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Singapore’s homegrown farming dream is beginning to fade Bloomberg Updated Wed, 24 July 2024 at 10:06 am SGT · 6-min read A worker walks between hydroponics growing panels at the Livfresh farm in Singapore. (Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg) By Audrey Wan and Low De Wei (Bloomberg) – By most measures, Karthik Rajan’s farm in Singapore is a success story. Run from a two-hectare plot of land in the island’s north, LivFresh has been supplying major supermarkets with spinach, lettuce and other Asian green vegetables since 2022. The firm turned profitable in March. It may still close down by the end of the year. Rajan is one of a small number of entrepreneurs attempting to farm in a country smaller than New York City. Like most of his peers, he’s facing an uncertain future as funding runs dry, with investments in homegrown agricultural startups cratering over the past few years. Since the start of 2023, at least half a dozen large farms have shut down or scaled back operations...

  Sparkly and shiny, but is your natural make-up free of forced labor? By Kieran Guilbert June 22, 2018   8:05 AM GMT+8   Updated 6 years ago   LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Soaring global demand for natural beauty products could be fuelling modern-day slavery as ingredients such as cocoa, vanilla and the mineral mica are linked to child labor while cosmetic supply chains lack oversight, analysts said on Friday.   Many key components - from shea nuts to wax used as a base for mascara - are produced by smallholder farmers where the risk of labor abuse is high as governments and businesses struggle to monitor conditions, said risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft. Cosmetics companies are benefiting from strong appetite for skincare products, after riding a make-up boom in recent years spurred by young consumers seeking to look good on social media. While buyers clamor for make-up made with various fruit, nuts, grains and minerals, companies that inc...

  Prioritise 'charismatic' species such as otters, pangolins in conserving wildlife, say Singapore researchers Kalaivanan Balakrishnan Clockwise from top left: A Malayan Colugo, a Sunda Pangolin, an otter, a Raffles' banded langur and a common palm civet. Scientists in Singapore propose focusing conservation efforts on "charismatic" species, like otters and pangolins, due to significant biodiversity loss Charismatic species are those that attract public interest because of their cultural or aesthetic appeal Prioritising c...