Our Singapore Conversation @ Eunos RC (03 Apr)

Mr Low joined in a Singapore Conversation session organized by Eunos RC (Residence Committee) on 03 Apr. The MP chairing the session is Prof Fatimah Lateef. The session is conducted mainly in English with Chinese and Malay translations, about 45 residents attended the session.

The session was well-organized, the organizing committee went through various aspects of living in Singapore: Housing, Transport, Health Care, Environment and asked the participants to give their views on the issues.

During the session, Mr Low brought up an issue about sustainable living: “ A WWF report shows that if everyone lives the lifestyle of an average Singaporean, we would need 3.5 planets to cater to our way of consumption! We have to reduce our consumption patterns to conserve the resources of the planet.”

Mr Low informed that in recent years, United Nations have requested the citizens of wealthy nations to reduce meat consumption by half to conserve the food and water resources of the planet. [It takes 3 to 10 times more food resources, 5 to 80 times more water resources to produce meat than vegetables. Average meat consumption rate in the world is 40 kg/ per person / per year. Ave meat consumption rate in developed nations (such as US/ Europe/ Singapore etc) is about 90-to-100 kg /per person/ per year. (more than Double the World ave).] Mr Low suggested that we could adopt meatless days (going meatless one day a week) to reduce our consumption pattern to help the planet.      

MP Fatimah Lateef acknowledged that Singaporeans should eat less meat for environmental and for health reasons. When the organizing committee asked who would support meatless days, many participants raised their hands to show support.