Becoming a farmer in Singapore sounds risky enough, but former digital marketer Bjorn Low decided to take it a step further by starting his own urban farming social enterprise, Edible Garden City.
Established in 2012, the company aims to bring people together through farming, by building community farms and sharing its knowledge on urban farming.
After learning that many elderly men tend to be reclusive and are at risk of social isolation, he worked with social workers to start a new project, Ah Gong Farm.
Located at Pearl Hill, Chinatown, the farm serves as an avenue for elderly men to learn about farming together and forge friendships. It also allows social workers to get to know them better and to cater to each elderly’s individual needs.
Recently, Ah Gong Farm also welcomed its first two female members.
Through collaborations with the Autism Resource Centre, Employment For People with Intellectual Disabilities, and the Singapore Prison Service, Edible Garden City also brings these farming lessons to people with autism, people with mental disabilities, and inmates as well, equipping them with the skills to pursue farming as a career.
Edible Garden City’s other main objective is to solve the sustainability problem in Singapore. To tackle this, he is practising closed loop agriculture, where food waste is made into compost to grow more food.
With support from Temasek Foundation, the company is currently working on creating closed loop self-contained farming units in the form of containers. It hopes to distribute these containers to housing areas across the island, so that each community can grow their own food sustainably.
Similar to Edible Garden City’s other farms, these container farms will also be semi-commercial, which means the yield will be sold to generate profit.
Edible Garden City also holds workshops at its production arm, Citizen Farm, and collaborates with local primary schools to teach farming to students.
“The industry is so young and so new, we want to encourage more people to join it. We even encourage our own staff to go out and create their own urban farming systems. Competitors can bring in new ideas and push for healthy growth in the industry,” said Mr Low.
“Whenever we do a project, we always remind ourselves that we are a social enterprise, so we try to find areas where we can maximise our social impact.”
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Source: The Business Times, 12 July 2018