Sustainable Agro-businesses and Food Consumption

Biomass is an important renewable energy resource, in particular agricultural crop residues have a high theoretical potential as they are by-products of agricultural crop production and do not require additional land for harvest. However, the commercialisation potential varies greatly as it is dependent on numerous factors such as yield and site specific parameters, the type of crop rotation, slope and soil type, length of the harvest window, the presence of a local processor or aggregator, and whether the agriculture producer sees value in collecting a portion of the crop residue.

Communications and marketing of food affects our food preferences and have a consequential effect on our food choices and long-term dietary behaviours. Our research focuses on consumer acceptance and perception of a wide range of novel, sustainable food technologies, exploring how the food marketing environment can be leveraged to enable a shift towards more healthy and sustainable diets that support carbon friendly food production and consumption.

Food-related data such as pictures, videos, recipes, planning methods, and food diaries are being generated daily in vast amounts. Food computing techniques are used to study these rich and diverse data, offering insights and contributing to significant knowledge in health and nutrition as well as our traditions and cultural identity.

• Explore FoodAI™, a smart food recognition technology developed by a team of researchers led by Professors of Computer Science Steven Hoi and Lim, Ee Peng, which has been adopted by more than 60 organisations, including the Singapore Health Promotion Board.
• Lee Kong Chian Professor of Computer Science Ngo, Chong Wah is leading the project "Food Recognition: Causality-driven Cross-modal Cross-lingual Domain Adaptation" to improve the scalability of food recognition by addressing practical limitations in training classifiers from the perspective of transfer learning.

Food insecurity refers to condition where an individual lacks regular access to adequate quantities of safe and nutritious food for healthy development and an active life. It can be temporary or long-term; experienced at different levels; and cause undernutrition or obesity, leading to disabling chronic diseases. 

• Researchers at the Lien Centre for Social Innovation are developing an applied research and trial project to assess solutions that address the root causes of food insecurity across lower income households in Singapore. This builds on previous work they have done - The Hunger Report: An In-Depth Look at Food Insecurity in Singapore and The Hunger Report Part II: Targeting Specific Needs in the Wake of Covid-19, to document food insecurity in Singapore.

Food systems have contributed significantly to environmental degradation and pollution, and have exacerbated rural poverty and public health issues. In turn, these issues and climate impacts are also placing immense pressure on the complex web of activities involved in the production, processing, transport, consumption and disposal of food.

• Associate Professor of Sociology Qian Forrest Zhang is examining the profound changes that are transforming Chinese agriculture and the implications this has to Chinese society and the global food system through the project "Understanding China's Agricultural Modernization and Rural Development".