Beauty World Centre’s ‘wethefarm’

from SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE – Building a Livable Future for Chinatown + People’s Park Complex Singapore

Turtle Bay Towers

Singapore as a small island nation, imports more than 90% of its food from more than 170 countries. To strengthen the food security issue for a greater future towards food resilience, Singapore Food Agency has set a “30 by 30” goal to produce 30 per cent of our nutritional needs by 2030. The need for a sustainable global food system is increasingly essential, ultimately changing the focus of farming from rural areas to cities with the use of technology and innovative approach to increase food production.

The founder of the local urban farming community, wethefarm has started a platform of sustainability, with the idea of transforming and utilising the underused rooftop space at Level 5 of Beauty World Centre into a public space of an urban rooftop farm. The goal is to create an impactful project for food waste reduction and sustainability education. To overcome the land and resource constraints, the farmers grow their idea sustainably by using the potential location effectively. For instance, there is a recycling process of getting food waste from the hawker centre below and creating a farm-to-table experience while also using the tuition and enrichment centres for educating the visitors.

Upon the support fund from the government, they set up varieties of compost systems: vermicomposting, isopod composting, black soldier fly composting, and hot composting. The compost compounds produced are then used as fertilizers on the farm. Besides, the rooftop space is used efficiently with experiential farming areas for edible plants, decomposing and farming areas. The locally-grown produce farm also involves the participation of volunteers and the community from the neighbourhood.

Eventually, the small sustainability initiatives from the community will help in building a more resilient food future. The farm serves as a restoration effort from the community as a climate change action as well as a platform for sustainability education through hands-on experience.