Individual reflection During my learning trip to the farm, Bollywood Veggies, I have observed that they grow many different kinds of organic vegetables, fruits and even flowers. However, they do not produce them for consumption purposes. Instead, they use their farm to educate younger generations like us. Actually, many of the farms in Singapore also share the same purpose, which is to fill us with knowledge, and to let us understand more about agriculture in Singapore. In the past, I reckoned that organic farming was just another farming method that, compared to conventional farming, was not much of a difference, except for the higher pricing and that the food produced would look fresher. Other than that, I also thought that organic food was produced from high technology farming, with machineries to help them. However, now I know that organic food was grown without any use of pesticides or artificial fertilizers. For animals, they were not given any antibiotics or growth hormones and when organic farming is being compared to conventional farming, it uses less energy and produce less waste. Other than that, organic food can also be produced by traditional methods of farming, not only by high technology farming.
We can continue to sustain self sufficiency in Singapore only to a small extend as firstly, Singapore is a small country and thus have the restriction of land, hence we do not have many empty spaces for agriculture as most of our land is used for industrial purposes. Secondly, many Singaporeans would rather work in an air-conditioned office rather than farm under the hot sun. However, since our standard of living has been increasing, we cannot continue to rely on other countries for food like we usually do. Hence, although there is not a high chance for Singapore to become highly self-sufficient in many perspectives, we can try to extend the current sufficiency in our country. To do so, first we will have to educate our people about the importance of self-sufficiency in Singapore. Then we need to search for empty land to start the growing of crops. We also need to find out the best way to grow crops, in terms of efficiency, pricing and nutritional values. Only by then, we can start to sustain self-sufficiency in Singapore.
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