronext Growth Oslo ticker KAL, Bloomberg: KSLLF), one of the fastest-growing US vertical farming companies in the world and a leader in plant science for producing high-quality produce in controlled environments, today announced the purchase of a facility in St. Paul, Minnesota which they will convert to a vertical farming facility. Kalera’s Minnesota location is the eighth facility it has announced, making it one of the fastest-growing vertical farming companies in the United States. This announcement comes on the heels of the news of Kalera’s appointment of Sonny Perdue, former Secretary of Agriculture and Maria Sastre to the Board of Directors, as well as its acquisition of Vindara, the first company to develop seeds specifically designed for use in vertical indoor farm environments as well as other controlled environment agriculture (CEA) farming methods.
With millions of heads of lettuce to be grown per year, Kalera’s St. Paul facility will provide a source of fresh, non-GMO, clean, living lettuces and microgreens to retailers, restaurants and other customers. Kalera’s location in the heart of the city will shorten travel time for greens from days to mere hours, preserving nutrients, freshness, and flavor. The facility will also generate approximately 70 jobs upon opening.
“I’m proud to be welcoming Kalera to St. Paul and the W. 7th neighborhood,” said City Councilmember Rebecca Noecker, who represents St. Paul’s Ward 2. “The facility is not only bringing millions of dollars in investment into the community but is also providing jobs and importantly, increasing access to fresh, non-GMO, clean, locally grown produce.”
Kalera currently operates two growing facilities in Orlando and last week started operations in its newest and largest facility to date in Atlanta and is building facilities in Houston, Denver, Columbus, Seattle, and Hawaii. Kalera is the only controlled environment agriculture company with coast-to-coast facilities being constructed, offering grocers, restaurants, theme parks, airports and other businesses nationwide reliable access to locally grown clean, safe, nutritious, price-stable, long-lasting greens. Once all of these farms are operational, the total projected yield is several tens of millions of heads of lettuce per year, or the equivalent of over 1,000 acres of traditional field farms. Kalera uses a closed-loop irrigation system which enables its plants to grow while consuming 95% less water compared to field farming.
“Minnesotans are all too familiar with the limitations of a challenging climate,” said Daniel Malechuk, Kalera CEO. “They also take great pride in local accomplishments, so we are extremely excited to facilitate this opportunity for Minnesotans to have fresh, high quality produce year-round, grown by the locals for the locals.”
Final project commitments, including jobs and capital investment, are contingent on final approval of state incentives.
ABOUT KALERA
Kalera is a technology-driven vertical farming company with unique growing methods combining optimized nutrients and light recipes, precise environmental controls, and cleanroom standards to produce safe, highly nutritious, pesticide-free, non-GMO vegetables with consistently high quality and longer shelf life year-round. The company’s high-yield, automated, data-driven hydroponic production facilities have been designed for rapid rollout with industry-leading payback times to grow vegetables faster, cleaner, at a lower cost, and with less environmental impact.
Stockholm’s Indoor Farms Boost Food Security
The city is revolutionizing its food sector by showing results in eco-friendly urban farming
The City Is Revolutionizing Its Food
Sector By Showing Results
In Eco-Friendly Urban Farming
14 Mar 2021
In April 2020, the UN warned that the world was on the brink of a catastrophic famine.
It was estimated that about 135 million people in around 55 countries faced shortages in food, particularly nutritious food, in 2019.
Against this backdrop, the UN has set an ambitious goal to ensure food security and wipe out hunger by 2030. It estimated that around 183 million people could slide into starvation and malnutrition if stricken with a pandemic akin to Covid-19. The coronavirus crisis disrupted global food supply chains, leading to chronic shortages in many countries.
Even before this pandemic, the ecological costs of food production were rising, compounded by water scarcity in many places. Irrigation accounts for about 70% of freshwater withdrawals around the world, with the figure reaching 90% in some developing countries.
Food production, which is critical for survival, affects the ecosystem. With the Earth’s resources depleting every day and the world population growing, we must discover innovative ways to cultivate food. We need ground-breaking and resourceful approaches to not only feed the world’s population but to do so in eco-friendly ways.
Faced with this dilemma, we need to develop alternative methods of farming, particularly using artificial intelligence.
Stockholm’s modern indoor farming methods provide some answers on how to overcome global food shortages. The city is revolutionizing its food sector by showing results in eco-friendly urban farming.
Some buildings in Stockholm incorporate artificial intelligence and eco-friendly methods into indoor farming. Circular energy wastewater and carbon-absorbing mechanisms enable indoor-grown greens while reducing the ecological footprint.
Indoor farming in Stockholm uses LED lighting and hydroponic watering systems. Food, especially vegetables, is grown indoors all year round. Growing vegetables indoors not only cuts reliance on food imports but also makes cities self-sufficient in food.
More than 1.3 million plants are grown indoors in Stockholm every year. Indoor farming has allowed Sweden to slash food imports by 60% and cut carbon emissions incurred in transporting food. Such transport accounts for a quarter of emissions in Sweden.
In some Stockholm suburbs, bright LED lights illuminate a business space. In this building, plants follow an artificial daylight rhythm to grow as efficiently as possible. Delicate plants such as various herbs and lettuce grow in stacks of about 20 metres wide by six metres high. Local restaurants, supermarkets and airlines buy this indoor-grown indoors.
Weather conditions in Sweden allow open-air farming for only three to four months a year. But climate is not a constraint in indoor farming, which maximises the use of space using stacks. Each shelf has its own LED lighting and circulating water. Even fruits like strawberries can be grown throughout the year.
Sweden Foodtech, a government agency, acts as a catalyst in promoting and encouraging innovation in the food sector. This agency also offers support to firms that want to restructure the food ecosystem. Companies converge when business events are organized focusing on major themes revolving around the future of the Swedish food sector.
Besides Sweden Foodtech, the Stockholm Business Region, a business promotion agency, aims to create a resilient food ecosystem for innovative businesses. Its goal is to position Stockholm as a “leading food-tech hub” for 300 companies in the food-tech industry.
Public interest, environmental consciousness, and an innovative society has made Stockholm a conducive place for food-tech initiatives. Consumers in this city are more ecologically vigilant, and many of them feel it is their moral obligation to support eco-friendly products. The city itself also extends support to all kinds of sustainable projects.
As a society grows more affluent, it places greater emphasis on health issues and ecological considerations. Ecological degradation and the use of harmful chemical fertilisers and pesticides will spur demand for eco-friendly and healthier food products.
Some 55% or 4.3 billion of the global population of 7.8 billion are urban dwellers. This figure could reach 70% or 6.8 billion of the world’s population of 9.7 billion by 2050.
High-tech vertical farms offer alternative ways to grow food on a large scale. In this way, we can grow our food in more energy-efficient and healthier ways. Despite developments in agricultural technology, conventional farming faces problems such as pests, climate change, and natural disasters.
With the scarcity of arable farming land, ecological problems, and health hazards, the trend is towards indoor food cultivation. The only challenge is to reduce the cost of indoor farming, especially for urban dwellers in less affluent countries.
But with technology rapidly advancing along with ongoing R&D and innovation, costs will fall, allowing economies of scale in indoor farming. Technological advances will lower costs, enhance quality and improve harvests, all of which will provide better returns on investments.
The trend towards indoor vertical hydroponic or aeroponic farming will gain momentum, especially in urban areas. Mass food production in the future will probably focus on indoor farming in buildings rather than horizontal farming on the ground.
READ MORE: Use idle city land to grow food
What’s in it for Malaysia? Our total agricultural imports reached nearly $18.3bn in 2019, roughly 7% from the US. We must slash this high import bill.
The government should encourage more Malaysians to enter the food ecosystem and develop the sector completely along the value chain. It should give incentives to unemployed graduates, especially those in relevant disciplines, to venture into the food sector. It should encourage them to get involved in R&D, integrated farming, indoor farming, manufacturing, logistics, marketing and distribution.
If there is anything we can learn from the coronavirus pandemic, it is that we have to ensure food self-sufficiency. We saw how the pandemic severely disrupted global food supply chains, and so our national agenda should prioritize food security.
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7 New HDB Carpark Rooftop Sites Offered For Rental For Urban Farming In Public Tender
More local produce. Part of Singapore's efforts to strengthen its food security is increasing its capability to produce food locally
Part of Singapore's efforts to strengthen its food security is increasing its capability to produce food locally.
To do this, more sites for urban rooftop farms atop multi-storey Housing Development Board (HDB) carparks are being offered for rental, via a public tender process that was launched today (Feb. 23).
Seven new sites
Seven sites have been identified in Jurong West, Bukit Panjang, Sembawang and Woodlands, according to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and HDB.
The sites will be used to farm vegetables and other food crops, and will also be used to pack and store produce.
They will be tendered out as a single site (in Jurong West) and three cluster sites (in Bukit Panjang, Sembawang and Woodlands).
Screenshot from SFA and HDB
Tenderers who successfully bid for cluster sites will be awarded all sites within the cluster, to allow them to cut costs through production at scale.
Single-site farms, on the other hand, provide opportunities to "testbed innovative ideas".
Tenderers must submit their proposals via GeBiz before the tender closes on Mar. 23, 4pm.
Proposals will be assessed on their bid price, production output, design and site layout, as well as their business and marketing plans.
More information can be found on SFA's website here.
Producing food locally
This is the second time tenders were launched for rooftop urban farms on carparks here — the first took place in Sep. 2020, with nine sites being awarded.
Collectively, the nine farming systems can potentially produce around 1,600 tonnes (1,600,000kg) of vegetables per year.
Having more space for commercial farming in land-constrained Singapore is one of SFA's strategies to achieve its "30 by 30" goal — which is to produce 30 percent of Singapore's food locally by 2030.
The move is also in line with HDB’s Green Towns Programme to intensify greening in HDB estates.
“Besides contributing to our food security, Multi-Storey Car Park (MSCP) rooftop farms help to bring the community closer to local produce, thereby raising awareness and support for local produce," said Melvin Chow, Senior Director of SFA’s Food Supply Resilience Division.
Jersey City Housing Authority To Host Vertical Farms
The partnership aims to provide more access to healthy food
Partnership Aims To Provide
More Access To Healthy Food
February 25, 2021
AeroFarms will construct and maintain 10 farming sites, the first of which will be built at the Curries Woods Community Resource Center as part of a new agreement between the city, AeroFarms, and the Jersey City Housing Authority.
Vertical farms will provide free nutritious food to residents in need now that the Jersey City Council has adopted a resolution approving an agreement between AeroFarms, the city, and the Housing Authority.
The new agreement means that vertical farms will be opened at Curries Woods and Marion Gardens.
The public housing farms, which will be funded by the city, will increase healthy food access where needed most and encourage residents to live healthier lifestyles.
The Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), AeroFarms, and Jersey City Housing Authority will collaborate with the Boys & Girls Club and Head Start Early Childhood Learning programs to support produce distribution and healthy eating education.
“We’ve worked hard to keep the Vertical Farming Program a priority despite the impacts from this pandemic, which have disproportionately affected the more economically challenged areas and exacerbated societal issues such as healthy food access,” said Mayor Steven Fulop.
“We’re taking an innovative approach to a systemic issue that has plagued urban areas for far too long by taking matters into our own hands to provide thousands of pounds of locally-grown, nutritious foods that will help close the hunger gap and will have an immeasurable impact on the overall health of our community for years to come.”
City farming
AeroFarms will construct and maintain the farming sites. The first will be built at the Curries Woods Community Resource Center. The Boys & Girls Club and Head Start will integrate the vertical farm as a learning tool for youth within their educational programming.
Head Start, operated by Greater Bergen Community Action, plans to integrate greens into its early childhood meals.
AeroFarms indoor vertical farming technology uses up to 95 percent less water and no pesticides versus traditional field farming.
According to the city, the JCHA-Aerofarms Advisory Committee will be formed to provide strategic oversight and guidance throughout the program.
The steering committee will include Jersey City residents and stakeholders from the Boys & Girls Club and Head Start.
The city’s Vertical Farming Program will consist of eight additional vertical farms throughout Jersey City in senior centers, schools, public housing complexes, and municipal buildings.
The 10 sites will grow 19,000 pounds of vegetables annually using water mist and minimal electricity, according to the city.
The food is free to residents if they participate in five healthy eating workshops, and they will have the option of participating in a quarterly health screening.
“As a Certified B Corporation, we applaud Mayor Fulop’s leadership and advocacy to bring healthier food options closer to the community, and we are excited to launch together the nation’s first municipal vertical farming program that will have a far-lasting positive impact for multiple generations to come,” said Co-Founder and CEO of AeroFarms David Rosenberg.
The city’s Health and Human Service Department will run the program with a health-monitoring component to track participants’ progress under a greener diet, monitoring their blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity.
Crops will be integrated with other Healthy Food Access initiatives, including senior meal programs, according to the city.
“Access to healthy food and proper nutrition is directly linked to a person’s mental and physical health, and can decrease risks of chronic diseases while increasing life expectancy,” said Stacey Flanagan, director of Health and Human Service for Jersey City. “This past year has shed light on the health disparities that exist in urban areas nationwide, which is why we’ve remained focused on closing gaps where healthy food access is most needed, specifically for our low-income, youth, and senior populations.”
Healthy food initiatives
The Vertical Farming Program is part of the broader initiative from the World Economic Forum (WEF) toward partnerships with cities.
Jersey City is the first in the world to be selected by WEF to launch the Healthy City 2030 initiative, which aims to catalyze new ecosystems that will enable socially vibrant and health-centric cities and communities.
The vertical farming initiative is the latest and broadest effort Jersey City has launched around food access, including more than 5,000 food market tours for seniors to educate them on healthy eating, and the “Healthy Corner Store” initiative.
According to a 2018 city report, much of Jersey City could be described as a “food desert.”
The USDA defines a food desert as “a low-income census tract where either a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store.”
This means at least 500 people or 33 percent of the population live more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.
According to the city, these deserts have led to an increased rate of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other diet-related illnesses in the more marginalized communities of Jersey City.
“We are thrilled that the vertical farms that will be installed at JCHA sites to enable some of our most vulnerable residents, including low-income households, children, and seniors, to have access to fresh, green produce that is nutritious, delicious, and easy to prepare,” said Vivian Brady-Phillips, director of the JCHA.
For updates on this and other stories check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Marilyn Baer can be reached at Marilynb@hudsonreporter.com.
These Buildings Combine Affordable Housing And Vertical Farming
Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around a million pounds of produce a year
A Million Pounds of Produce A Year, Along With Housing And Jobs.
[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]
02-18-21
Some vertical farms grow greens in old warehouses, former steel mills, or other sites set apart from the heart of cities. But a new series of projects will build multistory greenhouses directly inside affordable housing developments.
“Bringing the farm back to the city center can have a lot of benefits,” says Nona Yehia, CEO of Vertical Harvest, a company that will soon break ground on a new building in Westbrook, Maine, that combines a vertical farm with affordable housing. Similar developments will follow in Chicago and in Philadelphia, where a farm-plus-housing will be built in the Tioga District, an opportunity zone.
[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]
“I think what we’ve truly understood in the past year and a half—although we’ve been rooted in it all along—is that we have in this country converging economic, climate, and health crises that are rooted in people’s access to healthy food, resilient, nourishing jobs, and fair housing,” Yehia says. “And we saw this as an urban redevelopment tool that has the potential to address all three.”
Nona Yehia [Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]
The company launched in 2015 on a vacant lot in Jackson, Wyoming, aiming in part to create jobs for people with physical and developmental disabilities in the area. In 2019, it got a contract from Fannie Mae to explore how its greenhouses could help with the challenge of food security and nutrition, studying how a farm could be integrated into an existing affordable housing development in Chicago as a model for new projects.
Now, as it moves forward with the Chicago project and expands to other cities, it will also create new jobs for people who might have otherwise had difficulty finding work, working with local stakeholders to identify underserved populations. “Part of this is providing healthy, nutritious food,” Yehia says, “but also jobs at livable wages. We’re positioning all of our firms to address the new minimum wage level of $15 an hour with a path towards career development.”
[Image: Harriman/Gyde/courtesy Vertical Harvest]
Inside each building, the ground level will offer community access, while the greenhouse fills the second, third, and fourth floors, covering 70,000 square feet and growing around a million pounds of produce a year. (The amount of housing varies by site; in Maine, the plan includes 50 unites of housing, and the project will also create 50 new jobs.) In Chicago, there may be a community kitchen on the first level. In each location, residents will be able to buy fresh produce on-site; Vertical Harvest also plans to let others in the neighborhood buy greens directly from the farm. While it will sell to supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, and other large customers, it also plans to subsidize 10-15% of its harvest for local food pantries and other community organizations. “By creating a large-scale farm in a food desert we are creating a large source of healthy, locally grown food 365 days a year,” she says.
Correction: We’ve updated this article to note that the project in Maine has 50 units of housing, not 15, and the company received a contract—not a grant—from Fannie Mae.
ADELE PETERS
ADELE PETERS IS A STAFF WRITER AT FAST COMPANY WHO FOCUSES ON SOLUTIONS TO SOME OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST PROBLEMS, FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO HOMELESSNESS. PREVIOUSLY, SHE WORKED WITH GOOD, BIOLITE, AND THE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS PROGRAM AT UC BERKELEY, AND CONTRIBUTED TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE BESTSELLING BOOK "WORLDCHANGING: A USER'S GUIDE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY."
CANADA - CALGARY: Local Produce Options Expand With Vertically Farmed Greens
The newest local player is Allpa Vertical Farms. The company is headed by three young entrepreneurs who used their shared interest in food, sustainability, and engineering to build a vertical farming operation
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Feb 20, 2021
Pictured is a package of sunflower microgreens produced by ALLPA in Calgary on Thursday, February 11, 2021. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia
Over the years, the local food movement has grown from a handful of agriculture advocates touting the importance of supporting local farmers to a large-scale demand for everything from meat to chocolate that’s been produced and, when possible, grown here in Alberta. With Canada’s Agriculture Day being this Tuesday, it’s as good a time as any to celebrate homegrown products, be it artisanal honey or good ol’ Alberta beef.
Yet, as we look outside at our February weather, it’s obvious that some of our favourite foods simply can’t grow in abundance here. Greenhouse technology allows farmers to grow local cucumbers and tomatoes alongside wheat and canola fields, but greenhouses take up a lot of real estate. A new breed of urban farmer is using vertical farming techniques to grow crops like microgreens and baby kale on a much smaller footprint, right inside the city limits.
Pictured are some of the microgreens produced by Allpa in Calgary. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia
The newest local player is Allpa Vertical Farms. The company is headed by three young entrepreneurs who used their shared interest in food, sustainability, and engineering to build a vertical farming operation. It involves vertically stacked levels of plants, grown indoors, usually in a warehouse or shipping container. The lighting, irrigation, and soil are carefully controlled so that crop yields aren’t reliant on exterior factors like weather and sunlight.
Allpa specializes in microgreens, growing radish, broccoli, sunflower, and arugula sprouts that can be bought by the tub at the Italian Centre Shop and all Sunterra locations. Since microgreens only take about 11 days to go from seed to harvest, the Allpa crew can grow their greens to order, making for less food waste.
From left: Andrey Salazar and Guillermo Borges, Allpa co-founders, with Zakk Tambasco, head of production, with their products. Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia
“The company (began) with an internal conflict I had between climate change and farming,” says founder Andrey Salazar, who grew up on a coffee farm in Columbia and has studied physics and electrical engineering in Calgary. “I wanted to combine my background as a farmer and my practical skills as an engineer, so I went to my garage and started building the equipment.”
Allpa is far from the first vertical farming outfit in Calgary. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Deepwater Farms had developed a huge following among restaurant chefs with its greens grown via a vertical hydroponics system. The company was originally conceived as a closed-loop aquaponics operation, raising fish and using the fish waste to fertilize plants. Food safety regulations have prompted the company to decouple the two systems, but it continues to sell both indoor-grown baby kale, arugula and beet greens as well as barramundi and tilapia.
It’s been a successful model. Before COVID-19, the majority of Deepwater’s business was with restaurants seeking products previously unavailable from local producers (you don’t see a lot of barramundi swimming around Calgary), all of which came to a screeching halt last spring. The company was able to pivot and is now doing a booming retail business, with their products available in 80 retailers, including all Calgary Co-Op stores, select Safeway and Sobeys locations, Blush Lane and Community Natural Foods, among many others.
“We work with some of the best restaurants in the area and that’s how we started,” says Paul Shumlich, Deepwater’s founder and CEO. “Now we’re 99 percent selling to retail, which we’re very grateful for.”
Reid Henuset and Paul Shumlich of Deepwater Farms pose for a photo in the city’s first commercial aquaponics farm on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Al Charest/Postmedia Al Charest/Postmedia
Vertical farming methods are hardly dominating in Alberta – with so much farmland we obviously have other options to grow food, along with a reliable flow of food grown in warmer climes. But it is taking hold in other parts of the world and Calgary has the potential to be a leader in vertical farming technology. The Harvest Hub is a local tech start-up developing soil-based indoor farms, with a focus on green energy and diversification of crops, which will allow urban farmers to go beyond microgreens and leafy greens. Founder Alina Martin says Harvest Hub has had success growing crops like saffron, zucchini, carrots, and bell peppers in its Calgary test farm. Once they hit the market, technological innovations should make vertical farming more feasible for urban growers.
“Vertical farming is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, but most people in Canada don’t understand it,” Martin says. “As much as we romanticize the idea of having your food growing just down the street, the challenge here is the cost. You can’t be in downtown Calgary growing basil and make money. The infrastructure costs will kill you.”
While Martin suspects that Harvest Hub’s business will largely come from outside of Calgary (the company is working on addressing food insecurity in communities in Canada’s North), she does believe vertical farming is the way of the future on a global scale. While we may not have locally grown saffron in our cupboards in the immediate future, it is nice to have access to that Calgary-bred barramundi and handfuls of affordable microgreens for now.
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.
Living Greens Farms Ramps Up Midwest Expansion
Living Greens Farm has upped its retail distribution with the addition of UNFI Produce Prescott, a division of United Natural Foods, Inc (UNFI)
Feb. 18th, 2021
by Melissa De Leon Chavez
FARIBAULT, MN - Living Greens Farm (LGF) has upped its retail distribution with the addition of UNFI Produce Prescott, a division of United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI). This new retail partnership will help LGF expand its product reach to independent, specialty, and co-op retailers throughout the upper Midwest.
According to a press release, LGF’s proprietary vertical indoor farming method yields high-quality, fresh produce. No pesticides or chemicals are used during the growing process. Throughout the growing, cleaning, and bagging process, LGF reduces handling and time to the retail shelf. All of these benefits continue to attract new users and new retail distribution.
Living Greens Farm has upped its retail distribution with the addition of UNFI Produce Prescott, a division of United Natural Foods, Inc (UNFI)
Beginning this month, LGF’s full line of products featuring ready-to-eat bagged salad products, such as Caesar Salad Kit, Southwest Salad Kit, Harvest Salad Kit, Chopped Romaine, and Chopped Butter Lettuce will be carried by UNFI Produce Prescott (formerly Alberts Fresh Produce).
Across the nation, UNFI has eight warehouses, and LGF’s products will be carried by its upper Midwest location, located just across the river from the Twin Cities in Prescott, Wisconsin.
As indoor farming becomes more popular, who will Living Greens Farm partner with next?
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow as we cover the latest.
COMPANIES IN THIS STORY
We believe in revolutionizing how produce is grown throughout the world. Our products are fresh, local, and pesticide-free....
UNFI
UNFI is the leading independent national distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods and related products...
Seattle Architect Is Helping The Fast-Growing Field of Indoor Ag Take Root
Seattle architect Melanie Corey-Ferrini is launching a controlled-environment business with assists from Sabey Corp., and Microsoft. The multifaceted, to-be-named enterprise includes a training program at Alan T. Sugiyama High School at South Lake in Seattle, where she is pictured in the cafeteria with a grow tower. Anthony Bolante | PSBJ
By Marc Stiles – Senior Staff Writer, Puget Sound Business Journal
January 16, 2021
Seattle architect Melanie Corey-Ferrini’s kiosk-style lobby pop-up concept called G2 is the ultimate in farm-to-fork dining. Protein-rich grains and greens are grown on-site in the unmanned, transparent kiosk and combined with other veggies, roots, spices and dairy to make custom bowls ordered on a mobile app. G2 last summer was named best pioneering food service concept in a national contest.
It’s one small example of the possibilities of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA), which is at the heart of Corey-Ferrini’s latest endeavor: a multifaceted, urban ag project largely centered in Tukwila, where Sabey Corp. is providing warehouse space for hydroponic growing equipment that Microsoft donated.
Corey-Ferrini will use space at Sabey’s Intergate East data center campus to build and launch CEA education and business development programs this year.
CEA is a technology-based approach to food production that allows indoor farmers to maximize use of water, energy and labor. Worldwide in the third quarter, venture capitalists invested $1.6 billion in ag tech companies, bringing the 2020 total to $4.2 billion, according to PitchBook. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a developer of life science office and lab space, offers early-stage companies move-in-ready space at its Center for AgTech in Durham, North Carolina.
The sector has struggled to put down roots in the Seattle region, where there has been one unsuccessful attempt. Now comes not only Corey-Ferrini’s to-be-named enterprise but also Kalera, a Florida-based company that plans to open a facility in 70,000 square feet of leased space in Lacey this year.
Several years ago, Corey-Ferrini consulted with Microsoft on a CEA project in Redmond. Contract farmers used Microsoft’s PowerBI and Azure platforms to grow in hydroponic towers lettuce and micro-greens for company cafeterias.
“I was like, why aren’t more people doing this? It seems like it should be a programmatic feature in all food-related spaces,” said Corey-Ferrini. “I’ve learned it’s really a little bit of robotics, a little bit of AI, a little bit of automation.”
As a member of Soroptimist Seattle, which works to empower women and girls, she is establishing a program at Alan T. Sugiyama at South Lake, an alternative public high school in the Rainier Valley. She is working with other groups like New Roots, an International Rescue Committee program that provides land and other support in South King County to around 150 immigrant and refugee families.
Deepa Iyer, senior program coordinator for New Roots, said a pilot indoor ag tech and business class will be offered at the Sabey building through Corey-Ferrini’s enterprise. She said it will provide pathways not only to a year-round growing platform but training for tech careers.
The experience of a Seattle indoor ag business, UrbanHarvest, shows the challenges of such an endeavor. Six years ago, it worked with Seattle’s Millionair Club Charity (now Uplift Northwest) during its launch, but the program shut down after about a year when it couldn’t raise additional funds, said founder Chris Bajuk.
Corey-Ferrini is approaching it with a long-term view and plans to build a multipronged enterprise with multiple income streams. Kara Anderson, director of architecture at Sabey, said Corey-Ferrini has a good shot at pulling this off.
“She’s got endless energy,” said Anderson, who added that, like Sabey, Corey-Ferrini is known for outside-the-box thinking.
“She’s not afraid to pick up an idea without knowing really how she’s going to pull it together. She just starts marching down the path to get partners and grab people into her extensive network to brainstorm,” said Anderson.
Sabey, a developer and operator of data centers nationwide, sees opportunities in the project for both its business and community.
“We’re interested in what’s going on in our backyard and opportunities to help out and make some lives better if we can,” Anderson said “At some point these indoor facilities will be monitored by computers and that, in turn, ends up feeding into the data center world.”
Melanie Corey-Ferrini
Position: Chief experience architect
Company: Dynamik Space, a design and branding company
Founded: 2000
Career: Also currently CEO of 3.14DC, which programs food and retail spaces
Lessons Learned
Use your sense of humor.
Be curious.
Don’t fear failure.
From A Landfill Site To An Urban Farm: The Transition That Kept A Thai City Fed During COVID-19
Many residents of Chiang Mai, where the farm is based, lost their tourist-dependent jobs during the start of the pandemic
15 Jan 2021
Rina Chandran Correspondent, Reuters
An urban farm in Thailand, built on a former landfill site, has been helping feed nearby residents during the COVID-19 crisis.
Many residents of Chiang Mai, where the farm is based, lost their tourist-dependent jobs during the start of the pandemic.
It could provide model of how to turn unused spaces into places that benefit the whole community.
Urban farming is an important tool in promoting sustainability and tackling food insecurity.
An urban farm developed on a former landfill site in northern Thailand boosted the food security and livelihoods of poor families during the coronavirus pandemic, and can be a model for unused spaces in other cities, urban experts said on Thursday.
The farm in Chiang Mai, about 700 km (435 miles) from the capital Bangkok, took shape during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus last year, when many of the city's residents lost their tourism-dependent jobs.
Supawut Boonmahathanakorn, a community architect who works on housing solutions for Chiang Mai's homeless and informal settlers, approached authorities with a plan to convert the unused landfill into an urban farm to support the poor.
"We had previously mapped the city's unused spaces with an idea to plant trees to mitigate air pollution. The landfill, which had been used for 20 years, was one of those spaces," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"Poor families spend more than half their earnings on food, so when their incomes dried up, they were struggling to feed their families. This farm has been a lifeline for some of them," he said, pointing to neat rows of corn and morning glory.
Coronavirus lockdowns worldwide have pushed more city dwellers to grow fruit and vegetables in the backyards and terraces of their homes, and forced authorities to consider urban farming as a means to boost food security.
In Chiang Mai, after authorities approved the farm plan, an appeal on social media resulted in donations of plants, seedlings and manure from residents, Supawut said.
With diggers loaned by the city, Supawut and his team cleared some 5,700 tonnes of rubbish on the 4,800 square-metre (0.48 hectare) plot that lies next to a canal and a cemetery.
The land was levelled, and a rich topsoil added to offset the degraded soil. The farm opened to the community in June.
About half a dozen homeless families, students from a public school and members of the public grow eggplant, corn, bananas, cassava, chilli, tomatoes, kale and herbs, Supawut said.
"In cities, we have lost our connection with food production, but it is a vital skill," he said.
"Urban farms cannot feed an entire city, but they can improve nutrition and build greater self-sufficiency especially among vulnerable people. They are important during a pandemic - and even otherwise," he added.
Supawut Boonmahathanakorn stands by the urban farm he helped create.
Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Rina Chandran
Come together
Urban agriculture can potentially produce as much as 180 million tonnes of food a year - or about 10% of the global output of pulses and vegetables, according to a 2018 study led by Arizona State University.
Rooftop farms, vertical gardens and allotments also help increase vegetation cover, which is key to limiting rising temperatures and lowering the risk of flooding in cities.
While land in cities is scarce and expensive, rooftops and spaces below expressways and viaducts can be repurposed, said landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom, who designed Asia's largest urban rooftop farm in Bangkok.
"We need imagination and greater flexibility in our laws to turn such spaces into urban farms," she said.
"The Chiang Mai farm is a sandbox - it shows it can be done in even the most unlikely of spaces if the government and the community come together," she added.
For Ammi, a homeless indigenous Akha woman who has lived at the farm since July, the corn, melons and cabbage that she grows have fed her and her husband, and provided a small income.
"It gives people like me an opportunity to be self-sufficient," she said. "We need more such farms in the city."
Lead photo: The farm provides a model of how to turn unused spaces into places that benefit the whole community. REUTERS
This article is published in collaboration with Thomson Reuters Foundation trust.org
Greenhouse Villages To Sprout In Metro Manila
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) recently partnered with four barangays in Caloocan and Quezon for the creation of greenhouse villages as part of the urban agriculture program of the government
Louise Maureen Simeon
12/22/2020
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture will start establishing greenhouse villages in Metro Manila to help ensure a sustainable food supply in the country.
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) recently partnered with four barangays in Caloocan and Quezon for the creation of greenhouse villages as part of the urban agriculture program of the government.
Urban agriculture is one of the flagship programs of the Plant Plant Plant initiative of the DA to boost supply amid the pandemic.
Barangays 179 and 180 in Caloocan and barangays Payatas and Tandang Sora in Quezon City will serve as pilot areas for the project.
Under the partnership, ATI will provide funding assistance for the establishment of a greenhouse village per barangay.
This will feature one unit of high greenhouse with an administration office and storage area, one unit of seedling nursery with micro-sprinkler irrigation, and one unit of production area with drip kit irrigation system.
The agreement also calls for 10 sessions of training program from the construction phase until harvest time.
Through this, the DA and ATI aim to showcase doable technologies of protective farming systems.
The partnership also targets to increase the production of vegetables and to make these available in the barangay level throughout the year amid varying weather conditions.
DA’s urban agriculture program has been gaining positive feedback from more institutions as it continues to help stabilize food supply, foster social integration, and protect the environment through eco-friendly methods and innovative gardening methods.
It was launched in April as an immediate response to the food supply disruption due to the pandemic.
Agrifood Tech Firms Are Flocking To Singapore, With Perfect Day The Latest To Land
US alt-dairy startup Perfect Day revealed today that it will set up an R&D facility in Singapore, with the city-state’s minister for trade and industry predicting “many other companies” will be joining it to take advantage of the growing agrifood tech ecosystem there
December 20, 2020
US alt-dairy startup Perfect Day revealed today that it will set up an R&D facility in Singapore, with the city-state’s minister for trade and industry predicting “many other companies” will be joining it to take advantage of the growing agrifood tech ecosystem there.
A*STAR's headquarters in Singapore. Image credit: A*STAR
California-based Perfect Day is establishing the joint R&D center in collaboration with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR.)
This center will bring together A*STAR’s expertise in areas such as taste analytics, cell biology, and protein biotech. The aim of the collaboration is to “build analytical platforms to characterize and quantify the key components in dairy food products that provide their distinctive taste and feel,” the startup said in a statement.
Founded in 2014, Perfect Day produces ‘animal-free’ dairy products using microflora to ferment sugars to create the same proteins, casein, and whey present in animal milk.
The startup is just the latest international agrifood tech company to set up shop in Singapore.
Invest with Impact. Click here.
Last month, German indoor farming firm &ever said it would establish its global R&D center in the city-state to carry out research into energy efficiency and yield optimization for indoor vertical farms. It’s also constructing a “mega-farm” in the east of Singapore with an annual production capacity of over 500 tons that is set to open by the end of 2021.
In October, US alt-protein startup Eat Just announced it would invest a total of $100 million with investor Proterra to build Asia’s first plant-based protein factory in Singapore. Earlier this month, the city-state handed Eat Just the world’s first regulatory approval for a cell-based, cultured meat product, clearing its ‘lab-grown’ chicken bites for sale to the public.
Swiss food industry majors Buhler and Givaudan announced the launch of a joint innovation center in Singapore in February to explore textures and tastes for plant-based protein products. French animal feed firm Adisseo set up an aquaculture R&D center in Singapore back in December 2019 to research aquatic animal health and nutrition.
Citing data from AgFunder, Singapore Minister of Trade & Industry Chan Chun Sing said that the global agrifood sector is “primed for growth” with investment into agrifoodtech startups growing 47% year-on-year in 2018 and a further 17% in 2019 to reach $19.8 billion. [Disclosure: AgFunder is AFN‘s parent company.]
With its “unique farm-to-fork ecosystem and track record for technical capabilities, quality branding, and intellectual property [IP] protection, Singapore aims to capture a significant share of the wave of economic opportunities in agrifoodtech,” Chan told reporters at a press conference announcing Perfect Day’s partnership with A*STAR.
Alt-protein products like those being developed by Perfect Day, Just Eat, and local players including Shiok Meats and TurtleTree Labs — which announced its $6.2 million pre-Series A round last week — have a critical role to play in feeding countries and cities like Singapore, where arable land is minimal and primary food sources are typically located far away.
“Alternative proteins will add to the suite of options we have without being restrained by factors like the [amount] of land and other natural resources we have. Overall, [they provide] a much more efficient, sustainable way to feed the population, across Asia, where demand will go up proportionally with the growth of the middle class,” Chan said.
But the buck doesn’t need to stop at Singapore securing its own nutritional needs, he added.
“We are not limiting our aspirations just to the domestic market. The larger market for this sector is really [the] growing needs for the Asia-Pacific, that we hope to capture. Look at China, Indonesia, India – as people become more affluent, as they seek higher quality food products, there will be a bigger market for these kinds of products. How do we feed a growing population in a sustainable manner that is also good for the environment? So our sense is not just how big the local market is, but how big the global market can be.”
“We want to make sure the core IP, the core R&D happens here – so the high-value part of the value chain is housed in Singapore, and we can attract the investment and the people to come here,” Chan said.
He noted that in addition to the arrival of foreign startups and corporates, as well as the growth of local players, a variety of domestic and international investors are contributing to the development of Singapore’s agrifood tech ecosystem.
“We are also building a vibrant cluster of financing firms across various stages, for example, New Protein Capital, EDBI, Temasek, and Proterra, as well as a base of global agrifood accelerators [such as] Big Idea Ventures‘ alternative proteins accelerator and GROW Accelerator […] Our eventual aim is to build up the talent pool with the expertise to deploy more than S$90 million [$67.5 million] of capital.” [Disclosure: GROW Accelerator is operated by AgFunder, AFN‘s parent company.]
Returning to Perfect Day’s R&D center announcement, Chan said it is another “milestone in our ongoing journey.”
“There will be many other companies joining us to build up our ecosystem,” he continued. “We’re optimistic this can become a new pillar of our economic development, providing us with greater [economic] diversity, food security for Singapore, and new opportunities in countries beyond Singapore.”
Singapore sovereign fund Temasek led Perfect Day’s $140 million Series C round in December 2019.
Got a news tip? Email me at jack@agfunder.com or find me on Twitter at @jacknwellis
alt dairy, asia, Europe, Germany, indoor agriculture, indoor farming, singapore, United States, urban agriculture, urban farming, vertical farming
AUSTRALIA: Can Urban Areas Become A Powerhouse For Horticultural Production?
Hort Innovation, a grower-owned research corporation, is working with a consortium led by agricultural consultancy RMCG in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and urban agriculture consultancy Agritecture to assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in urban Australia
DECEMBER 18, 2020
Australia is looking to become more engaged with the global swing to high-technology horticulture in urban areas.
High-tech urban hort is being implemented across the world using vertical farm systems, hydroponics and aquaponic systems and nearly fully automated production as well as rooftop, underground and floating farms.
Hort Innovation, a grower-owned research corporation, is working with a consortium led by agricultural consultancy RMCG in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and urban agriculture consultancy Agritecture to assess the potential of emerging production technology and its application in urban Australia.
They are looking at the potential benefits for growers and Australia through the wider use of technology such as vertical farm systems and hydroponics in food production and delivery systems.
Hort Innovation CEO Matt Brand said bringing such technology to Australia would attract capital and new entrants to the sector with new ideas, approaches and mindsets.
NO URBAN MYTH: CEO of Hort Innovation Matt Brand said the research and development corporation was keen to explore the potential for increased horticultural production in urban areas.
"It gives us the opportunity to grow more from less and to keep demonstrating the good work that Australian growers do, day in day out, providing food to families both here and overseas.
"Urban in this context also captures regional areas and hubs. Growers will use the technology as part of the overall production mix. It's another production system that will be part of the diversity and variety that is Aussie horticulture," he said.
"High technology horticulture may have the potential to play a significant role in increasing Australia's horticulture sector value and help achieve Australia's target of a $100 billion industry by 2030."
The feasibility study aims to identify the opportunities and challenges for high technology horticulture in urban Australia.
The outcomes of the study will identify future priorities for research, development and extension activities and investment into Australian high technology horticulture in urban areas.
The study is being guided by an industry-led reference group including growers and emerging commercial leaders engaged in urban high technology horticulture in Brisbane and Sydney, members of local city councils, and subject-matter experts in protected cropping.
Greenhouse and hydroponic consultant Graeme Smith said these new systems were the modern face of horticulture that should complement the current supply chain in a key range of nutritious and delicious produce.
Lead photo: PERFECTLY RED: Hydroponics has enabled the intensive production of premium quality tomatoes and other horticultural staples in protected environments.
This story Can urban areas become a powerhouse for horticultural production? first appeared on Farm Online.
Making Singapore A Land of Farmers
By 2030, the government has announced that 30 percent of food consumed locally will be locally grown under its “30 by 30” initiative
AUTHOR Malay Mail
December 13, 2020
Kuala Lumpur, Dec. 13 — Singapore is known for its ambition.
This tiny nation (just 700 square kilometers in area, 400 times smaller than Malaysia) is now one of the most competitive economies on Earth.
And yet even by its own standards, it has set a very lofty goal.
By 2030, the government has announced that 30 percent of food consumed locally will be locally grown under its “30 by 30” initiative.
Presently, under 10 percent of the things Singaporeans eat are grown in Singapore. This is extremely low by global standards but again Singapore has a resident population of almost six million, on a small island, with just 400 acres of true farmland in the entire country.
Four hundred acres is the size of a single modest farm in places like the USA and even a mid-scale Malaysian plantation can be double the size.
Yet in Singapore, this is the sum total of all our agricultural land so how on earth are we going to feed millions of people?
The answer is an unprecedented deployment of technology. Vertical farms, advanced hydroponics and growing techniques using nutrients, perfectly calibrated irrigation systems, robotics, and 24/7 monitoring.
The government is also going to work to utilize urban spaces – rooftops, balconies, alleys – on quite an unprecedented scale to achieve greater food self-sufficiency.
While the investment will be high, Covid-19 has proved the benefits are likely to be worth it.
The pandemic showed us that global supply chains can collapse and in times of disruption, governments will prioritize feeding their own populations.
A country with no farmland and agriculture is completely at the mercy of its suppliers.
While Singapore has long been somewhat cognizant of this vulnerability – the government does hold strategic food reserves – this simply isn’t enough and some sort of local agricultural base is needed.
Of course, local sourcing doesn’t just improve our security, it also reduces our carbon footprint and can help ensure what is being consumed is of a very high standard.
So more local farming seems like a clear win all around.
But things are never quite so simple.
As we ramp up our urban farming capacity, won’t we once again be shifting more power and capital to the same tech companies and multinationals that already control so much of our lives?
Recently the government announced that well-known agri-tech company Bayer would launch a large-scale vertical farm in Singapore with a multimillion-dollar investment.
Surely it’s only a matter of time before we have Amazon and Tencent farms. They already supply our homes with all manner of goods, so why not farmed produce? Basically, are we about to see another great leap forward in the dominance of big tech?
Farming has long been the domain of a fairly diverse array of small- and medium-scale producers.
A shift to local production under large-scale corporations will disadvantage many Indonesian and Malaysian farmers who currently supply Singapore.
Previously our purchasing power helped the broader region as we paid high prices for our foodstuff.
And, of course, what of the local population? If there is going to be a shift to local agriculture how can we ensure it creates opportunities for ordinary Singaporeans?
If giant corporations set up automated vertical farms, how will this create employment for us?
The government is clearly aware of the issue and it has been working to increase the number of allotments (plots that give those with no access to a garden a small green space to grow their own fruits and vegetables).
Local sourcing needs to engage local communities yet the resources needed to allow significant local agriculture in Singapore means ordinary citizens will struggle to participate meaningfully in this bid for self-sufficiency.
To reach this 30 percent target sustainably and in a way that benefits us all, we will all need to become urban farmers.
Virtually every home would need a micro-irrigation system, HDB (government housing) corridors would need to overflow with produce and bomb shelters and basements would need to be converted into little hydroponic farms on a staggering scale.
It really could be transformative – bringing together an entire nation to achieve the objective of locally-sourced food.
Working together to sustain the basis of our existence and a return to farming – something the ancestors of most Singaporeans left some time ago.
But for this to happen, as much effort must go into investing in ordinary families and homes as in big corporations.
I for one am already prepared; I’ve bought a few mushroom-growing packs and just acquired a small tomato plant so in a few weeks I look forward to my homegrown pasta sauce.
And in the meantime, I’ll keep waiting for the government to give me the grant to install a giant indoor hydroponic system.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.com
Copyright 2017 Malay Mail Online
INDIA: This Goa Couple Grow Their Veggies & Fish Without Using Soil or Chemicals!
On 185 square meters of greenhouse and rooftop garden, in their house at Dona Paula, Panaji, they produce 120 kilograms of fish a year and grow 3,000 plants consisting of vegetables and fruits
AUTHOR: GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
December 1, 2020
Goa-based Peter Singh is 74-years-old, and his wife Neeno Kaur is 65. They are a power couple, setting an example of how to be self-reliant with food, and at the same time, converting biodegradable waste into something useful.
On 185 square meters of greenhouse and rooftop garden, in their house at Dona Paula, Panaji, they produce 120 kilograms of fish a year and grow 3,000 plants consisting of vegetables and fruits.
For the last four years, they have been practicing aquaponics at home, a combination of aquaculture (raising fish in tanks), with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water).
However, they do with a twist. “We do aquaponics with permaculture,” says Peter Singh, explaining his system to a bunch of enthusiasts earlier this year.
(L) Peter Singh in his air-conditioned greenhouse that has plants which require a cooler climate. (R) Ornamental fish are grown in a fish tank
He adds, “We compost our kitchen and garden waste and use it in our aquaponics. Plants are potted in a layer of gravel, 1/3rd of coco peat, and 2/3rd of compost. So, our plants get compost plus fish waste, which results in a higher yield. I don’t use any chemicals for this, and I am taking care of my waste and my food.”
One may wonder why they are doing it. For them, the answer is simple–they want to eat organic and be sure of how their food is grown.
Moreover, both have a background in agriculture.
“I was studying Mathematics at the Delhi University; the idea was to stay in Delhi, but then we thought of moving back to our farms in Jalandhar, Punjab. We worked on different forms of agriculture, in which different fruit and timber trees were planted, we did intercropping in the orchard of oilseeds and pulses, produced seeds for the national seed corporation, had a dairy farm, did beekeeping and even exported the honey,” explains Singh.
They moved to Goa seven years ago and found it difficult to source organic vegetables. The majority of the vegetables in the state come from the neighboring city of Belgaum in Karnataka. So, they decided to grow their food in this unique way.
“As we have limited space in Goa, we experimented and discovered aquaponics. We downloaded papers from universities, and read about it. And came up with this model,” says Singh.
They opine that they are still experimenting and bring in changes accordingly. As they have the technical know-how and a background in farming, they are quite confident of their system.
How this system works
Peter Singh explaining the model
This system of aquaponics which involves the fish tank, NFT pipes, (Nutrient Film Technique) which are used to grow vegetables, water-pumps, and artificial grow lights, may look complicated. But Singh makes it easier to understand. He has also made a model of this system that can fit in any balcony or even in any corner of the living room.
“This unit of 2 ft by 6 ft and 6 ft high, with artificial lighting of 200 watts uses 250 litres of water and can grow 180 plants. One can grow lettuce, kale, bok choy or any other vegetable. One fish tank can sustain five kilograms of fish mass so that you can have ten fresh-water fish of ½ kg each,” elaborates Singh.
The system works mainly on electricity, water, and fish waste.
Singh explains, “In a fish tank, the fish waste is mainly ammonia. In this system, aerators circulate the water and create a current. The fish waste settles at the bottom, and the pipes take this waste into the bio-filter, which breaks the ammonia into nitrates and nitrites for plants to use.”
The water gets further filtered and goes back to the fish. It also has aeroponic towers which work as the nursery of plants. It is also a space-saving system as it is vertical.
“Because of heavy nitrogen, green vegetables grow very well. We have lettuce, bok choy, and celery. Also, this system uses 10 percent of the water used in traditional soil-based farming, as water is constantly getting re-used. The only loss is in the evaporation. There’s no need of watering, no weeding, one only has to feed the fish twice a day,” says Neeno Kaur.
The entire system has three fish tanks on the ground floor. One is of 3,000 litres of water; second is 1,500 litres, and the third is 4,000 litres. They raise three types of fresh-water fish—rohu, catla, and chonak or sea bass. If one does not eat fish, Singh suggests using ornamental fish.
The rooftop garden
On their roof, they have a greenhouse of 12ft by 24ft, which has 2,000 plants. The greenhouse in the back garden is 6 ft by 16 ft and has 500 plants. A roof-top garden has 25 fruit trees, 300 onions, and an assortment of chillies, lemons, tomatoes, aloe, chives, creepers like ivy gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, bitter gourd, ladyfinger, brinjal.
Along a boundary on the ground floor, they have mango, banana, and papaya. They also have an air-conditioned tunnel of 8 ft by 12 ft in their greenhouse, with 1,000 plants of lettuce, kale, bok choy, basil, parsley, cabbage, and broccoli. For the whole system, they spend around Rs 14,000 per month.
The aquaponics system doesn’t require cleaning of water as the water gets filtered in the process. And all the fittings are made by Singh himself. He has also part-time workers for about six hours a day. He adds, “We spend Rs 6,000 on electricity, Rs 4,000 on feeding the fish, and another Rs 4,000 on labour.”
They won the first prize for Most Innovative Stall at the Aqua Goa Mega Fish Festival 2020 held in February.
Agriculture expert from Goa, Miguel Braganza opines, “Peter Singh’s aquaponics is good for those who can afford it as the basic cost of the unit is Rs 30,000. Also, it is ideal for those who eat salads and continental cuisine.”
Regarding the cost, Singh states that it is high “because we pump water from the ground floor to the greenhouse on the roof. If it is on the same floor, this is much lower.”
They also have plans for solar panels and making fish feed at home to be self-sustainable. He adds, “If we automate the system, and put in solar power, then costing will go down substantially. We are also working on growing feed for fish. So our whole system becomes self-dependent.”
However, they are also trying to monetise from this system, by conducting two-day training programmes priced at Rs 5,000. Singh adds, “We also custom design and help set up aquaponics systems, of any scale, from small home systems to commercial systems, charging 10 per cent of the capital cost for the design.”
(L) Bok Choi grown in aeroponic towers. (R) Gourds grown on the roof.
Recently, they started selling these vegetables from their home. A basket contains two bunches of lettuce, a baby bok choy, three sticks of celery, sprigs of parsley, basil, and a small bunch of mint, priced at Rs 100. They will also add kale and Swiss chard to it. From next month, their air-conditioned model will produce about 300 packs of greens a month at Rs 120 each.
Singh and Kaur are hopeful that more people will learn from this system and eat healthy food as it is the need of the hour.
He concludes, “This method is independent of the weather, rain, hail, and sun; it is protected from predators and is the future of agriculture. It doesn’t need land, soil, or chemicals, and produces vegetables and fish wherever you are.”
Also Read: Experts Answer: Can a Hydroponics Farm Be a Good Business? Here’s How!
This shows that aquaponics could be next best thing in agriculture due to urbanisation and loss of agricultural land. It is estimated that the market of aquaponics will grow with the awareness to eat healthy food.
According to a report by Assocham and Ernst & Young, organic products market in India have been growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 25 percent, expected to touch ₹10,000-₹12,000 crore by 2020 from the current market size of ₹ 4,000 crore. As aquaponics is a part of the organic market, the future looks bright for this new-age form of agriculture.
During the current nationwide lockdown to tackle COVID-19, Peter Singh is selling their produce once a week from their home by maintaining social distancing. He says, “We slowed down the sale of our produce in the first week, and worked out a weekly production schedule, which includes a weekly harvest and transplantation. This means we will be able to supply every week all year round.”
Lead photo: Peter Singh is 74, and his wife Neeno Kaur is 65. Together, they grow 3,000 plants on just 185 sqm by a method that’s independent of the rain, hail, and sun!
(Written by Arti Das and Edited by Shruti Singhal)
Sky-High Vegetables: Vertical Farming Sprouts In Singapore
Entrepreneur Jack Ng says he can produce five times as many vegetables as regular farming looking up instead of out. Half a ton of his Sky Greens bok choy and Chinese cabbages, grown inside 120 slender 30-foot towers, are already finding their way into Singapore's grocery stores
November 9, 2012
Singapore is taking local farming to the next level, literally, with the opening of its first commercial vertical farm.
Entrepreneur Jack Ng says he can produce five times as many vegetables as regular farming looking up instead of out. Half a ton of his Sky Greens bok choy and Chinese cabbages, grown inside 120 slender 30-foot towers, are already finding their way into Singapore's grocery stores.
The idea behind vertical farming is simple: Think of skyscrapers with vegetables climbing along the windows. Or a library-sized greenhouse with racks of cascading vegetables instead of books.
Ng's technology is called "A-Go-Gro," and it looks a lot like a 30-foot tall Ferris wheel for plants. Trays of Chinese vegetables are stacked inside an aluminum A-frame, and a belt rotates them so that the plants receive equal light, good airflow, and irrigation. The whole system has a footprint of only about 60 square feet or the size of an average bathroom.
Troughs of bok choy stack up vertically at the 30-feet urban farm in Singapore. The veggies rotate along the A-frame to ensure they receive even light. Courtesy of MNDSingapore.
Advocates, whose ranks are growing in cities from New York City to Sweden, say vertical farming has a handful of advantages over other forms of urban horticulture. More plants can squeeze into tight city spaces, and fresh produce can grow right next to grocery stores, potentially reducing transportation costs, carbon dioxide emissions, and risk of spoilage. Plus, most vertical farms are indoors, so plants are sheltered from shifting weather and damaging pests.
But is vertical farming just a design fad, or could it be the next frontier of urban agriculture? That depends on your angle — and location.
Implementing these "farmscrapers" on a commercial scale has been challenging, and making them economical has been almost impossible.
It's still up for debate whether vertical farms are more efficient at producing food than traditional greenhouses, says Gene Giacomelli, a plant scientist at the University of Arizona, who directs their the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center.
The limiting factor is light. The total food produced depends on the amount of light reaching plants. Although vertical farms can hold more plants, they still receive just about the same quantity of sunlight as horizontal greenhouses.
"The plants have to share the existing light, and they just grow more slowly," Giacomelli tells The Salt. "You can't amplify the sun."
For American cities, like New York and Chicago, Giacomelli thinks putting plain-old greenhouses on rooftops could be just as efficient as vertical farms – and a lot easier to implement.
In fact, two companies are already working on that approach. Gotham Greens is producing pesticide-free lettuce and basil for restaurants and retailers from rooftop greenhouses in Brooklyn, while Lufa Farms grows 23 veggie varieties in a 31,000-foot greenhouse atop a Montreal office building.
But for the island of Singapore, where real estate is a premium, vertical farming might be the most viable option. "Singapore could be a special case, where land value is so exceptionally high, that you have no choice but to go vertically," Giacomelli says.
An illustration of the 177-feet vertical farm by Plantagon currently in the works for Linkoping, Sweden.
The Sky Greens vegetables are "flying off the shelves," reports Channel NewsAsia — perhaps because the vertical veggies are fresher than most available in Singapore, which imports most of its produce from China, Malaysia, and the U.S. They do, however, cost about 5 to 10 percent more than regular greens.
"The prices are still reasonable and the vegetables are very fresh and very crispy," Rolasind Tan, a consumer, told Channel NewsAsia. "Sometimes, with imported food, you don't know what happens at farms there."
Lead photo: Senior Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan transplants some leafy green seedlings at the grand opening of Singapore's first commercial vertical farm. Courtesy of MNDSingapore.
Singapore’s Farms Face An Even Greater Challenge In A Post-COVID-19 World
A question now arises as to whether the '30 by 30' food supply vision will suffice for the country. The programme For Food’s Sake! finds out what changes are needed in the growing agri-tech sector
A question now arises as to whether the '30 by 30' food supply vision will suffice for the country. The program For Food’s Sake! finds out what changes are needed in the growing agri-tech sector.
Figuring out new ways to increase productivity on farms is one of the challenges.
01 Nov 2020
SINGAPORE: It is a vision that predates COVID-19. Spurred by threats like climate change, Singapore set about having 30 percent of its food produced locally by 2030, to improve its food security.
But food security expert Paul Teng thinks the country is not going far enough with its “30 by 30” goal set last year.
“Even if we achieve that in 10 years’ time, we’re still dependent on the rest of the world for the remaining 70 percent. If all things are normal, then it should be enough … to create a buffer,” he says.
“But if indeed all the worst-case climate change scenarios come true, and there are many other black swan events, then we may need more than two or three months’ worth.”
Professor Paul Teng.
The professor, an adjunct senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, sees COVID-19 as a “wake-up call” to do more.
“I don’t imagine that the COVID-19 pandemic will be the last time that we’ll be disrupted in terms of food supplies … If you look around Asia at the moment, you’ve got a whole host of issues affecting us,” he notes.
“The armyworm is just one example. But there are many other pest problems, disease problems … Anything could flare up and affect our supply chain. Then there’s also politics.”
There are 220 farms in Singapore as of last year, producing mainly leafy vegetables, fish and eggs.
Millions of dollars are being poured into this growing agri-food industry. But it still produces less than 10 percent of the country’s food, and the rest is imported from more than 170 countries and regions.
Local farms contributed 14 percent of Singapore's consumption of leafy vegetables last year.
Most of the farms are “not what I’d call modern farms”, says Teng, urging improvements in productivity. Not only that, other changes are also needed more than ever, the programme For Food’s Sake! finds out.
THE ISSUE OF LAND
One of Singapore’s largest producers of Asian leafy vegetables is Farm 85, which lies on 12 hectares of land in Lim Chu Kang — roughly the size of 17 football fields.
But its owner, Tan Koon Hua, who started the farm in 1991, does not think it is easy to increase production further.
“The most we can do is to find ways to prevent disruptions,” says the 52-year-old, citing the example of greenhouses, which he has built to protect his crops against changes in weather.
For Food’s Sake! host Ming Tan (left) with Tan Koon Hua.
The other solution, he believes, is a bigger land area. One of the reasons the work on the farm is laborious is its current size, agrees his son Zach, who works there.
For example, while large farms overseas “can invest in a big tractor” to aerate the soil, Farm 85 uses hand-operated soil tiller machines, cites the 26-year-old.
Less than one per cent of Singapore’s land is used for agriculture. In recent years, new plots have been released for farming, but in smaller parcel sizes ranging from about 0.6 to two hectares.
The largest plots awarded have been about six hectares, which means farmers still need to reduce their reliance on land.
Short leases have been another disincentive to making long-term investments in better equipment or infrastructure. It is one of the reasons, along with lack of technical know-how, that farmers are not as productive they could be, according to Teng.
Farm 85.
Today, the new plots have longer lease terms of up to 20 years, compared with previous ad-hoc lease extensions that were as short as three years.
PRODUCTIVITY PLATFORMS AND PITFALLS
To further help with productivity, the government has made several grants available since 2014. At least three are targeted specifically at the agriculture industry.
One is the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA’s) S$63-million Agriculture Productivity Fund. It is meant for farmers to invest in more innovative systems that can boost their yield, for example under a scheme — capped at S$50,000 — for the purchase of equipment.
There is also a scheme for farmers to convert their farm into a more high-tech farming system.
There are funding schemes for farmers to transform the work done on their farms.
To apply, the proposal they submit must include: The project’s objectives; a comprehensive description of the farming system, with the layout; brochures of the equipment; a full business plan; and a track record of the project team’s area of expertise.
For Food’s Sake! host Ming Tan was uncertain, however, whether farmers are able to “suddenly just provide this information”. “If they already knew how to do these (high-tech) things, don’t you think they’d have done them?” he questioned.
So a new type of farmer has sprung up in recent years. Ex-engineers and venture capitalists are among those who have set up tech-focused farms that do not rely on large fields.
Between 2015 and 2019, the number of vegetable farms increased from 54 to 83. Despite this increase of 54 percent, the production of leafy vegetables rose only by 11 percent, from 11,400 to 12,700 tonnes.
Up to 14 types of local vegetables are grown on Farm 85.
There are “still a lot of challenges on the ground”, an industry insider tells Ming. “There aren’t that many dedicated contractors who can build farms … Almost always the infrastructure cost starts ballooning,” he says.
Plus … you need to spend time, effort and money training everyone from scratch literally. We don’t have a ready pool of skilled indoor farmers.
In this high-tech farming space, proprietary technologies have been brought in from different parts of the world, but “these are also varied in terms of how (they’re) translated on the ground in Singapore, in the context of a tropical environment”.
“There’s a lot of clamor, sound … and hype coming,” he adds. “Still … they all need to translate into a viable business.”
IT’S EARLY DAYS YET
According to the SFA, the outlook for high-tech farms is not bleak.
A high-tech farm with lighting, climate control and plant racks extending to the ceiling.
“It’s a really nascent technology and sector. And as with any other new industry, it would take time for commercial models to sort of become viable,” says SFA deputy director (Food Supply Resilience) Sim Wi Min.
“There’s almost a five-year period where they have to do construction and fine-tune their operations. So while you don’t see that corresponding amount of production, I assure you we’ll see more production in years to come.”
She acknowledges that there are “inherent risks” involved, as “technology doesn’t come cheap”. Some farms that were grant recipients, for example, have wound down earlier than expected.
“Some of them don’t make it. Sometimes it’s not because the technologies don’t work. It could be that partnerships fall through,” she adds. “But cases that are successful outweigh those who exit the industry.”
Sim Wi Min.
One of the success stories is ComCrop, which was one of the first to attempt rooftop farming in Singapore eight years ago. Located in a Woodlands industrial estate, its crops are grown using hydroponics instead of traditional soil-based methods.
Chief executive officer Peter Barber thinks of it as a hybrid farm, using sunlight and a greenhouse designed for constant airflow, unlike high-tech indoor farms that use artificial lights and air conditioning. And he can see why the latter might struggle.
“These two worlds (high-tech and traditional farming) have operated in isolation,” he says. “(The traditional farmers) know what they need to do to grow vegetables, but they may not be so adept on the technological side.
“Then you’ve got the tech guys who have all their artificial intelligence and their robots … The problem is, the new guys don’t have the growing experience, and I think that’s why they’re falling down on the volume side.”
Peter Barber shows Ming around ComCrop's rooftop farm in Woodlands.
To create a flourishing industry, he says “we have to build an ecosystem”.
“Then we need the support of the food agency to make sure that Singaporean consumers see the quality, the safety and the nutritional value of what’s grown here in Singapore … and say, ‘That’s a gold standard,’” he adds.
“We still haven’t seen the full repercussions of the food supply problems that’ve been created by COVID. If we don’t change how much we’re growing here, we’re going to be paying more for food no matter which way we look at it.”
BRIDGING THE NUTRITION GAP
In the supermarket, however, some consumers have a preference for one type of vegetable over the other. Demand for vegetables from soil-based farms is higher than for those from high-tech farms, according to NTUC FairPrice, Singapore’s largest supermarket chain.
WATCH: Why aren’t Singaporeans buying more locally farmed produce? (5:26)
As a chef, Ming expected this to have something to do with taste. But in a blind taste test of bok choy (Chinese cabbage), the results were split evenly among customers at a tze char restaurant.
It turns out, however, that some people think soil-grown vegetables are more nutritious, as Ming found out when he asked on Instagram why people preferred to buy these vegetables.
Plant scientist Mandar Godge, who specializes in the study of Asian leafy vegetables, knows what is behind this partiality.
“There was a stark difference between the hydroponics-grown leafy vegetables and soil-grown (ones) five years ago, or even three years ago, in terms of the nutritional density,” says the Temasek Polytechnic researcher and lecturer.
“Now, the gap is bridged. We’re looking at very improved hydroponics techniques coming in and (producing) a similar nutritional density (to that) which we get in soil-based farming.”
Dr. Mandar Godge.
Over the past decade, scientists like him have been trying to supercharge hydroponics produce by, for example, customising them “based on what kinds of properties you need”, like high levels of vitamins and minerals.
Things like enzymes added to the water can “boost” the nutritional value of the leafy vegetables. Different light intensities can also make a difference in terms of the taste.
The nutritional density of the leafy vegetables in his laboratory, he says, “is much higher compared to what’s available”. And for more farms to adopt these technologies, he suggests that a “technology showcase has to be done Singapore-wide”.
THE DUTCH EXAMPLE
One country that has successfully mass-adopted technology in its farming systems, including urban farming, is the Netherlands. Despite its size, it has become the world’s second-largest food exporter by value.
The Netherlands.
Pepper farmer Ron Jansen, for example, has transformed his grandfather’s farm, Jansen Paprika — located one hour north of Amsterdam — into one of Holland’s most modern farms.
His farm, the size of eight football fields, produces more than 2,000 tonnes of peppers each year, which is 15 times more than what his grandfather grew.
To ensure optimum conditions for his plants, he uses temperature and humidity sensors, which he can track from his office. Machines do the heavy lifting. And he is looking to adopt more cutting-edge technology.
“There are tests to grow plants autonomously — so not by hand. You put your set-up in your computer, and the computer will think for you,” he cites.
Ron Jansen.
Universities play an important part in Holland’s agricultural sector, whose exports last year were worth 95 billion euros (S$152 billion).
“One of the missions of the university is to set up research and demonstration centres to show the possibilities of technology … and transfer the knowledge,” says plant researcher Sjaak Bakker from Wageningen University and Research.
To facilitate this, a central organisation groups farmers according to the crops they grow, where they present their problems to researchers and government agencies, and collectively brainstorm solutions.
“Farmers can’t survive on their own. They need a certain scale in doing research and … innovation,” Bakker adds. “This is why the ecosystem in the Netherlands has come this far and is such a successful sector.”
Dr Sjaak Bakker.
THE NEED TO CHANGE PERCEPTIONS
There are more than 20 agricultural universities in Holland that prime people for the industry. In contrast, there are no universities or polytechnics in Singapore offering agriculture as a full-time course. Most farmhands here are foreign workers.
“Not a lot of Singaporeans want to come to a farm and work. It’s hard work, it’s all day … and you have to be here, rain or shine,” says Zach.
Although he is an anomaly, he has helped out on his father’s farm since he was in school. Bjorn Low is even more of an outlier. Eight years ago, he quit the advertising industry to become an urban farmer.
The co-founder of Edible Garden City now has a team of 40 people, with an average age of 25. He thinks it is important to change the perception of farming and to have more young people see it as a career.
WATCH: The full episode — Growing more of our own food: Can Singapore get there? (47:24)
“This is a national security issue. And so, urban farmers or agriculturalists coming up should be seen as an important part of the economy for the future,” says the 39-year-old.
"We need new ideas in this space and to encourage young people to experiment in this space and then drive other initiatives in the local agricultural industry."
He also wants consumers to “step up” for the sake of their food security in future. “Buy local food,” he urges.
“Sometimes the price points … may be five per cent, two per cent higher than things that are produced in Malaysia or Indonesia or Thailand. And consumers are not willing to fork out that additional 20 cents.”
Bjorn Low.
To this end, Restaurant Labyrinth chef and owner Han Li Guang makes a point of sourcing 80 per cent of his produce — including mussels and herbs — from local farms.
The 35-year-old believes restaurants have a part to play, and can even lead the charge, in getting people to buy more local produce.
“We’re like a showroom for Singapore’s agricultural produce … If we can convince people to ‘use local’, no matter how many percent, it’s a good start,” he says.
“My hope for the future is … we’ll see consumption of local produce as a norm.”
Han Li Guang plates up a locally grown dish for Ming.