Food Security for Singapore?

The recent spate of news about agricultural land grabs highlight an important fact - that countries are concerned about the stability and security of their food supplies. For investor countries like China and India, food security is an issue due to their large populations that are improving their diets due to prosperity from strong economic growth. For countries that are at the receiving end of such investments, their concern is that their own poor peasants may be deprived of land to sustain their subsistence lifestyles.

What has this got to do with us in Singapore? Well, given that we import everything we eat from elsewhere, it is important that we pay attention to developments in the global agriculture industry. So far, the only apparent policy we have in terms of food security is the diversification of our sources of supply. For example, the Singapore government has started to promote the import of vegetables from Indonesia, so as to reduce our dependence on Malaysia for our leafy vegetables. While this is definitely a positive move, it is still far from addressing longer terms issues such as climate change and peak oil.

Take climate change. In an interview with the Financial Sense Newshour, Evelyn Garriss of the Browning Newsletter, the current setup of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation will mean that the type of droughts in Russia and floods in Pakistan are more likely in the coming years, resulting in lower food production in our part of the globe while US farmers who can adapt to this weather pattern will prosper.

As for the coming effects of peak oil, consider the mileage that our food currently travels in order to reach us. Will be be able to afford imports from more distant lands like US apples or NZ beef? And what about the high carbon footprint of our food, for those who are concerned about this area?

Given these concerns, are there things that we can do to mitigate the risks? Personally, I think there are. For example, some time back, I recall watch a documentary on the National Geographic TV featuring a project by Prof. Lee Sing Kong of NTU, where he was growing vegetables on rooftop gardens through aeroponic methods. According to him, with some changes to our urban architecture, it is possible for Singapore to be self-sufficient in leafy vegetables. This will not only improve our food security but also reduce the carbon footprint of our vegetables. The question now is when we as a country will be awaken to the risks in our food supply and start to make a concerted effort to reduce those risks.