Singapore, a wealthy and densely populated island city-state, imports more than 90% of its food, despite its near self-sufficiency in the mid-twentieth century. Framed as a direct response to the expected widespread damages caused by climate breakdown and its uncertain implications for both food production and global supply chains, in 2019 the Singapore Food Agency announced policy measures to increase local production to 30% by 2030. Primarily limited by land scarcity, these interventions have largely epitomised a form of ecomodernism with a long history in Singapore: high-tech, science driven, and capital-intensive reworkings of the environment and ecology. Using a framework of ‘ecomodernist metabolism’, the paper situates ecomodernist interventions in the changing foodscape in broader cultural, historical, and geographical contexts. 

Adam Searle (University of Nottingham).

This research seminar is co-badged by the Centre for Environmental Humanities and Food Justice Network.

Venue: - 1.19, 7 Woodland Road

(Directions: enter the Humanities Building through the main entrance, head straight but then take the first set of stairs to your left and head into 7 Woodland Road – follow the signs for room 1.19)