?WE CANNOT LIVE BY THE BEGGING BOWL?: SHIFTING FOOD ANXIETIES IN SINGAPORE, 1965-2015

Abstract

This thesis traces changes in Singapore’s food safety and security concerns from 1965 to the present. It delineates three time periods, 1965-1984, 1984-2000 and 2000-the present, arguing that food safety and food security took on different priorities based on specific economic challenges Singapore faced during each time period. It argues that traditional farming and food security in general have suffered due to the desire to promote Singapore’s image as a modern, developed economy, as well as the promotion of achieving water security over food security because Singapore has never been self-sufficient in food and its dependence on imports can be alleviated by the policy of source diversification, while it is overwhelmingly dependent on Malaysia for water. This thesis also looks briefly at the growth in discourse about food as a marker of Singapore identity in spite of (or even because of) food security anxieties.