Singapore: Urban farms where you least expect them – at bus stops
Bus stops were chosen as sites to showcase urban farming as they are unexpected yet everyday locations, according to Ms Joanne Ng, owner of farming school Gardens with Purpose, which helped to build and maintain the displays where the vegetables grow.
By Wallace Woon
The Straits Times
Jan 3, 2022
Excerpt:
A new campaign by sovereign wealth fund GIC to raise the profile of urban farms in Singapore aims to change that, with seven bus stops islandwide sprouting vegetables such as kailan, butterhead lettuce and Chinese cabbage.
The vegetable displays can be found at bus stops at the Fu Lu Shou shopping complex, in Bencoolen Street, opposite the Jelita Cold Storage in Holland Road, next to CHIJ Katong Convent, at National University of Singapore’s Bukit Timah campus, and in front of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade headquarters and the Singapore Polytechnic School of Science and Tech.
Ms Carly Su, 22, a second-year student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, said the vegetable display at the bus stop in Bencoolen Street had caught her attention during her commute, adding that it is a “cool idea”.
“It’s a nice change from the usual ads that no one really pays attention to, and it’s quite interesting to learn that Singapore has farms also,” said the Chinese national.
Another commuter, who wanted to be known only as Madam Ong, 61, said the display helped to improve the aesthetics of the bus stop at the Fu Lu Shou complex, where she was waiting to take a bus home.
