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with food produce from traditional farming. However, urban farming can only complement traditional farming instead of replacing it. This is due to its lower production volume, space constraints and suitability of crops and/or animals for urban farming, as well as high cost of infrastructure among other limitations.
Singapore’s food security is interconnected with global food production and supply chain. With 90% of food being imported from more than 180 countries, technology- driven urban farming would not only ease the burden on food import but also establish a more efficient food system which can be propagated to other parts of the world. The new and efficient food system has been clearly conceptualised in the recently announced Singapore Food Story, covering urban farming, alternative proteins and food safety science and innovations. Our strong R&D capabilities developed over the years can be readily transferred into food applications, and provide strong support and enhance the feasibility of our government’s vision to provide 30% of nutrition requirements from local production by 2030 (30 by 30).
It takes far less feed to cultivate insects compared to cattle. In addition, insects are cold-blooded creatures and are able to convert to feed very efficiently. The
conversion efficiency can be measured by the amount of feed needed to add on 1 kg in body weight. On average, insects are able to convert 2 kg of feed into 1 kg of body mass. On the other hand, it takes 8kg of feed for cattle to convert into an increase of 1kg in body mass.
Another compelling argument is that the nutritional value of insects is comparable to animal sources of meat. Most insects are rich in protein and fatty acids. For this reason, insects are a good food supplement option for malnourished children.
In addition to macronutrients, insects are a great source of fibre and essential micronutrients such as copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and zinc. Despite its advantages, direct incorporation of insect proteins into consumer products would need to be thoroughly subjected to risk assessment including potential microbiological contamination, chemical hazards and antinutrients and allergenicity among others.
A more promising connection of insect proteins into the food chain would be its incorporation into animal feeds.
Microalgae is regarded as a viable source of protein for humankind because of its high yield. Most microalgae varieties are tiny photosynthetic plants that efficiently
convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to sugars and proteins, absorbing and converting carbon dioxide in the process and expelling oxygen. In fact, marine microalgae, known as phytoplankton, is responsible for creating half the world's oxygen. Some species of seaweed and microalgae are known to contain protein levels similar to traditional protein sources like meat, soybean and milk. There are also microalgae species which are facultative such that they can also be cultured without sunlight. These species are suitable for urban farming conditions which are resilient to climate change, as they can be cultured in bioreactors similarly to vaccine production in the biologic industry. Incorporating microalgae as an alternative protein source offers consumers several benefits over traditional high-protein crop in terms of productivity and nutritional value. Widely grown crops like soybean (0.6 – 1.2 tonnes/ha/year), pulse legumes (1 – 2 tonnes/ha/year) and wheat (1.1 tonnes/ha/ year) produce much lower yields compared to microalgae, which boost a yield of 4 – 15 tonnes/ha/year.
One way to compare protein production in animals, plants and microalgae is the land and water required to produce the same amount of essential amino acids from each food. As depicted in Figure 16, 148,000
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