This is the solution you have been waiting for!

For more than forty years, this miniature ecosystem in the picture has only been watered just once in that time. Till now, it has been thriving. The single spiderwort plant has grown and multiplied, spawning seedlings. The presence of light has allowed it to photosynthesize water vapour rains back down on the plant, like a bottled version of the water cycle. Dead leaves fertilize the soil, producing the carbon dioxide and nutrients required for more plants to grow. This self-sustaining bottle is our future, just like an Urban Food Ecosystem.

Imagine a vibrant but land-scarce city like Singapore, with Urban Food Ecosystems (UFEs) growing vegetables and breeding fish adjacent to public housing flats and terrace homes. How does an UFE operate? Fish is bred for consumption they produce ammonia-based waste containing nitrates. Nitrates will be fed in a solution to vegetables grown in a hydroponic system. Why hydroponics? Hydroponic farming reduces water use by 90% versus soil farming, and compresses three months of growth into one month, thus boosting food production by a hundredfold. The vegetables absorb and cleanse the water of nitrates, returning it to the fish. In this system, protein and vegetables are generated for consumption. The community-operated UFE may be housed in abandoned gigantic factories to eliminate the need for new construction, and the size may even allow family-owned startups to cook fresh food on-site, empowering the local populace with healthy diets and creating jobs. In addition, breweries may even be integrated with the UFE – much waste material in the form of leftover malt and fruits is generated brewing beer. The waste material may serve a higher purpose in the generation of electricity - all waste from the food startups and breweries will be fed into an anaerobic digester that creates biogas to power a turbine, synthesizing electricity to power the facility. Excess heat from electricity generation will keep the building warm during winter. As you may infer, ?Zero-carbon, Zero waste? will be the guiding principle of the UFE. Across the world, UFEs would encourage free trade and competition, as food diversity is strengthened due to the growth of different crops, and communities may trade foods for profit and services, thus maximizing job creation and bolstering the diverse food supply. A closed-loop ecosystem that sustains itself and reduces the need for intervention, the UFE will push humanity towards a future of bread for all, hungry stomachs for none!

There are many advantages with allowing the private sector to lead the way in UFEs efficiency, competition, and lower prices may be some reasons why the private sector should be encouraged to invest in UFEs. However, it costs the same to grow rocket lettuce, an up-market vegetable, and potatoes, a lower-margin vegetable. Therefore, the private sector may only produce more high-return rocket lettuce for the rich, and the poor will be deprived of food. Governments, therefore, must try to rectify this conundrum by combining public interest and the free market by issuing ?Social Impact Bonds? (SIBs). SIBs arrange for the payment of private contractors to fulfill public needs, but only when social goals are met, which in this case, is the feeding of the poor. This propels accountability in government and gives all a stake in building the infrastructure for food distribution to the poor, acting as a guarantee that food will be available to all. The market mechanism, in this manner, will ration food and reduce waste. And UFEs will blossom across the world as it will show themselves to be efficient, productive, and diverse in produce. 

Wwhat do you think?