Page 6 - Berita-Sunway-Issue73

On the Cover
Food Forest in Concrete Jungle So, we started incorporating sensors to monitor key most vulnerable people. Today, estimated one in
Heeding such warnings, a new generation of farmers metrics that allow us to intervene whenever any nine people in the world experiences food
are rising to transform the way the country eats. measurements are out of the normal range. at insecurity.
Inside a converted laundry room at Sunway City was the aha! moment when we realised how the data
Kuala Lumpur, hundreds of tender, young plants we were collecting could smarten up our farms.” As global population balloons and climate
are thriving beneath a customised Heating, depression continues to broadcast the fragility of
Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Research and development is ingrained into the our current food systems, we need innovators and
system that shields them from both the culture of Sunway FutureX and has been from the entrepreneurs to step up to the table to increase
unpredictable sky and the effluence of pollutants. very beginning. Its launch in 2020 has expanded food production, to end hunger and malnutrition,
e innovation hub Sunway FutureX is Sunway’s R&D capacity by manifold, accelerating and to decrease food loss throughout the supply
responsible for tending to this farm, though its use Sunway’s ambitious agri-food tech vertical under chain – all without bankrupting the earth. One of
of “farm” certainly stretches conventional the Sunway living lab initiative, which is said to the concerns here is the freshness of food. To this
definitions. e greens here do not grow out of address several challenge areas pertaining to future end, Sunway FutureX is striving to bring production
the comforting embrace of the earth. ey are food scenarios, boost cross-sector – even closer to the communities where consumption
produced “vertically”: cradled in plastic trays, transnational – cooperation, and provide funding happens. “Our vision is to build one million
stacked and slotted into a tower like cookies in a opportunities to help promising talents get their square feet of decentralised smart urban farms
bakery. e indoor plots are bathed in artificial plans off the ground. Featuring both indoor and throughout Sunway cities and other
A series of devastating climate light and tickled by an artificial breeze, precisely outdoor farming areas, a research and development developments across the country. e goal is to
centre, as well as training and collaborative spaces,
have every urbanite living within 5km of access to
disasters in various parts of the world calibrated by humming fans. It is not the whim of this hub has already begun blazing new trails in the fresh, healthy, and delicious produce,” said Matt.
clouds that determines their watering schedules,
are exposing the sins and failures of rather, it is a continuously refined algorithm that urban farming revolution.
our food supply chain. Can urban works to monitor and dispense nutrient-enhanced And here lies the major dilemma: Can a
farming finally show us the path water to arrays of seedlings. And it is just the beginning. Matt believes they are patchwork of urban farms really grow enough to
to salvation? merely scratching the surface of its full potential. feed us all? Matt does not view them as a panacea
What plants grow in such a place? Most would Partnering with Sunway University, his team is to this food security conundrum. “Rather, they will
recognise them: sweet butterhead, romaine, and constantly upgrading and leveraging their robust complement existing agricultural practices in
green corals that often show up as salad base, as well data infrastructure and scientific know-how to addressing the problem. Having said that,
as species commonplace in Asian families’ crisper magnify what is possible. “Our next step is to use traditional farmers should start looking into some
drawers like bok choy and tatsoi. “We have AI (artificial intelligence) to predict and address very pertinent challenges they are facing like
already yielded more than 60 varieties of leafy any farming challenges before they happen. It climate change, logistics, and succession
greens and herbs so far. Cultivation of fruits is should also help us better match our agricultural planning. Technology can be a part of the answer
still in progress at our pilot farms,” revealed output with the market demands.” to ensure that we have sufficient food and
Sunway Group chief innovation officer and decrease heavy reliance on food imports.”
Sunway iLabs director Matt van Leeuwen, Unifying Human to Nature
offering a glimpse into their crop profile Indisputably, the demand for locally grown food In 2019, Singapore government announced its
expansion effort. has never been stronger. Sunway FutureX and a “30 by 30” vision – that is, 30% of nutrition
broad collection of metropolitan agricultural sourced locally by 2030 – and allocated S$144
is facility is one of four soil-less urban farms at efforts have arrived at a pivotal moment, as countries million in related projects, including urban
Sunway FutureX that create precise growing around the world are beginning to bear witness to farming. It is high time for us to take a leaf out of
conditions using technological advances such as intensifying actions of climatic catastrophe. And our neighbour’s book and reduce our collective
data analytics and proprietary software systems. then, there is the coronavirus pandemic. ese dependency on imported food. Over the last
“We only started looking into technology and stressors, when continuously exerted on the world’s decade alone, our national food bill has increased
IoT (internet of things) to address challenges we main breadbasket regions, could potentially lead to about RM60 billion, with 55% of our
were facing at the farm,” Matt said. He recalled to increased conflict, mass migrations, and vegetable needs imported. And a project like
episodes of water cuts and power outages in the millions of refugees. In fact, community surveys Sunway FutureX is teaching us to understand
early days. “And lack of sunlight during the rainy worldwide have detailed how these changes are both the peril and the promise of the moment –
season too, which specifically affected the operations threatening food security, especially among the that we either go green or we go under – all while
and output of our outdoor hydroponic greenhouse. giving us hope for tomorrow.
F or one with an illustrious beginning, industrial agriculture seems to be working up quite
a bad rep in the sustainability circle as of late. e introduction of modern agronomy –
high-yield and disease-resistant seeds, heavy doses of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and
irrigation – saved the Indian subcontinent from starvation in the 1960s and gave triumph to
the so-called green revolution. Since then, things got much better, and in some ways much This facility is one of four soil-less
worse. Many stories in the past century sang of its efficiencies and economies of scale, but an urban farms at Sunway FutureX that
urgent report released in August 2019 by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on create precise growing conditions
Climate Change (IPCC) reveals uglier truths about its environmental, existential impact of using technological advances such
the present. According to the findings, land use is responsible for 23% of global greenhouse as data analytics and proprietary
gases stuck in our atmosphere: half from carbon dioxide emitted through deforestation; half software systems.
from agriculture. In turn, “climate change creates additional stresses on land, exacerbating
existing risks to livelihoods, biodiversity, human and ecosystem health, infrastructure, and
food systems,” the report summarises.

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