food_issue-world-n-sg
DESCRIPTION
By Chin Hsien, with some slides copied from Heather's presentation - Is Singapore Hungry. A presentation file for Food For All - SGTRANSCRIPT
From Global to Local & Personal Food Issues
$$$, Land,Poverty, Hunger,
Pollution, Extinction,
Climate
Justice,Mercy,
Equality,Human &
Animal Right
The Story Starts with M…
Me?
Money? Monopoly? McDonald?
Meat?Man?
Migrate?
Mind?Model?
CityCountrysidePoor Rich
Starved StuffedVegetable MeatResources Consumption
Polluted by
Excess Waste
Limited Resource Depletion
What is the consequence of this unidirectional movement?
Rich becomes
richer
Poor becomes
poorer
Mmm… Few people &
companies with $$$$$
may become
Monopoly, and grow
Mono-cropand
livestock intensively.
Customers’ choices are
controlled by a few big
companies.
Small farmers’ crop
prices are controlled by mass buyer.
Livestock and Wild Lives are
killed massively
Many consumersAdvertisements encourage people to consume specific food products. Customers’
choices are controlled.
Few big Food traders, Supermarkets, Fast Food Companies
Many small farmersThey are encouraged to grow some Specific
Economic Crops (Coffee, Sugar Cane etc.) which the selling price may be even lower than production cost.
International Food Market(Towards Monopoly the way to make $)
International Coffee Price1970s - 1980s: > USD 2 /kgMinimal record (2001):USD 0.907 /kgCurrent: ~USD 1.5-1.7 / kg
Selling price from farmer to consumerBuying Price could increase 100s times…
Over 1 billion people are hungry over the world… and 3/4 of them are farmers!
Many Traditional Crop Types & Diverse Farm Eco-system
Replaced by genetic modified crops, destroyed by heavy use of fertilizer, herbicides, pesticide
Huge land and water resources are contaminated by
fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide, and occupied by poisonous species
Few big Seed companies, Fertilizer, Pesticide & Herbicide Producers
International Crop Farming(Towards Mono-Crop the way to low market price)
The World According to Monsanto• It used to produce and promote highly
toxic chemicals such as dioxin (as chemical weapon in Vietnam war, wide spread poisonous herbicides)
• Promote itself as “Green Company”. Produce roundup herbicide and resistant genetic modified crops.
• Force all farmers to buy & use their patented seeds by all means (political, economical, advertisement, law, etc.)
• Produce Bovine Growth hormone.• Their products are wide spread all over
the world land and market
“We can’t afford to lose one dollar.”“Whoever owns the seeds, owns the food”
Large forest and inhabited wild lives are cut / burnt / killed
Huge quantity of fresh water & food resources are used
Livestock are cruelly treated and killed
Global warming due to reduced CO2 uptake ability from forest and
the Methane produced.Excrement Pollution
especially from factory farms
Livestock Farming
Livestock Farming(The major cause of most environmental problems)
We’re Destroying Natural Food Chain
Coral Bleaching:
Global warming (main reason) cause the death of algae or the loss of pigmentation within.
Whole Coral Ecosystem suffers.
Red Tide & Algae Bloom:
Excess fertilizer, herbicide, livestock manure, flow into the sea, results poisonous algae bloom, oxygen depletion and dead zone.
Malnourished… Over-nourished…
Food Chain on the Land- Livestock Industry the main cause of deforestation
2006 Statistics (FAO): Among the World land area12% - Arable land &
permanent crop~4% growing livestock feed, ~8% for human food and biofuel
26% - Permanent Pasture
30% - Forest Amazon
12% World Land as Arable Land36% of Cereals (rice, wheat etc) and 97% of soy cake (protein rich soy product) are used as livestock feed.
26% Permanent Pasture
Alfalfa (Legume)
Grasses on some pasture land are not anyhow grown
Do you know the price of alfalfa sprout?
Water & Global WarmingSea ice (e.g. arctic ice) melt is more reversible (refrozen in
winter) and does not contribute to sea level rise.
Melting of Land ice (e.g. Greenland, Antarctic ice sheet & Himalayan glaciers) takes much longer time to rebuild by
rainfall/snowfall. Resulted sea level rise threatens the coastal region, and glacier retreat threatens fresh water supply
Glaciers in the Himalayas, a 2400km range that sweeps through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, provide headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, lifelines for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream.
Fresh Water Consumption
Sugar cane ~ 175L virtual water / kgPotatoes ~ 250L virtual water / kg
Food & Climate Change
Unsustainable Diet &
Agriculture Practice
Climate Change
Food & Water Supplied
Threatened
Get richer and Buy more
land, labor, water, food
from the poor
Afraid of Losing Money & Control
Food, Climate Change, Eco-SystemUnsustainable Diet & Agriculture Practice
Climate Change
Loss of Habitat
Direct Murder of Wild Lives
Increased frequency and
strength of climate disaster Burning Fossil Fuel
Loss of Food Source
Polluted Environment
Feedbacks Accelerating Global Warming
Less sunlight reflected, more absorbed heat
Methane (CH4) released from permafrost
Dry weather results more frequent and severe forest fire. More CO2 are released
3ºC increase will make forests net CO2 emitter, resulting uncontrollable global warming
6th Mass ExtinctionOrdovician-Silurian extinction~ 439 million yrs agoLate Devonian extinction ~ 364 million yrs agoPermian-Triassic extinction ~ 251 million yrs agoEnd Triassic extinction ~199 million to 214 million yrs agoCretaceous-Tertiary extinction ~65 million yrs ago
6th Mass Extinction just started
MMMMM….
Your DecisionIt is good for
you to continue
same lifestyle.
Rely on me. You just
need to get richer as I
did~
What should I do?
Should I keep old
practice? Or should I
invite others to form a collective
force to save our planet?
We need to connect the suppliers to consumers
through morechannels
We need to connect to NATURE
There is much fun and interesting stuff about nature, good to feed our curiosity~
Poor
Countryside
ExcessLimited Resource
Crossing the M…
Recycle
Re-distribute
Re-allocate
Rich
City Reuse
ReduceReplace
with renewable resources
with improved efficiency
Singapore Food Situation(Self calculated with AVA statistics 2008)
% supplied locally
Vegetables ~ 5%
Cereals ~ 0%
Eggs ~ 25%
Chicken ~ 3%
Fish ~ 7%
Ducks, Pork, Beef, Mutton, Fruits - 0%
Land Stress for Food
Singapore: 4.7 million people, 700 km2
Minimum for Vegan ~ 500m2/capital
17% Land to feed 5% population
Minimum for US diet ~ 5000m2/capital
170% Land to feed 5% population
Current World Average (Agriculture land / population) ~ 7500m2 / capita !!!
Singapore Food ChallengesFrom the information in previous page, the choice of diet, food distribution efficiency, and farming technique are all
influencing the required land to feed our population.
Considering the local diet habit and food distribution situation, the agriculture land used to feed an average
Singapore resident should be closed to the current world average.
In other words, with current practice, even we use all our land for agriculture purpose, we may only feed about 2% population (huge increase in water consumption not yet considered)
~Brain Storming~
How shall we achieve food & water sovereignty?
Is Singapore slum-free?
Food For AllA Singapore-based research
and action groupOur aims:•Support local food rations programmes
•Raise awareness of hunger and food issues
•Encourage the appreciation, and respect for, good food and those who prepare and grow it.
•Connect diverse local food groups into a strong collective force for our common goal
Directory of Local Food Groups - EateriesFood #03: a Veg Place and an art project started by a group of creative people interested to change the world. “In short, feed your body, mind and soul.”
Food for Thought: a social enterprise cafe that ploughs back a significant portion of their profits into social causes such as the Clean Water Fund, sponsoring poor children under the World Vision Singapore’s Area Development Projects.
Loving Hut: a chain of vegan fast food outlets that serves delicious food, and actively supports diet change for environmental sustainability.
Directory of Local Food Groups –Environment Groups
Food 4 Thought: a subcommittee under SAVE, the National University of Singapore’s environmental group. Their objective is to educate students and staff on dietary and lifestyle changes to effectively reduce an individual’s carbon footprint.
Green Drinks: a great meeting place for people in the environmental movement in Singapore – and they frequently feature food-related issues!
Vegetarian Society: Singapore’s premier vegetarian group that does extensive awareness and outreach to the general public
Directory of Local Food Groups –Hunger Groups
Food from the Heart: A charity that has launched many meaningful programmes distributing unsold bread and other dried food to community food programmes and needy children provided they attend school.
FoodXervices: A Singapore-based food distributor actively reaching out to the community through their Xervice With a Heart Programme. FoodXervices has been a key partner in the Food Matching Programme, and organized a very successful warehouse sale cum food donation drive with ONE (Singapore) in 2009.
ONE (Singapore): A non-profit organization dedicated to raising public awareness and taking concrete actions to Make Poverty History. ONE (Singapore) organized the Every One Can warehouse sale cum food donation drive with FoodXervices and intends to do more food-relate social action.
Directory of Local Food Groups - Farming & Permaculture (1)
Bollywood Veggies: A near-organic lifestyle farm in Kranji that aims to promotes food growing amongst Singaporeans and promote the Singapore countryside. See also: Kranji Countryside Association.
Go Organic Farm: Singapore’s first USDA certified organic farm! Go Organic Farm uses unique technologies such as ‘farm-in-the-box’, soya fiber organic fertilizer and high-quality burnt and sterilized soil to grow some of the healthiest vegetables in town! Offers veg boxes!
Green Circle Eco-farm: A biodynamic near-organic vegetable farm in Singapore, dedicated to producing healthy food and looking after the environment. Green Circle also offers veg box delivery services!
Directory of Local Food Groups - Farming & Permaculture (2)
Ground-Up Initiative: An inspiring sustainable living community in Singapore that is developing a Sustainable Urban Farming model for the country’s urban context. You have to read their story!
Community in Bloom: A governmental project under National Parks, promoting community gardens in areas of public & private housing estates, and within the premises of organisations or school. You can even apply to start your own community garden project!
Directory of Local Food Groups - Organic & Fair Trade
PS: Here are two guides to where you can buy organic food and fairtrade food in Singapore, courtesy of Mr. Jared Tham!
Cielo Sereno: an organic lifestyle promotion group, set up to educate the public on the significance behind an organic and vegetarian lifestyle, to help interested parties to get started on a healthy organic diet, to catalyse social network among organic goers and pro-organic organisations, and to facilitate the flourishing of the organic industries.
FairTrade SG: An open yahoo group for everyone in Singapore
Kampung Senang: a holistic living centre that runs a mini organic farm as a living classroom and community space, and also organized Singapore’s first organic food coop, in which individual households team up to buy organic food in bulk!
Singapore Food Waste SituationHsien H. Khoo, Teik Z. Lim, Reginald B.H. Tan, Food waste conversion options in Singapore: Environmental impacts based on an LCA perspective, Science of The Total Environment A large bulk of food waste is directed to incinerators. A remaining small percent is sent for recycling via anaerobic digestion (AD), followed by composting of the digestate material……The total normalized results showed that a small-scale proposed aerobic composting system is more environmentally favorable than incinerators, but less ideal compared to the AD process. By making full use of the AD's Recycling Phase II process alone, the Singapore Green Plan's 2012 aim to increase the recycling of food waste to 30% can easily be achieved, along with reduced global warming impacts.
Short Summary – “R”s to be Done
“R”s Short Description
Replace (Food)
Educate and encourage people to replace animal based diet to plant based diet
Redistribute (Food)
Find Out the local poverty who needs food, connect them to supplier with excess food
Reallocate (Man
Power)
Encourage more people to start / involve in community / roof top farms. Other than housing estates, hospitals, schools, and even prison are
good place to find volunteers
Short Summary – “R”s to be Done
“R”s Short Description
Recycle (food to
energy & fertilizer)
Build waste food collection system and send to anaerobic digester to generate power. Solid residue (digestate) can be used as fertilizer
supplying local farm.Recycle(food to
food)
Some unwanted food after fermentation could be edible (e.g. vinegar, yogurt, alcohol, more study is
needed)Recover (Food &
BioEnergy)
Look into what plant food more suitable to be grown in tropic city. Growth of algae for biofuel /
biogas production.
Hope for Singapore Food Sovereignty (2008 data from AVA)
Food Type 2008 Import (Tonnes)
Suggested Target (asap) How?
Chicken 165,287 Cut by 90% These theoretically
can be achieved by
replacing animal based diet to plant based diet
Ducks 15,049 Cut by 90%Pork 93,260 Cut by 90%Beef 28,848 Cut by 90%
Mutton 10,014 Cut by 90%
Fish 82,645 Cut by 90%
Hen Eggs 67,019 Cut by 60%
Vegetables 394,162 MaintainAll other “R”s
Fruits 361,766 Maintain
Thank YouQ & A