Soil. Roots. Leaves.

Crunch. Burp. Poop.

For nearly a thousand years - from the days of Neanderthals to the Monsanto of today - the world has operated on these 6 principles, guiding the journey of vegetables and meat from the plowing hoe and feeding trough to the porcelain plates and silver cutlery in our homes.  Now the times ?they are a-changing?, singing as Bob Dylan did, and the closing bell has unfortunately sounded for humanity. Ominously, is this the end of us?or a portentous rebirth?

Singapore, where I live, is a nation of technology and technocrats with an eye on future trends proudly, our current Prime Minister coined the oft-bantered catchphrase ?Anticipate Change, Stay Relevant?. As a burgeoning cosmopolitan city-state, Singapore faces many constraints. Independence in 1965 won us an island without natural resources, and only a deepwater port. But since the 1960s, having invested in the next generation of citizens with education and health reforms, Singapore has become one of the richest states in Asia, even though, just 714.3 square kilometers, you could cross her from east to west in under two hours by train Singapore had compressed her population of 5 million, enormous for her size, into public housing flats that maximized her limited land. Consequently, population density (people per square kilometre) was 7252.43 in the year 2010. Slivers of land that remained, however, were insufficient for farms, for ranches, for pastures. How should Singapore feed her urbanized people, whose appetites grow everyday along with their incomes then? Oft-said is the aphorism that the future often arrives in Singapore first before the rest of South East Asia. So what will Singapore witness first?

Supply shocks, food waste, and soil farming will be the problems my solution will confront as we arrive at the answer to a rapidly-urbanizing world with decreasing amounts of arable land: Urban Food Ecosystems (UFEs), which are productive, self-sustained ecosystems, in a highly urbanized landscape, that are more productive than conventional farms and have reduced carbon emissions.

Like many cities, Singapore does not grow her own food, importing 90% of all her needs. Singapore is the future of the world?s cities, and cities are the future: the world population is tipped to go past the 9-billion-person mark by the year 2050, and a vast majority of at least 6 billion people will live in cities by then. Most cities around the world, like London, Paris, and New York City, are bastions of multiracial and multi-economic prisms that may hold discontent and resentment between various ethnicities due to racism or discrimination – a sudden supply shock will send prices of basic necessities soaring, foment panics, and a mad dash for food that will pit people of all stripes against each other – a nightmare of violent Hobbesian proportions. Crime will skyrocket, accompanied by racial riots and political upheavals, and modeling the Arab Spring, which was caused by soaring prices of food. Such devastation is an affair we must avoid at all costs.  

To exacerbate, the global food production process has made consumers less responsible for husbanding their consumption of food an impersonal and unemotional production process simply conjures up salads and steaks for the general population, which does not see the hard work required to sow seeds and make hay. Had consumers produced it themselves, the food would have been appreciated to a much higher degree, and less predisposed would consumers be to throwing food away. Growing your own food is like printing your own money – you will never throw it away! Helping communities to grow their own food reduces wastage by bolstering individual responsibility in sustaining life, and decentralizes the power to produce food into the hands of all, thus boosting food production everywhere.

More alarmingly, humanity?s need for soil as the medium to grow food has led to the unintended consequences of soil runoff and groundwater adulteration. Because of its properties, fertilizers could improve the yields of plants, as compared to natural fertilizers, but since only limited amounts are absorbed, the remainder would leach into groundwater sources, depriving many of potable water and diminishing the ability of local communities to irrigate fields and grow food. As an example, in the 1960s, the herbicide ?Glyphosate? was rolled out of research laboratories, and the effect was gradual but no less harmful: in 1970, no wild plant species were known to be resistant, but in 2010, 350 species of wild species became so: due to evolution, weeds could now withstand increasing amounts of the chemical, requiring ever-higher Glyphosate doses. Consequently, more herbicides would end up in river estuaries all over the world, in Asia, Europe, and Africa, poisoning local waters and fish, which may be a huge source of protein and income. Such problems are only possible with the use of soil as an agriculture medium.

So, what is the solution that Singapore, and other densely-populated cities, may pioneer?

Read my next article!