Interview discussing Covid19 price hikes. I share my views on the vulnerability of our urban food system, the opportunity to address food security during times of COVID, drawing on examples of neighboring cities.
Food waste is a global issue, but for Asian cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, the majority of the waste comes from the retail and consumption end of the food cycle.
Our dystopic food system produces both both hunger and excess, a logic so contradictory that seems only possible in dystopic futures of cyber punk fiction.
In every crisis there is an opportunity, and now is the time to rethink what living could mean if we were to put urban agriculture on the agenda. Growing food in the city is not a return to the past, it is a vision of sustainability and resilience.
COVID19 is deepening the hunger crisis. According to Oxfam’s latest report, 12,000 people per day will die from hunger caused by the pandemic pandemic – potentially more than the COVID death toll. Daisy Tam discusses hunger crisis with Karen Koh on RTHK Radio – 123 show.
As the world slowly emerges from the COVID pandemic lockdown, many are wondering what lessons can be learnt from this global collective experience – and what we should do differently – to build back better.
Pushing my trolley around the supermarkets’ empty shelves a few months ago – I couldn’t help but replay the scene from World War Z where Brad Pitt stocks up for doomsday. The pandemic has revealed our food system’s vulnerabilities
Sourcing local and seasonal has become the response to the disruptions seen in our food supply chain. More than just a temporary solution, local production should be part of the city’s resilience planning – contingency for future risks.
The food shortage we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerabilities of our food system. In Hong Kong, we are overly dependent on imports and have little buffer in our supply chain.
Hong Kong and Singapore are often considered twin cities on the global stage – it is similar in terms of size and wealth. In this long awaited opportunity to speak in Singapore, I presented the case of Hong Kong.
My view is that urban agriculture is not a thing of the past, many cities in the world are experimenting with different modes of growing food in the city as a way of building resilience.
An opportunity to discuss the state of Hong Kong’s urban food system. How do we begin to build a stronger, more food secure city? From production, to distribution and consumption, I offer my thoughts on the subject.
Featured as one of six women leaders of Hong Kong’s “zero-waste” movement. I spoke to Lauren James about my research journey – from the humble beginnings of working in Borough Market to my current projects at Hong Kong Baptist University and beyond.
The Zurich University of the Arts hosted a talk series on the topic of Ecologies: Matters of Coexistence for their graduate students coming from Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong as part of their Transcultural Collaboration programme. Consuming Nature was a dialogue between myself and Artist Tsang Tak Ping with a good 60 people in the audience thinking together about our relationship to nature and what it means to co-exist.
An opportunity to speak to an audience of 1200 at the Academy of Performing Arts – the largest Tedx event here in Hong Kong! In spite of its status as Asia’s gourmet city, Hong Kong is in fact NOT food secure. “How secure is food? The case of Hong Kong” gives a quick overview of our urban food system and urges the government, businesses and individuals to put food on the agenda in order to start the change we need today.
An interview by the Dutch newspaper Trouw on the Hong Kong’s eating habits and sustainability. Cultural behaviours and trends affect the way we consume, but education can raise awareness and create change in the long term. Featuring the vertical garden which I started with my students, I explained how learning about food could be the seed of change. (in Dutch only)
As part of the Knowledge Transfer Project “Greener Living – micro urban farming and turning waste into resource”, I started a vertical garden to grow an edible wall with my students where we planted organic vegetables using wasted resources.
I was invited to chair the session called Food for Thought at Asia Society’s event “In a grain of Rice: Food & Culture for South and Southeast Asia”. I shared examples drawn from my research and own experiences to discuss the cultural significance of rice and reflected on how food bring communities together through participatory practices.
“Lost Food: Food, Knowledge, Culture” was one of the earliest event I organised at Hong Kong Baptist University. I invited a panel of speakers to talk about our forgotten food culture and lost knowledge – from the way food is produced, to the way its prepared and consumed, how little we know shows how alienated we are from our everyday necessity.
