Quora Answer: How Does the Singapore Government Feed Its People if It Has No Farms?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “How does the Singapore government feed its people if it has no farms?”

Singapore imports the majority of its food.  There are some hydroponic farms, but they do not produce enough to feed the market.  Since we import our food, securing supplies is part of our food security policy.  Singapore, through its government-linked corporations, owns farms and food processing facilities in other countries.  This allows some measure of price control of necessities, and prevents any country, particularly Malaysia, from threatening a price shock by limiting supplies.

Food security programmes are not unique to Singapore.  Wealthy countries pay money to own farms, plantations, and pasture land in nations that have an excess of this, with the entire production being sent back to the home country.  Since the production can be considered foreign direct investment repatriated, there are no tariffs even if there ordinarily might be.  Food security programmes have strategic importance, and every nation is understandably secretive about these details.