Shop, eat, save the Earth

Concerns about the environment are influencing consumers in their shopping habits and lifestyle choices
Kimberly Spykerman and Natasha Ann Zachariah Straits Times 5 Feb 12;

Talk about a sea change. At weddings 15 years ago, senior marketing manager Low Mei Lin and her husband were the only ones leaving their bowls of shark's fin soup untouched. But not now.

At recent weddings she attended, more than half of the bowls of the traditional delicacy remained unconsumed on the banquet tables, shunned by those worried about its association with animal cruelty.

This is a turnaround for a dish that for generations has been a part of Chinese culture. Some young couples are now doing away with it entirely at their wedding celebrations.

The slippery slide of the gelatinous soup from treat to travesty is the fin edge of the wedge marking the rise of the ethical consumer in Singapore.

The trend hit headlines recently when NTUC FairPrice, the largest supermarket chain here, said it will stop selling shark's fin products from April, following a public outcry.

But the trend is not just concentrated on shark's fin.

Singaporeans from all walks of life are increasingly buying organic and fair trade products, wearing eco-friendly clothes, becoming vegetarian and doing their bit for the environment in general, going by growing sales of such items and the rise in businesses catering to these conscientious consumers, a check by LifeStyle has found.

Fuelling the green-is-good message is social media, which provides a platform for activists, and the fact that celebrities are making it hip to hug Mother Earth.

For example, popular entertainers such as Nikita star Maggie Q and Hong Kong singer Karen Mok have always been outspoken about their stance against wearing clothing made of fur.

A recent episode of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's travelogue, Gordon's Great Escape, was a hot topic on Facebook for its focus on how sharks are slaughtered for soup. In the show, he also went to restaurants to implore diners not to consume the dish.

Mr Louis Ng, founder and executive director of local animal advocacy group Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), said: 'Once people become aware of the issues, they will take action, so businesses need to be socially responsible if they want to win the consumer dollar.'

Noting that Singaporeans are becoming more aware and taking action, he added that Acres has 20,000 supporters on its database who volunteer to help with road shows and its undercover investigations into the illegal sale of exotic animal parts.

This is a far cry from when he started out 10 years ago and was considered a maverick of sorts. Back then, he had only a staff of nine including himself.

The warm fuzzies about furkids has been noted by Hong Kong-based Peta Asia Pacific, an affiliate of United States-based advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta).

Singapore is one of the top countries that request information about animal welfare issues, such as how to make the transition to a vegetarian diet and where to buy cosmetics that are not tested on animals, said Peta.

As for shunning shark's fin, other supermarkets making the move besides FairPrice are Carrefour and Cold Storage.

Luxury hotels have joined the non-feeding frenzy, including Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group, which announced last month that it would cease to offer shark's fin as well as overfished species such as bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass.

The list of hotels includes Fairmont Hotel Singapore, The Fullerton Hotel and Capella on Sentosa. Capella even gives incentives such as one night's accommodation to bridal couples who eschew shark's fin for alternatives such as fish maw soup.

Even Chinese restaurants such as Taste Paradise have noted more requests to swop shark's fin soup in set menus. Owner Eldwin Chua said this trend started about two years ago and his staff usually accommodate such requests.

But saving animals is just one of many social causes Singaporean consumers are embracing.

Others hand over their dollar only if they are certain that the items they eat or use are organic and have not harmed the environment or that fair trade practices, where farmers are paid equitable amounts for their produce, have been observed.

Mr Jared Tham, for example, has been buying fair trade products such as tea, cookies and chocolate for more than five years. The 33-year-old, who does research and events for the Lien Centre for Social Innovation, said he was introduced to the concept of fair trade by his friends.

He pays a premium of 10 to 15 per cent on these products but says he does not mind because fair trade addresses important issues such as environmental protection and equitable wages.

'I'm willing to pay more because fair trade reflects my values and I'm happy to do my part. Singapore is a nation of shoppers, so there is the potential for shopping to make a big difference,' he added.

As for those keen to go organic, it is easy to find such produce at supermarkets here these days.

FairPrice's range of organic products, which includes fresh produce, groceries and household items, has ballooned to more than 800 varieties from fewer than 200 in 1998.

Organic food is known to be more eco- friendly as fewer harmful pesticides are used in the farming process, while organic products such as shampoo do not contain synthetic chemicals that harm, for example, the water supply.

Sales of organic products at FairPrice's selected supermarkets also soared by 35 per cent last year compared to the previous year, said Mr Tng Ah Yiam, the supermarket chain's managing director of group purchasing, merchandising and international trading.

'We have observed organic products gaining popularity among our customers in recent years, as they place greater importance on sustainable and ethical consumption and are also increasingly healthconscious and concerned about food safety and quality,' he said.

Indeed, organic produce stores are now a more common sight in heartland areas and organic farms in Singapore have been doing brisk business, despite the fact that organic produce comes with higher prices. There are at least four organic farms and easily more than 20 organic grocers and retailers here.

For example, Quan Fa Organic Farm has seen sales increase by between 10 and 20 per cent every year since it started in 1999, said Mr Liao Junjie, 24, who helps his father run the place. This is despite the fact that a 250g packet of vegetables can cost $2, almost double the price of non-organic ones.

Mr Loh Teik Beng, who is in his 40s and runs a two-month-old organic grocery store called Country Farm Organics in the Jurong neighbourhood, said business at his outlet has been good.

'Customers are already very aware and knowledgeable about organic products,' he said, noting that most of them are Singaporeans aged between 30 and 50. The brand also has outlets in other heartland areas including Ang Mo Kio, Yishun and Marine Parade.

And the responsibility revenue stream does not stop at food.

Four-year-old cosmetics store Bud, which specialises in organic make-up as well as hair and body products, has enjoyed a spurt in sales of between 15 and 20 per cent each year. Mr Eric Chew, the owner of the stores which are located at Mandarin Gallery and Square 2, said that people are starting to wise up to the health benefits of organic products.

Guardian Pharmacy told LifeStyle that it has been bringing in popular organic brands of skincare, hair and body products, as well as supplements to meet increasing customer demand.

British-based department store brand Marks & Spencer reported that sales here of its fair trade products, such as coffee, tea, and sugar, have grown over the years, though it declined to reveal exact figures.

Even eco-fashion is cottoning on in Singapore.

Some fashion lovers are donning clothes made of bamboo - a material that is highly renewable because it is naturally pest-resistant, grows fast and can help rebuild eroded soil.

Ms Kim Rose Allen, 29, who runs a clothing shop at hipster hangout Haji Lane, said that a growing number of Singaporeans now patronise her store, compared to when she first started two years ago and saw mainly Caucasian customers.

'They like the designs as well as the philosophy behind them. While the clothes may be more expensive than the usual cotton types, it is a small price to pay to be environmentally friendly,' she said. The clothes in her shop range from $35 for a camisole or sleeveless tank to $139 for a dress.

Some jewellery designers here are also using their creativity to make pieces out of natural materials that would otherwise have gone to waste, such as wood shavings and leaves. Others, such as Goya Design, make bags out of recycled paper.

And one cafe group, Food For Thought, is providing a clever way to raise awareness about the environment. It does not charge for water but encourages customers to put money in a 'water jar'. The funds collected will go to well-building projects in other countries.

It also shares mission statements about poverty, hunger and environmental issues on the cafe walls. A percentage of the cafe's profits also goes to charities such as WorldVision.

The group started in 2007 with a small cafe in North Bridge Road that seats about 20. It closed that outlet and in December, opened a larger one at the Botanic Gardens that seats 300. It has another branch in Queen Street. Both are usually packed to the gills.

Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin, 35, one of the cafe's directors, said: 'We primarily wanted a place that offered good food and served up good values on the side, and we are very happy and encouraged about how people are responding to that.'

Eco-Educator
Straits Times 5 Feb 12;

Her conversion to a more earth-aware lifestyle started with her going vegetarian in 2009. Then, in 2010, she started using hair and body products, even toothpaste, that were chemical-free.

But last year, teacher Grace Wee decided to go a step further and started riding a bicycle to work so that she could reduce her carbon footprint.

The 27-year-old leaves her home in Toa Payoh almost every day at 6.30am when the roads are less crowded and cycles to the School of the Arts in Dhoby Ghaut, where she teaches dance. The trip takes about 20 minutes.

'It's a good lifestyle change. I get exercise and fresh air,' she tells LifeStyle.

Ms Wee, who is single, says her environmental 'awakening' started in 2004, when she was studying dance in Melbourne and then later in New Zealand.

'There's a lot of greenery and land there and I appreciated how people took care of it. Here in Singapore, I realised we are not very conscious of the environment and how polluted it is,' she says.

'It's about being aware of the products that you eat and use. I felt guilty for contributing to the problem.'

Her next step is to try and eradicate the consumption of palm oil from her lifestyle. She wants to do this because of heavy deforestation to make way for oil palm plantations, but she admits her plan might be difficult because many products contain palm oil, such as biscuits and baked goods.

Educating others around her about protecting the environment is important, she emphasises, but it is essential not to be 'overbearing'.

She does this in small steps, such as reminding her parents and younger sister to switch off the lights in the house and taking her own mug to work rather than using takeaway styrofoam or plastic cups.

'Whenever there is an opportunity, I will explain to people. You can't just tell them what to do,' she says.

But she admits that it is hard to be eco-friendly all the time. One of her pet peeves is how paper is wasted when she has to print consent forms or reports for her students.

'Of course I feel guilty. But this can't be avoided,' she says.

Kimberly Spykerman

Green campaigner
Straits Times 5 Feb 12;

Cosmetic and skincare companies, beware. Green advocate Olivia Choong is coming for you.

The 33-year-old is on a mission to get Singapore consumers to read the labels of what they put on their faces, starting with The Safer Skin Campaign this month.

She has started the online awareness campaign in the hope that people will read the labels of what goes into their skincare products and demand non-toxic consumer products from the industry.

She says: 'The beauty industry is big business but no one in Singapore is pushing for them to use and make products that are safe for our skin and the environment. Consumers have to put pressure on these companies as they are the ones using the products.'

The campaign is one of many green projects she has been involved in since her teenage years.

Ironically, it was a punishment that started her on the road to eco-awareness, arising from an incident during her boarding-school days in Perth, Australia.

She was caught eating in the dormitory with a room-mate one night and the guilty pair were made to empty milk cartons for recycling out of the trash.

By the time she returned to Singapore in 2004, she had become a consumer with a conscience, but she admits she did not examine the issue in any depth then.

'I just did it because it was the social norm. I didn't ask questions because it was just what people in Australia did. It was their duty to keep the environment clean.'

It was only in 2007, after watching the Live Earth benefit concerts, where celebrities sent out public service announcements about critical environment issues, that she dug more deeply.

'There were so many other pressing issues about the environment, such as global warming and animal rights. It got me thinking that we're heading for a brick wall and we're not doing anything about it.'

She started Green Drinks Singapore that same year. The local chapter of a global non-profit movement aims to connect businesses, the Government, people in education and non-governmental organisations and other environmentalists to share their green knowledge and collaborate.

Today, the group boasts about 1,400 members on Facebook, aged between 18 and 60, from all walks of life. Every month, about 80 turn up at locations around town for discussions on the environment or documentary screenings in support of the movement.

She also runs a public relations agency, Sustainable PR, which helps companies with their green efforts.

In addition, she has joined advocate organisations for issues such as those surrounding the conservation of Bukit Brown cemetery and the Rail Corridor at the old KTM railway track.

She has been a pescatarian since last year, eating fish but not meat, after 21/2 years of being a vegetarian. She had to change her diet for health reasons.

As far as walking the talk goes, she sticks to public transport and has no plans to own a car.

'Now I consider myself an environmental activist. I'm taking action and I want to push for more awareness. People have to see that conservation is important.'

Natasha Ann Zachariah

Vegan family
Straits Times 5 Feb 12;

Quek Xufeng is five years old and, rarely for kids these days, he has never tasted a hamburger.

Just like his parents, he is a vegan and does not eat anything that is of animal origin. This rules out meat, fish, eggs and milk products, although he does sometimes consume products such as a gelatinous dessert made of sea algae and sugar.

The first time he asked if he could have a burger, his mother, property agent Hong Meishan, 34, posed this question to him: 'If I cut your flesh and ate it, would you feel pain? Then how do you think the animal will feel?'

Little surprise then, that Xufeng has not asked for a hamburger since.

Madam Hong, who became a vegan about eight years ago for animal welfare reasons, says she hopes raising her only son this way will help him develop compassion for animals and a desire to contribute to saving the Earth.

She has not been without her detractors. Her parents did not share her beliefs and felt that Xufeng needed meat in his diet to be healthy. But she insists that he is no less healthier than his peers who eat meat.

The boy eats tofu, nuts and beans for protein and she also feeds him herbal supplements.

She also keeps up with dietary research and maintains a strict 'colour code' when it comes to whipping up her son's meals.

The colours of vegetables are an indication that they are good for certain parts of the body, she says. For example, vegetables that have a red hue are good for the heart, while greens are good for the liver.

Madam Hong also substitutes cow's milk with oat, barley, sesame and brown rice milk. And the bread the family eats is baked by her and contains no milk or butter. She uses olive oil as a substitute.

In keeping with eco-friendly living, she buys vegetables from an organic farm rather than at the market. She spends about $500 just on vegetables for her family of three every month.

She also recycles plastics and metals and converts reusable items such as cartons and toilet paper rolls into playthings for her son.

She also does not use leather, in keeping with her belief of kindness to animals.

But it is not easy to live green, she admits. She and her husband, Mr Quek Sio Hua, 46, who runs his own transportation logistics firm, both own cars - a necessity as their jobs require them to get around a lot.

'I do what I can. The Earth is sick. If everybody can do a little bit, it will really help,' she says.

Kimberly Spykerman

Vegan factory owners
Straits Times 5 Feb 12;

So you want to do something for the environment. You avoid shark's fin soup, eat organic food or 'like' an eco-page on Facebook. But a Singaporean couple have gone a whole lot further than that.

Mr Desmond Tan, 52, and his wife, Vivien, 50, sold their house to set up a vegan food-processing factory.

They made the decision in 2009, with their two children, after having a family meeting about it.

They then sold their Eunos terrace house - and moved into another terrace house which they owned and had previously rented out - and used the proceeds of $200,000 to set up a food factory, Olive & Green, in Admiralty's FoodXchange hub.

Mrs Tan, who, with her husband, used to work on a production line of an electronics firm, says: 'The earth is experiencing global warming. By going vegan, we are doing our part to save the planet. The plus side is that it is healthy and you won't have so many people falling ill from junk or poorly cooked food.'

Their beef with food today is the inhumane ways in which meat is farmed from animals and how artificially produced ingredients such as trans fats make food unhealthy.

What started as a way for the family to lose weight has turned into a green love affair. Sixteen years ago, Mrs Tan put the family, including their children, on a raw food diet. They never ate out or cooked their food. They later became vegans after Mrs Tan felt that veganism was a healthier alternative.

A vegan diet excludes meat, eggs, dairy products and all other animal-derived ingredients.

It was easy converting their children then as they were still young, says Mrs Tan.

'I would fill their lunch boxes with celery, salads and carrots. With no pocket money, they had to just eat what I gave them for recess. They had no choice.'

She saw the benefits of the diet as her children became fitter and did not fall sick easily.

On her parents' unusual dietary regiment when she and her brother were children, daughter Pinru, 21, says: 'I didn't think that the food tasted bad and after eating it for so long, we just got used to it.'

Today, the Tans' son, Qin Shen, 22, studies business management at the National University of Singapore and helps out at the factory when he is not at school, while Pinru works with her parents full time.

Their factory operates seven days a week and supplies food to organic and vegan food shops as well as customers who order online.

Mrs Tan runs the baking and production side with her daughter, while Mr Tan is in charge of creating new recipes, sourcing for new importers to work with and making deliveries.

The company churns out more than 12 different types of organic vegan breads such as sprouted quinoa olive oil buns, wholemeal olive oil bread and banana olive oil bread.

It also sells organic honey and oils such as Salmiana Agave nectar and Hippocrates Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and uses only distilled water in its cooked food products.

Products are sourced from countries such as New Zealand, the Philippines and Cyprus, which can be expensive. For example, a box of organic cherries from New Zealand costs $45 a kilogram, while ginger from Australia costs $38 a kilogram. The prices of their organic goods are 20 to 30 per cent higher than non-organic produce.

Mr Tan says that the factory is only starting to break even after two years of pumping in $10,000 of his own money monthly. The factory needs about twice that amount every month to pay the bills, including the $3,500 rent.

Even then, the company gives away some products for free to spread the word about the benefits of the vegan lifestyle. Every last Sunday of the month, it holds a dinner-cum-lecture at the factory. About 50 to 60 people turn up each time. There are often new faces amid family and friends.

Mr Tan says: 'People come because they want to learn health tips from us and find out how to change their diet as well as ask questions about why certain food is bad for us.'

He quips: 'In the past, people would just turn up during dinner time for the free food and leave after that.'

While it might seem like a lot of work for their beliefs, the Tans are not content with being pamphlet-pushers.

Mrs Tan says: 'Handing out information alone doesn't do anything. You just read it but nothing has changed. I've seen videos of how animals are slaughtered or reared inhumanely. By setting up this factory, I'm doing my part and I can spread the message.'

To make veganism more appealing to meat-lovers, Mr Tan experiments regularly with recipes he finds on the Internet to see what he can make with the ingredients he has. Every month, he tries to develop two new products.

He says: 'We want to set the example by leading this lifestyle. And now that we have done it for so long, we can help other people who want to try it as well.'

Natasha Ann Zachariah