COVID-19 is the worst crisis to hit the global food system: farmers saw their produce left to rot, shortages sparked panic buying in the supermarkets, and thousands of restaurants closed for good. While the food disruptions have eased, COVID-19 has woken us up to the many things that are wrong with how our food is brought from farm to fork. With his own restaurant business on the line, Chef Ming Tan goes on a mission to find out what needs to change, and uncovers a system ripe for a shake-up.
Ep 1 - Wake-up Call - Restaurants
COVID-19 has forced more than a thousand restaurants to close permanently in Singapore. Fighting to save his own business and livelihood, Chef Ming Tan embarks on a mission to find out how to make the F & B sector more resilient and sustainable. What are virtual restaurants? Can robots take over as cooks and servers? And is it possible that there just way too many food outlets in the tiny city state?
Ep 2 - Wake up Call - Farms
COVID-19 has exposed how important food security is to a city state like Singapore. Can the island grow more food to become more resilient to future food shocks? In land-scarce Singapore, farms already take up 1% of the land, yet contributes only 0.03% of the city's GDP. Chef Ming decides to work in a farm to see if they can be made more productive. He discovers a burgeoning agri-tech scene, but wonders why the millions being poured into the sector are not making an immediate impact in the market place. He speaks to the industry players to find out why. He also brings hydroponic vegetables to a laboratory to see if they differ from soil-grown vegetables in their nutritional value. Finally, he taps on a friend in the Netherlands to investigate how the small European country managed to become a major food exporter.
Ep 3 - Groceries
When COVID-19 hit our supermarkets buckled under the weight of unprecedented demand. In this episode, Chef Ming finds out whether itĄ¯s time to rethink where and how we shop for our food. He discovers that we have to fight the urge to linger in supermarkets, because thatĄ¯s the way itĄ¯s designed to be. He joins an army of pickers to see how groceries are packed and delivered to you. He talks to companies that are trying to bring provision shops and wet market stalls into the digital age. He tries out selling frozen foods over Facebook Live. And he checks out a whole new way of getting your groceries, that could potentially fight food waste.
Ep 4 - Diet
Living in a quaranting triggers unhealthy eating habits but now, more than ever, these habits can have deadly consequences. Why are overweight Asians more likely to suffer from the symptoms of COVID-19 than their Caucasian counterparts? Does our over consumption of meat result in intensive animal farms that are hotbeds for new diseases? What does it take to change the way we eat?
Chef Ming Tan investigates how diets are linked to the origin of viruses ¨C and how they make us more susceptible to them.
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