Food is central to many cultures and societal norms. Be it from meeting with friends, hosting social events, attending public events or even going to work, you’ll find food offered as a gesture of kindness and care. Food is a celebration of life and individuality as it comes in many different tastes, colors and smells, each unique to a region or culture. Therefore, we must do what we can to preserve the food supply chain and be mindful of how our diets impact climate change.
Agritech relates to how technology is utilized to improve the agricultural processes and all the elements of the farming and growing processes in between. The YSEALI Summit invited participants to explore this contemporary theme and ideate projects that have long standing meaningful impact on agriculture, food supply chain and food production. There are three teams that embarked on projects aligned with this theme, namely; Project Com-mA, Food Connect Asia and Green Pan, which are discussed in further detail below.
Project Com-mA
The agricultural system a country runs on plays a major role in the foundation of the food supply chain and economy. Unfortunately, a poor agricultural system threatens the environment and facilitates climate change. For example, Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of agricultural products like palm oil, natural rubber, cocoa, coffee, rice, and spices but faces the perils of deforestation. In the late 2000s, large-scale plantations were responsible for more than half of Indonesia's loss of primary natural forests. This reached an average of 600,000 hectares of forest lost annually. Recently small-scale farming plays a bigger role, in deforestation accounting for about one-quarter of all forest loss. Small-holder farmers facing financial constraints see more economic value in using forests for agriculture compared to preserving it. Thus, there’s a need to teach them sustainable agricultural practices and incentivize forest preservation.
Project Com-mA’s purpose was raising awareness and eliminating illegal activities to save the rainforest in South Sulawesi region, Indonesia. The agriculture-dependent Camba community in Maros, South Sulawesi lives near 14.536 Ha of forests which is currently threatened by many issues like mass-movement, erosion, and forest encroachment. Project Com-mA will co-design forest conservation and agricultural management solutions with the local community. Their objectives included expanding the restoration areas around the Camba sub-district to rehabilitate the degradation zone and upskill farmers on sustainable farming techniques. Project Com-mA held two workshops in October in Camba, where participants were educated on the importance of forests, spatial planning and given training on technical practices and business value chains. They also collaborated with local NGOs and the community to identify a list of preferred trees and local knowledge about their planting to facilitate a native tree planting event.
Food Connect Asia
Another gap in the food supply chain, is the gated information that prohibits consumers from easily switching to more sustainable and nutritious food choices. The barriers surrounding an organic certification may prevent small-holder organic farmers from legally selling their products whilst massive conglomerates benefit by ticking specific boxes for minimum organic standards.
Food Connect Asia’s purpose was to democratize information of sustainable food producers to empower consumer choice in eco-friendly and nutritious food. The problem lies in the fragmented information surrounding organic, nutritious or eco-friendly food and the sustainability practices employed by its respective food producers. Costly certifications for organic or sustainable food may prevent smallholder farms from obtaining it, whilst letting the major food brands dominate. This makes it difficult for consumers to choose the right products and support local farms. Food Connect Asia investigated the pain points in a consumer’s journey to switching to a sustainable diet and collected information on social enterprises and smallholder farms that practice sustainable production. Their goal was to facilitate a circular ecosystem of regenerative food producers and consumers and scale the budding sustainable food movement in Southeast Asia via an information network. Food Connect Asia organized a workshop on September 15th, inviting notable experts from organizations like World Food Program, Access World and Bakas Agritech to share their knowledge. They also collaborated with fellow small grant winners, SEA Foodies and GreenPan. Food Connect Asia created a website with Bakas Agritech that hosts the Food database that records all suppliers of food (farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers) to make food sources accessible to everyone in the SEA region.
GreenPan
The food production process also releases a substantial amount of GHGE, calling for a shift to alternative plant-based diets that are eco-friendly and nutritious. Homecooks can do their part at home by switching to organic food, shopping from their local farms, consuming their leftovers and learning eco-friendly recipes. Green Pan’s purpose was to encourage people to process food in a more eco-friendly way by providing green recipes, cooking videos, and green cooking workshops to local home-cooks in Indonesia (Makassar) and Cambodia (Phnom Penh), all while adhering to local tastes. The problem lies in food production being responsible for roughly 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE).Their objectives included raising awareness of the food carbon print, training ASEAN homecooks to make eco-friendly dishes and reducing household GHGE from food. They organized two workshops in August, one in Makassar and another one in Jakarta, where 100 participants joined in and learned from the green cooking demos. They released a cookbook with eco-friendly recipes, uploaded green cooking videos onto their Youtube channel and created a Facebook group for ASEAN homecooks interested in the green cooking movement.
Stay updated with Project Com-mA’s recent posts on their Instagram page @com_ma.project and Food Connect Asia’s Facebook page. View and download the green cookbook from Green Pan and check out their latest happenings over on their Instagram page @id.dapurhijau! Don’t forget to view their green cooking demos on YouTube.
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