TWC session 7

I would say living in Singapore hasn't made me very aware about agriculture. Its pretty much how we are brought up, an urban forest, not much land for agriculture. Althought there is agriculture going on within Singapore, it is simply not enough to feed everyone living here. The lesson touched on Green Revolution. This is a life changer probably for my parents thanks to Dr. Norman Borlaug. His central role in the green revolution is credited with increasing agricultural yields and saving millions from starvation.

Human ingenuity doesn't stop here, ideas are still ongoing. What happens when we run out of land with our population crowding our our environment? The answer, vertical farming. Something we didn't really discuss. The perception in class was, trying to have better yield crops, trying to manage the land available more efficiently, stretching current resources by more than its current capacity by reducing wastage. We should consider, vertical farming. This idea can be found in an Economist article about vertical farming. Like how is it possible to pack homes and limited space in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Manhattan, we can expand agriculture land vertically.

The idea, as raised in the Economist, is to fill floor upon floor of orchards and fields to produce crops all year round, creating more farmable land out of thin air and into city areas, this could well possibly slash carbon footprints by cutting down on transport cost to deliver food over distances. This is a probablity to solving problems such as land for cultivation being unevenly distributed, with much of it suitable for growing selected crops.

Furthermore, according to Dr Despommier, the father of vertical farming, the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides can be at the minimal through indoor controlled environment. Soil erosion will not be a problem because food can be grown hydroponically.

The technology already exist, The glasshouse industry is experienced in growing crops indoors, the only limitation is the need for artificial lighting. Without it, the result will be uneven crop growth closest to the windows. Although in 2010, the need for artifical light was a price to pay for vertical farming, recent technology has sprung up in green buildings to provide lighting by redirecting sunlight indoors. Just less than a year, man's ingenuity has solved this limitation.

Makes me wonder, what happens if vertical farming starts to come into our lives in full swing, I can imagine a skyscraper, with vertical farming occuring on the top. A supermarket below selling fresh greens everyday to consumers like you and me. Maybe agriculture can become an industry, self sustainable within Singapore itself. Wouldn't it be amazing as it would bring price of food down due to less time and less parties involve during the food process.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, we need to increase production by 70% by 2050 if we wish to feed a population of 9.1billion. This figure would pretty much not be a challenge with a combination of vertical farming, higher crop yields and other current technologies.