The world produces enough food to feed its current population 1.5 times over. Yet, one in ten people worldwide still suffer from hunger and malnutrition. The same report also sound out that we will not have enough food by 2050 because of depleting natural resources, income inequality, and climate change. With the global population projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and impact of COVID-19, it is staggering to imagine how many people will continue to imagine how many people will continue suffering from food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition if we do not find new methods to produce healthy and sustainable food for everyone.

10% of the world population suffers from malnutrition and hunger

Approximately

Food Production to increase by

Impact of COVID-19 on Food Supply

COVID-19 has caused massive disruption to the world's food supply. Food productions were forced to close down due to restrictions imposed by the government. Many of the food were were stuck in port and as a result expired. These resulted in countries faced acute food insecurity, reversing years of developmental gain.

The current methods of food production and distribution are not sustainable and the threat of food scarcity is imminent

Agriculture presently emits more greenhouse gases than all of our transportation vehicles combined, and is a major contributor to global warming. Humans rely heavily on rice, maize, wheat, and soybean – these 4 types of crops represent two-thirds of the world's global agricultural calories. These crops are also grown to feed the livestock where our milk and meat come from. Almost 40% of the staple crops produced are used as animal feeds to grow the meat that we consumed daily. Due to global warming and climate change, the overall yield for staple crops is expected to decline at least 5% by 2050. The change in temperature and climate made the environment favourable for pests such as locusts and rats, leading to lower crop yields. Changes to climate also made growing crops in certain areas harder further reducing yield. On top of that, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation also shrunk the amount of arable land available to us. Hence, we should look into agriculture technology and vertical farming to produce more food and make agriculture more efficient.

This issue is further exacerbated by the increase in global consumption of meat over the years, as income rise and economies mature in developing regions such as Asia.The three types of meat heavily consumed globally are poultry, pork, and beef. Global emissions from food production are expected to rise 80% by 2050, with beef and cattle responsible for most emissions. Beef and cattle generates methane which traps heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change. More meat being demanded means more crops being grown to feed livestocks, making our carbon footprint increasingly difficult to manage. We will need to fertilise our land which generates nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and stays in earth atmosphere for 150 years. Furthermore, forests are cleared for large scale farming and ranching to meet the increasing demand for crops to feed livestocks to meet our dairy and meat consumption. One example is the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. It has reached an alarming 12 year high in 2020 and we have cleared 8% of the entire forest in just 18 years. Forest plays an important role in fighting against global warming and climate change as they are massive sponges for carbon dioxide. There is a strong need for alternative sources of protein that can be more environmentally friendly, sustainable, and healthy to feed the entire world population without destroying our planet.

Fish is another source of protein that people worldwide relied on. Humans are removing fishes from the ecosystem at a rate faster than they can repopulate. Furthermore, agriculture also create ocean dead zones by polluting the water with fertilisers and animal waste, further disrupting the biodiversity and ecology of our oceans. Apart from innovating to produce alternative proteins to reduce agriculture, there is a strong need for us to help restore the fish populations through aggressive fisheries management and sophisticated use of aquaculture.

Much of the food produced is also being thrown away. According to the Food Agriculture Organisation, 30% of the global food production is lost or wasted. This is alarming because one in ten people in the world is suffering from food insecurity, and there is still so much food being wasted. Hence, we need to also innovate and find new ways to upcycle waste products into consumable food that is healthy, nutritious, and affordable to feed the entire population.

The high cost of healthy diets, incessant poverty trap, and income inequality keeps healthy and nutritious diets out of reach for the developing countries which accounts for almost 3 billion people in the world. Developed countries also lack healthy and nutritious diets as they consumes more processed food and junk food. This is attributed to changes in dietary patterns due to technological advances, economic globalization, and urbanization. Such consumption habits increases the risks of obesity, diabetes, and other health implications.  Processed food and junk food also further increase the carbon footprint, which has compounding environmental impact. A sick person requires more resources compared to a healthy person as well. Hence, we need to make healthy and nutritious food affordable and convenient for everyone In order to make the world a better place.

In conclusion, our current food production methods and eating patterns are unsustainable going into the future. These factors coupled with the impact of the coronavirus has resulted in rise in global food insecurity. If this issue is left unaddressed, conflicts amongst countries may start to form. Moving towards the future, We cannot simply grow more food to feed the entire population due to depleting natural resources, income inequality, and climate change. These factors interplay with each other and exacerbate the issue of worldwide food insecurity, thus there is a strong need for innovation in food to be able to feed 9.8 billion people healthy and sustainably by 2050. 

Opportunity in the Food Industry for Singapore

Singapore imports more than 90% of of our food to feed the population and COVID-19 caused major disruption to our food supply chain. This has amplified the gravity of safeguarding food security. The Singapore government aims to reduce reliance on food imports and produce enough food to be self sufficient. Having said that, this makes Singapore  a good place for start-ups in the food space to innovate and scale-up. One reason is the government aims to produce 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030. There is alot of support provided by the Singapore Food Agency, Economic Development Board, and Enterprise SG to help them navigate the food space. The Singapore Food Agency works closely with the Economic Development Board and Enterprise SG to attract best-in-class global agri-tech companies, as well as to nurture promising homegrown agri-tech companies into local champions and help them to expand overseas. They work closely with the corporates to create the ecosystem to help develop local people. This combine with our world class education and research institutions in Singapore, we have the perfect ecosystem in place for startups to scale in the food space.