A state visit by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and his consort, Queen Silvia, to Singapore is organized from Nov 19 to Nov 21. Next to healthcare, a panel will discuss the green economy: an area with opportunities for collaboration, by Sweden's reckoning. Mr. Hakan Jevrell, State Secretary to the Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, told reporters last week in an interview: "Swedish companies have it in their core to always be committed to the topic of climate change and to find good solutions to be able to manage the green transition."
Green and Growing is one company that wishes to contribute to this transition. It has seven small hydroponic farms roughly the size of shipping containers, each overseen by one employee in charge of growing, harvesting, and packing vegetables.
Vertical farms embedded in local communities
Founder and CEO Magnus Leydner said that each farm is precisely sized and located to yield enough vegetables to help meet the needs of those living within 15 minutes from it. This allows vegetables to be delivered in a quicker time after harvest, improving freshness while reducing carbon emissions. The vegetables are grown vertically, with optimized nutrient, light, and temperature conditions that are regulated electronically.
Mr. Leydner said such small vertical farms embedded in local communities may help Singapore's efforts to improve self-sufficiency in food production. This is compared with larger hydroponic farms that require more capital outlay and emit more carbon dioxide to transport their produce to the market.
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