Singapore Food Story
With the world population expected to hit close to 10 billion in 2050, the competition for land and water resources for food and ingredient production will only intensify. Meanwhile, unsustainable traditional agriculture practices are producing excessive amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, which damage the environment, exacerbate climate change and further drain the earth’s finite natural resources.
Today, Singapore imports more than 90% of its food and is vulnerable to global trends that affect our food supply and safety. The Singapore Food Story was launched in a game changing move to enhance Singapore’s food security. The “30 by 30” vision is to grow enough food locally to meet 30 per cent of our nutritional needs by 2030, using less than 1 per cent of the available land area in Singapore. Simultaneously, the development of novel, innovative and sustainable solutions for the production of high-value foods and ingredients will capture economic opportunities for Singapore.
In 2019, the Singapore Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, announced funding of up to S$144 million for an integrated Singapore Food Story R&D programme, which seeks to turn Singapore’s food challenges into opportunities by focusing on three themes.