COVID-19 has highlighted to us the vulnerability of Singapore’s food supply. To play our role in raising awareness about food security issues and do our part toward Singapore’s 30/30 vision, we started our Urban Farming Project called “Everyone Can Become an Urban Farmer”. Through this project, we provide guidance to help people start planting edible greens at home through the following four steps:
The first step is to share more knowledge about urban farming through holding workshops and talks from different experienced urban farmers. Next, we create hands-on opportunities at our community farm to allow the community get their hands dirty and move closer to nature, thus inspiring them to start their own planting journey at home. Thirdly, we reintroduce eco-awareness through various activities related to urban farming. Lastly, we hope to start a pay-it-forward movement by using the community’s excessive harvest to help people. This project also aims to promote:
1) Food appreciation: Having more understanding and knowledge of the process in which our food is grown and produced prompts us to think twice before throwing them away.
2) Farm to table concepts: In Singapore, most of our food are imported and that incurs a huge amount of carbon footprints due to long distance transportation and a lot of food are either damaged or spoiled during the transportation process. Hence, with the farm to table concept, we can reduce carbon footprints and enjoy tree ripen food.
3) Meatless diet: Adopting a plant-based diet is scientifically proven to be effective in reducing environmental pollution.