From Singapore to Hong Kong, how urban farming can help tackle food waste — but is it enough?

A disconnect between consumers and their food supply chain has led to wasteful ways in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong. Bringing farming to the urban jungle may be an antidote — if it can change mindsets.

Channel New Asia
Mar 16, 2021

Excerpt:

“The main solution that I could see was to bring the farms into the city rather than bringing the people into the farms out there,” said the Singaporean co-founder of Hong Kong social enterprise Rooftop Republic.

“The idea for us when we first started out … was to make farming very commonplace.”

Since 2015, Rooftop Republic has been helping organisations to design and run their own urban farms on top of their office buildings, hoping to expose city folk to the basics of food production.

The difference that makes, she said, is “you’re connected to food on a daily basis, in proximity to where you live, where you work and where you play”.

And it fits into the sustainability practices of more and more companies nowadays, like developer Sino Group, which is integrating urban farming across its property portfolio.

“We treasure the food and the produce that we can harvest together,” said the company’s senior sustainability manager, Melanie Kwok.

“In a city area like this, we can actually set aside our worries … and just enjoy nourishing the mind and body.”

Over in Singapore, Edible Garden City is on a similar mission, helping to set up farms in schools, malls and office buildings since 2012. Both Rooftop Republic and Edible Garden City are DBS Foundation grant winners.

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