Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Rising food prices, disease-inflicted livestock and a shortage of imported chicken meat are emerging issues of concern in Singapore. The world affects what we eat, and what we eat impacts the world. Are alternative proteins a possible answer? Would you consider them? Our daily food choices have a huge impact on the environment. Production of meat has a much larger impact compared to the production of vegetable-based proteins. To create a food production and supply system that is more sustainable and environmentally friendly, food consumption behaviour needs to change. A reduction of meat intake is necessary. The introduction of alternative protein sources—for instance, those reliant on insects, cultured meat, or microalgae—could be a potential solution to replace meat. This presentation highlights the aspect of consumer acceptance and potential barriers for the creation of novel food products based on alternative proteins.]]>
Bianca Wassmann]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Indigenous Knowledge]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Rice is the most widely eaten staple across Asia, though it’s often merely a vehicle for other, more exciting foods. In Sarawak’s traditional indigenous culture, this grain has great ritual and cosmological significance. Set against a backdrop of extreme rainforest biodiversity and management dating back 50,000 years, it is one that has long puzzled anthropologists. Modern agricultural research confirms that Sarawak now has at least 100 heirloom varieties, many of them unique to this area, and most of them boasting a flavour, texture and aroma profile unmatched by commercially available alternatives. This lecture gives background to the importance of rice in Sarawak’s indigenous and gastronomic environment and address the approaches being taken by the UCCN Kuching team to make the story of rice into the story of Sarawak: its indigenous land tenure, its relationship with this land and its modern, sustainable landscape. It furthermore explores how the UNESCO designation has impacted this as part of a larger network focused on food security and food justice, sustainability and traditional knowledge systems.]]>
Karen Shepherd]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Architecture]]> Sustainability]]> Urbanism]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

The fourth agriculture revolution is predominately situated in cities and encompasses the three pillars of sustainability—social, environmental, and economic. It is expected to bridge together people and the planet through eco-friendly food production systems in urban areas. Urban Agriculture is thus seen as a significant addition to the architectural vocabulary for future cities. This talk touches on the theme of architecture, agriculture, design and sustainability as we explore the potential of future technologies in the form of digital and additive manufacturing (3D printing) as a key enabler in integrating these concepts within sustainable urban agriculture. The talk explores the evolving field of urban agriculture architecture and presents the journey of the architectural evolving elements for planning a circular, sustainable, regenerative and productive future city.]]>
Thomas Schroepfer]]> Carlos Banon]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

E.A.T. Borneo’s first homegrown conference, titled Innovate. Elevate. Celebrate., was focused around FOOD and took place in October 2022, in Kuching, Malaysia’s UNESCO “City of Gastronomy.” The driving force behind this movement was the idea of sustainability and security, to address the fact that significantly more resources go into our global food system than come out of it. Food connects people. Food is political. Food is our past, present and future. Food is art, culture and a way of life. Meaningful dialogue and shared learning becomes a catalyst for growth and future collaborations with diverse people from the food system from across the world. E.A.T. serves as a platform to initiate and negotiate conversations, enable more creations, elevate connections and celebrate different producers and consumers in the food system. Conversation does matter, and we’re all strangers at first. To address change, it needs conversation and negotiation between various people from diverse backgrounds. This year’s conference theme, Collaborate. Curate. Co-Create, focuses on the many cultures from Southeast Asia.]]>
Raine Melissa Riman]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Technology]]> Venue: CREATE TOWER, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Sustaining a growing population requires a shift in traditional linear production concepts towards closed loop supply chains. Novel raw material valorisation combined with technological innovation and a sustainable transformation of existing value-chains will be required to ensure global food security. This talk highlights the potential of cellular agriculture for sustainably transforming existing linear production concepts into creating circular systems with microalgae as a case study, highlighting current challenges and opportunities, as well as technological advances related to novel protein production and processing with a strong link to industrial implementation.]]>
Byron Perez]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Protein demand is surging around the world, including here in Asia. As a result, conventional meat production is projected to nearly double by 2050, leading to historic levels of natural resource depletion and climate disruption. Industrialised animal agriculture is already responsible for roughly 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions, and more than three quarters of all agricultural land is used to raise or feed livestock. In this talk, we outline how alternative proteins can satisfy this rising consumer demand in a more efficient and secure way and spotlight Singapore’s initiatives for developing a future-proof global food supply.]]>
Valerie Pang]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

From chicken made in a test tube to protein grown “out of thin air,” new ways of growing meat are emerging, and Singapore is leading the way. How do we talk about foods that are unfamiliar to us? This presentation examines how cultivated meats are made newsworthy through language and what values are conveyed. Focusing on The Straits Times, we examine articles published between 2019 and 2022 and identify news values and themes of positivity, impact, proximity, eliteness and superlativeness, which construct a sociocultural understanding of novel foods as positive, innovative and profitable. We discuss how this may motivate social and personal mobilisation of food choices by placing trust in the government and science technology.]]>
Keri Matwick]]> Kelsi Matwick]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

What does a future-proof food system look like? How do we ensure a circular food system in our cities? To ensure a truly circular food system, food waste management holds the key to closing the loop. This talk presents a nature-based solution for urban food waste management using the Black soldier fly. Black soldier flies (BSF) represent an opportunity for realising a key principle of the circular economy by targeting organic waste for continuous circulation into novel forms of value. BSF are fast-growing insects that can transform food waste into sustainable high-protein feed ingredients for poultry and aquaculture diets. These high-tech, high-producing, space-efficient farms could become an integral part of Singapore’s food system by helping to reduce and recycle food waste. They can be embedded into our dense urban environment to use land efficiently and synergise with the built environment of Singapore to also reap social benefits of urban agriculture. This talk elaborates on developing design, network and operational solutions for BSF integration in dense urban environments.]]>
Niraly Mangal]]> Southeast Asia]]>
Globalisation]]> Ecosystems]]> Sustainability]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette, Level 2, Singapore 138602

Our present global crises oblige us to accelerate the move towards a low-carbon future. This includes the transition from a linear economy, defined by the consumption of finite resources and the accumulation of waste, to a circular economy, which redefines growth by prioritising both people and the planet. In our current linear economy, the food sector and its bio-waste accounts for the largest single component of municipal waste landfills and is a significant source of greenhouse gases such as methane. As part of a circular economy, bio-waste can bring gains linked to multiple higher-value products, such as natural fertilisers for agriculture, energy production, and even protein feed for aquaculture or farming. In this keynote address, Huerta presents the main impacts of a linear economy food system and the importance of introducing a well-functioning circular economy food system. She will focus on applying solutions from the natural world and how to implement a sustainable organic loop system.]]>
Paula Huerta]]> Asia]]> Europe]]> North America]]> South America]]> Middle East]]> Oceania]]> Africa]]>
Sustainability]]> Ecosystems]]> Venue: CREATE Tower, 1 Create Way, Theatrette Level 2, Singapore 138602

Despite all good intentions and efforts of establishing sustainable food systems to support a steadily growing global population, traditional food production systems and their associated value chains are exceeding our planetary boundaries. This talk highlights how ovel production technologies, integrated sustainabiity assessment and further data integration into national food systems through nutritional, environmental and social indicators could be a basis for a holistically developed, more sustainable food system. The focus for innovative system changes is emerging microalgae processing and production.]]>
Iris Haberkorn]]> Southeast Asia]]>