1. Food Contamination
From the report of World Health Organization (WHO) , 1 in 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food. 420,000 people including 125,000 young children dying from foodborne diseases each year, more than 200 diseases are spread through food. Apart from those diseases, allergies become more and more common too......
Vegetables are easily contaminated by Chemicals, Pesticides, Dirty water, etc. As an "Urban Farmer", we started to seek for a Solution to solve the problem. In 2014, The Patented "Pioneer Indoor Aquaponic Farming Eco-system" was born and started to produce 100% Non-polluted Vegetables.
2. Minimize the Risks
To solve the problem of Food Contamination, we have to tackle many hurdles. Since food supply is complex and involves a range of stages nowadays, including on-farm production, harvesting, processing, storage, transport and distribution, we have to minimize the risks by controlling as many steps as we can.
Under the "Pioneer Indoor Aquponic Farming Eco-system", Planting, Harvesting, Packing and Cleaning can be finished in a 100% safe environment. Thus, we can do our utmost to minimize the risks of food contamination.
3. Importance of Clean Farming
In recent years, there is a trend that harmful bacteria becomes resistant to drug treatments, Antimicrobial resistance is now a rising issue that concerns the globe. One of the key factors is the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in producing food, especially in agricultural industry, it leads to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Some farmers are developing products in an effective but harmful way - chemical agricultural products.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". To ease the tension, we have to change our dietary habits and ways to produce food. That's why Farm66 insists to produce 100% safe Crops and keep trying to educate the public to "Eat wiser".
4. Help the Poverty
Foodborne diseases and Food safety problems affect the vulnerable people harder than other groups. Infections caused by contaminated food have a much higher impact on populations with poor and can easily lead to serious illness and death due to lack of medical care. Also, many peasants are being mistreated even though "Fair Trade" is currently a hot topic.
So, we have an ultimate goal that converts our Technologies and Machineries into franchises and spread to different continents and countries. Thus, those poor peasants can be re-educated and rejoin the urban agricultural industries.
5. Agricultural Globalization
Globalization enhances the complexity and essentiality of food safety. Worldwide food production and trade extends the food chain, complicates foodborne disease outbreak investigation and making product recall in case of emergency much harder. However, many crop products' supply chain relies on a few countries.
Therefore, the "Indoor Aquaponic Farming Eco-system" can help.To practice our vision, we started preliminary discussions with governors and entrepreneurs from different countries that found it's difficult to develop the agricultural industry like Dubai, Palau,etc.
6. Research & Development
Food supply and food safety are multisectoral and multidisciplinary, efforts of food producers are not enough to maintain a safe world. To improve food safety and prevent starvation, a multitude of different professionals must work together and make use of the best available science and technologies.
Unlike most of our peers, Farm66 putting effort not only on planting, but also researching and experimenting. Research & Development Department is one of the Key components in our structure. With the well-developed Data-Monitoring System, we can keep track and improving the quality and quantity of our production, also seeking new ways to improve the planting method.
7. Education
Food safety is not a personal problem, it's a shared responsibility between government, industry, producers, academia and consumers. Everybody has a role to play in keeping food safe. To gather multi-sectoral effort, education and promotions is needed.
Since 2014, we have extended our services into cross-disciplinary educational training for local primary and secondary schools to enhance teenagers' knowledge on urban farming and educate them the concept of Food Safety, Food Crisis and Land Usage problems.
8. Health Care
Contaminated food causes acute diseases, like stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhoea. It also causes long-term health problems. Since food may be contaminated with heavy metals or with other natural occurring toxins, it can lead to some long-term diseases like cancer and neurological disorders.
Instead of tackling the food contamination problem, we concern also the health care issues. For example, after knowing the great nutrition value of wheatgrass and wheatgrass juice suggested by the Chinese and Western healthcare industries, we started to grow wheatgrass and supply to the market, which aimed to provide the community a healthier choice.