Food and the City: Overcoming Challenges for Food Security

Food and the City: Overcoming Challenges for Food Security chronicles Singapore’s journey towards achieving food security through sound policies and governance reforms. Given crucial national needs to develop industries and housing in our postindependence era, the government consolidated agricultural land, approved new food sources and devised a comprehensive food safety system. Today, Singapore imports about 90% of its food and thus is exposed to global food supply volatility and price changes. Therefore, an integrated long-term vision to transform the local agricultural sector to supplement food imports is now in place, presenting opportunities for Singapore to emerge as a front runner in sustainable urban food solutions. 

“Unlike larger countries, Singapore is not endowed with ample farmlands to produce food. Over the last six decades, the limited farmlands have decreased drastically and Singapore shifted towards a food import strategy. Today, we are recognised as one of the most food secure countries in the world. Food and The City: Overcoming Challenges for Food Security documents how Singapore continues to ensure safe, affordable and adequate food for our people. It not only describes the various programmes to ensure food resilience but also provides insights into the implementation of the programmes as well as policy considerations through in-depth interviews and archival research. As one who has been intimately involved in food supply to Singapore in the last five decades, I congratulate the Centre for Liveable Cites for capturing the essence of how Singapore has provided and continues to provide safe, affordable and adequate supply of food to our people. I highly recommend this publication to anyone interested in food production and supply of affordable and safe food.”