Bjorn Low, Founder and Managing Director, Edible Garden City
Launched in 2012, Edible Garden City is specialised in building urban gardens with the ultimate objective of increasing Singapore’s resilience and people’s connection to food within the city. It operates in the very particular environment of Singapore, a hyper-urbanised city where 90% of food is still imported. To implement a viable and sustainable urban farming model, Edible Garden City has chosen to develop different activities seeking to combine commercial activities with socially driven projects. From consultancy to community farming, Edible Garden City has built 200 edible gardens and can potentially produce a total of 150 kg of leafy greens and 150 kg of mushrooms per month through its “Citizen Farm”.
The project benefited from the support of the local government through a public-private partnership which has been key to allowing unused spaces to serve for community and commercial agricultural purposes and to reforming regulations to be more accepting of urban farming. This collaboration between local authorities and the privately managed urban farming company demonstrates the importance of cooperation among public and private actors to foster the development of farming initiatives at the city level.
