Growing His Passion to Change the World for Good, One Plant at a Time

Will Chua (Master in Public Policy ’11) is one of the co-founders of FOLO, Feed Our Loved Ones. FOLO is a family-run farm in Johor with a mission to feed the world with nutritionally power-packed, super organic vegetables. Before starting FOLO, a social enterprise, Will was the Head of International Organisations Programme Office at the Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB).

Will at FOLO "][/ALUMNI-INFO]

Road less travelled

In 2014, Will and his friends left their overseas jobs and came back to their hometown, Johor. Amongst their circle of friends, they realised many people around them suffered, or are suffering from physical or mental health issues. They did some research and identified four contributing factors.

1. Food consumed - Most food consumed are highly processed, have long supply chains and is calorie rich but nutrient and microbially poor. The industrial food complex that we are part of grows most of the vegetables in our market as monoculture on degraded land, using an array of chemicals and pesticides linked to many chronic illnesses. 
2. Disconnect with nature
3. Lack of genuine community relationships
4. Lack of ‘spiritual’ dimensions in our lives, where we pursue larger than life needs as opposed to fulfilling personal wants.

These 4 factors were the reasons why Will and his partners came together to redefine what the norm is, and to start FOLO, a community farm, starting with a small piece of land.

After 6 years, we are still alive and farming. So we are lucky in that sense that we managed to survive.

Challenges faced while taking the road less travelled

[ALUMNI-QUOTES TEXT="The process of chasing one’s dreams comes with challenges. Unlike bubble tea, one can imagine that the market for organic farming is immature a few years back. Most times, the response they get when they try to sell nutrient-rich microbes grown from recycled food waste is “Why are these so expensive?”. In order to break down the stereotype, Will and team had to invest substantial amounts of time and effort to build the awareness of “What is organic farming”, “What is composting for?”.

As a startup, it also meant that Will needed to be more careful with his spending and consciously live a life that is a lot less fancy than before. In addition to foregoing personal wants (no new car and less new clothes), he also gave away most of his belongings so that he can live simply.

“But in return, I get to follow my heart and at least I feel happier and more peaceful.”"][/ALUMNI-QUOTES]

Public policy knowledge in farming?

Being an organic farmer is not a typical career choice of a public policy graduate. Nonetheless, the knowledge gained from the school helped Will excel.

“Food waste is a negative externality. The true cost of the environment is not being reflected in vegetable price in the market. It is obvious that food waste and organic food is a market failure. When there’s a market failure, business can’t be done because there's no market. Hence, FOLO needs to be a social enterprise. We have to use philanthropy, awareness, education and donations to build the market.”

He also acknowledged that if not for the policy knowledge which he had learned, he would not have been courageous enough to write a policy paper and to share it with a local Minister. The people whom Will met in the LKY School, especially his batch mates, have influenced one another and encouraged each other to be in public service in one way or another. Concepts learned in class have definitely come in handy to help him rationalise his dream, to look for practical sustenance solutions.

Will (right) and his long-time friend, Gabriel

Silver lining of COVID-19

Operations of FOLO have been ongoing with minor impact, such as the discontinuing of tours to the farm during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and lesser food waste as their partners were operating at a lower capacity. In order to ensure that there is business continuity, they met new partners to recover their capacity of composting and embarked on new farm projects.

Will thinks that the COVID-19 pandemic presented cracks in an “over-globalised, over-industrialised, over-deforested” world. One of the biggest things that should be done post-COVID is to localise. “We are living in a globalised world. Globalisation is not bad, but it has gone overboard and a balance has to be struck with localisation.” Balance has to be sought between centralisation and decentralisation too. “So that our food travels less and uses less preservatives”.

Aspirations for the future

FOLO will remain a community farm to fulfil the 4 factors that Will shared. The founders aspire to “inspire a movement in local food waste recovery, local farming for local neighbourhoods, agriculture neighbourhoods, or agri-hoods.”

“Don't use your football field just for the football field. You can grow food.” Will and team have been actively seizing opportunities to impart their knowledge to those who seek. They have recently built a small garden for a school on a pro-bono basis. They also helped another neighbourhood in setting up a composting centre for food waste recycling. With the numerous little projects, Will and team hope to spread the movement so that everyone could start to be more aware of the food, nature, community and spirituality building – do well, do good.

Epilogue

When Will and friends started going down the path less travelled, it seems daunting with a lot of uncertainties. However, Will persisted to follow his heart’s calling, though he needs to forego some personal wants, he now has time to realign his schedule to spend more time on priorities in his life. His greatest reward in pursuing his dream is a healthy body and contentment. Throughout the interview, Will was joyful and the mood, light-hearted. Don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams, even if it takes you down a path that is different from others.