Speech by SMS Desmond Lee at the Singapore Futures Sustainability Symposium
Feb 20, 2016
Good afternoon.
Thank you for inviting me to participate in your symposium on Singapore’s Future Sustainability.
Future of Us
When I received Claire Ong’s email invitation in December last year, I was very encouraged to learn that she and a group of NUS first year students of environmental studies had come together to organise this, in order to discuss important issues that will impact Singapore’s future, which is our future.
I’d like to congratulate Estella, Claire and the team for taking the initiative to do so and for inviting a diverse range of speakers to today’s two panels.
The timing of this Symposium is good because late last year, we launched a series of important Conversations revolving around the Future of Us and future of Singapore, to galvanise people to start charting our direction ahead and sketching what we would like the Singapore of the future to be like. We are not like many other countries – we do not have hinterlands, we do not have the scale or the size, and there is little margin for error. It is a good time as any to start thinking about what next, and what Singapore will look like in fifty years’ time. I think our BES first-year students will be there in fifty years’ time.
We made it a point to start our very first session with young Singaporeans, to let them run the show, and to let their voices be heard.
But the objective of those conversations is not just to discuss what our dreams and aspirations are, diverse though they were, but to encourage and energise all of us to roll up our sleeves and take action, whether on our own, with a group of friends, with partners, or with Government, to help realise our shared future.
Food Security and Active Mobility – challenges and opportunities
At this afternoon’s Symposium, our two panels of speakers will discuss two important issues: Food Security and Eco-Friendly Transport.
I won’t delve into any detail on these two topics in these opening remarks, partly in the interests of time, but more importantly because our speakers are experts in this field. Looking at their background, I’m confident they will provide us with an interesting diversity and depth of views, therefore let me just confine myself to very brief and general remarks.
Both Food Security and Transport are typically looked at by commentators and policymakers alike through socio-economic lenses, and in the case of food security, sometimes through the lens of national resiliency and security. Increasingly, and as today’s Symposium shows, we can also scrutinize both fields through the perspective of environmental sustainability. It is heartening to see environmental consciousness growing around the world and in Singapore.
Both Food Security and Transport or Mobility face many constraints and challenges around the world, especially in Singapore.
For example, one is growing demand and how to meet this growing demand for food and transport in a sustainable way. By 2030, the world’s food demand is predicted to increase by about 50%. In Singapore, we already import some 90% of all the food that we eat. On the transport front, the daily number of journeys in Singapore is expected to rise by about half.
Second, severe land constraints – a combination of Singapore’s very small size, our density, and many competing demands for very limited land. Sometimes when I go overseas and meet foreign counterparts, especially those who do not know us very well, provincial officials and mayors will ask me how large Singapore is. When I tell them our size, they will shift uncomfortably in their chairs, and politely say, ‘a little smaller than my city’. That helps to put things in perspective.
Singapore’s land area, as you all know, is around 720 sq km. But unlike other cities which are components of larger countries, Singapore is a city and also a sovereign country – so everything else that other cities can semi-externalise in their backyard, in their suburbs, regions and hinterlands, we have to accommodate within the walls of our city. These include an airport, seaport, depots for the MRT and trains, land for defence, our reservoirs, farms and so on and so forth.
As a consequence, our farmland takes up a fraction of what it used to in the past. What about roads? They occupy 12% of our land area, only slightly less than the land used for housing. Expanding our road space the way we did for the past 50 years, I think we can all agree, is simply not sustainable. So some people quite legitimately ask: are we a city for people, or do we become a city for cars?
Third, particularly for Food Security, there are challenges posed by climate change, impacting yields in many agricultural regions from which Singapore imports our food.
While many challenges confront Food Security and Transport here in Singapore, we can, through good planning, creativity, change in mindset, and the use of technology, overcome them and turn them into opportunities for greater sustainability instead. And this is where the community as a whole, consumers, commuters, businesses, entrepreneurs, farmers, young people like all of you, can play a big part.
In fact, just before I came into this whole, I had the privilege of meeting this young man from the vegetarian society. He was very active in educating all of us about the carbon footprint that we make through the activities that we take for granted. That really shows that all of us can play a part.
Food Security
For instance, on the Food front, we already try to achieve Food Security by diversifying our food sources – buy not just from one source, but from many sources, just in case supply is disrupted for any reason – public health, disaster, bad relations with resource countries, and so on. But one important push is to help our farms ramp up local production of some essential food items, such as eggs, leafy vegetables and fish, to create a small buffer supply.
How can we do this?
One way is to harness technology and engineering. If you have not visited Sky Greens, you might want to visit to have a sense of what farmers are doing. It is our first vertical farm. It grows leafy vegetables in racks that are up to 9metres tall, making productive use of limited land.
The movement of irrigation water is used to rotate the racks vertically while using little energy, so that the vegetables can enjoy uniform amounts of sunlight. Compared to traditional farms, Sky Greens can produce up to 5 times more vegetables per hectare of land. Many of our farms have been tapping on productivity grants to introduce technology and innovation to their farms – large scale but also in small ways, in terms of equipment and processes, to improve yield.
Another way that some people have suggested is to encourage community farming on a wider scale.
Many Singaporeans enjoy gardening. If you walk around in our heartlands and along HDB corridors, you will often see pots, trays, or troughs growing some vegetables. We have many community gardens where friends and neighbours come together to grow fruits and vegetables. Not very high yield, but they give people connection to the soil, and reminds them that it is not easy to grow the food that we eat.
Some people have dreamt about pushing this further, and suggested many ideas. Can we create community cooperatives to bring community farming to a higher level? Can we harness roof-tops to grow vegetables?
One company from abroad even pilots add-ons to the facades of high rise buildings. If we can build a structure on top of the façade, we can use it to grow vegetables and crops vertically, and this takes city farming to a different level altogether. They tell us they have piloted this in some countries.
A third area where Food Security can be supported is in changing mindsets, especially about food wastage. Mindsets can be very difficult to change, sometimes it takes generations. We can use external measures, such as policies, laws, incentives, and disincentives but nothing beats internalising mindset change. However, that really takes time.
In Singapore, our food waste has gone up by 50% over the last 10 years. This is likely to rise further, unless we do something about it collectively as a society. Prevent food waste from buffet tables, buffet spreads, commercial kitchens, and kitchens at home.
NEA has a national campaign to encourage us to reduce waste: don’t over-order food; try to da-bao home if possible, plan our grocery shopping so raw food doesn’t spoil. Many advocacy groups and volunteer organisations have also come onto the scene to spread the message in ways which are creative and innovative, and that sometimes come with a bit of humour, and I think this is very encouraging.
Active Mobility
Moving on very briefly to Transport and Active Mobility, there are also many opportunities at the national level, but also at the community level (at the level of you and me), to make a difference.
For example, many cities around the world have made bold and decisive shifts away from private cars, in order to tackle gridlock and pollution, and to try to reclaim the urban environment for people and improve quality of life. Sometimes, these cities get onto the brink and they turn back. It takes willpower, mindset shift, it is extremely painful, and sometimes we see what is on the other side of the equation, and we make difficult choices.
In some cities, car sharing and bike sharing are actively promoted. Car parking may be horrendously expensive, or just not available.
Bike lanes share the roads with cars. In Melbourne, the fronts of buses have racks which you can load your bike to take a longer commute. Buildings are connected, even above street level, to make walking more pleasant.
In Singapore, we are piloting two estates - Ang Mo Kio and Tampines - as possible models for walking and cycling. This is not to discount the work that LTA is doing - building cycling paths in various towns around the island, and the park connector networks that have been put in place. New areas such as Marina South and Kampong Bugis will feature more walkable ground space with amenities and less road space.
But we also have many cycling interest and advocacy groups who give their views and feedback to Government on how to improve cycling architecture and infrastructure, and who promote cycling in the community, not just for creation, but as a form of transport. Some literally all the park connector networks and give feedback to LTA on where the kinks are and where all the improvements can be made.
Moving towards a ‘Car lite’ city is not going to be easy, and the journey has only recently begun. Policies and infrastructure form only one part of the overall equation. Active citizenry and mindset change are equally vital.
Conclusion
Our vision for a sustainable future has to be realised as a collective whole. Solutions imposed top-down have their utility, but efficacy will be limited. Mindset change will take time. More powerful and effective outcomes are achieved if communities join in partnership, or drive initiatives in partnership with the government if necessary, from the ground-up, to encourage mindset shift and active participation.
I look forward to hearing from the panels on food security and transport, and from all of you. I wish all of you a good Symposium this afternoon.