We are extremely heartened to see the young farmers in Kranji stand up and promote the farming business in Singapore. Farming ought to be an indispensable industry, and it pleases us that young Singaporeans see its significance.
We still have to find ways to feed ourselves so that we are not at the mercy of other countries
Just as volunteer Darren Ho puts it in another CNA report, “As much as we can rely a lot on other countries, we still have to find ways to feed ourselves so that we are not at the mercy of other countries.”
We are also happy to see children of our own farmers actively promote their family business and raise awareness on the farming issue:
So what if it’s a mere Facebook share? Every bit counts!
Here’s the text of the post, in case you can’t read it:
“Hi Friends,
As many of you know, my father owns a fish farm (yes that makes him a farmer). While I yet to have plans on taking over the farming business, I would just like to share the experiences I’ve had, never having known any other way of living than living on a farm.
Some of you may have seen the episode on CNA, On the Red Dot Unique Communities – Farmers and Friends, where our friend from Jurong Frog Farm shared what growing up in the “countryside” was like, and my experience is similar. Like her, I hated living here as a teenager because it is so difficult to get around, even to school. But living here also has its perks – I grew up in a small and tight community of Farmers, where everybody knew everybody, and kept a lookout for one another. Plus, I got to run around on the farms, and get free goat milk from Hay Dairies Pure Goat Milk and food, just as Chelsea did.
Every weekend of my childhood was also filled with great learning opportunities. I’d watch the fish being fed, help my mom as a cashier, learn how to take orders on the phone, and every other weekend, my dad would bring my cousins, siblings and I to other farms, where we watched other things grow. When I got older, I learned how to manage events and how to interact with the different different people who were involved in farming or were interested in it one way or another.
But the most important thing I’ve seen and learned through the many years of running about, is how hard my father and his friends work to bring food to our table. Not just to feed my family, but many of yours too.
You may not think it is true, because over 90% of the food stuff you see in Fairprice are not locally produced. The vegetables you eat were probably grown in China, and the eggs were probably from Malaysia. But we are real, and we exist. Our Farmers work hard, but we are too small a community to feed every single one of you. And from June 2017 onwards, we will become even smaller, and many of our Farmers will cease to exist as Farmers.
It also saddens me that pretty much none of our children will ever get to experience living on a farm in Singapore and grow up the way Chelsea, my siblings and I did.
While there is nothing much I can do about the Government’s decision, I just thought I’d say this – Defence and security are important. But war need not be military. It could well be trade, and where will we place the importance of food and survival when it happens?
There is hardly anything anyone can do, but I thought I should say something, so that you would, at the very least, know. 62 farms will not have their leases renewed from June next year. There are still some farms left, but our lease are due end 2017 and nobody knows what will happen. We couldn’t stop what already happened, but hopefully, we can prevent further scale-back in future.”
Defence and security are important. But war need not be military. It could well be trade, and where will we place the importance of food and survival when it happens?
Read the article about what our young Kranji farmers have been doing here:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/kranji-s-young-farmers/2824602.html
Keep the movement going! 🙂
Khaiseng Trading & Fish Farm Pte. Ltd. 