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I was six when I had the first chance
to learn what patience means.

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My grandmother gave me a magic box
as a birthday present,

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which neither of us knew
would become a gift for life.

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I became obsessed with magic,

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and at 20, I became
an amateur dove magician.

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This act of magic
requires that I train my doves

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to sit and wait inside my clothing.

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As a young magician, I was always
in a rush to make them appear,

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but my teacher told me

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the secret to the success
of this magical act

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is to make my doves appear
only after they've waited patiently

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in my tuxedo.

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It has to be a mindful kind of patience,

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the kind that took me
some years to master.

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When life took me to Shanghai
seven years ago,

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the mindful patience I learned
became almost impossible to practice.

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In China, where everyone
and everything is in a hurry,

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you need to outperform
over 1.3 billion other people

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to build a better life.

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You hack the system, bend the rules,

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circumvent the boundaries.

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It is the same when it comes to food ...

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except that when it comes to food,

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impatience can have dire consequences.

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In the haste to grow more, sell more,

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4,000 years of agriculture
in a country of rich natural resources

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is spoiled by the overuse
of chemicals and pesticides.

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In 2016, the Chinese government revealed

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half a million food safety violations
in just nine months.

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Alarmingly, one in every four
diabetics in the world

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now comes from China.

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The stories around food

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are scary and somewhat overwhelming,

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and I told myself it's time to bring
a mindful patience into the impatience.

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When I say mindful patience,

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I don't mean the ability to wait.

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I mean knowing how to act while waiting.

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And so, while I wait for the day

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when a sustainable food system
becomes a reality in China,

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I launched one of China's first
online farmers market

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to bring local, organically grown
produce to families.

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When we went live, 18 months ago,

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the food we could sell then
was somewhat dismal.

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We had no fruit
and hardly any meat to sell,

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as none that was sent to the lab
passed our zero tolerance test

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towards pesticides, chemicals,
antibiotics and hormones.

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I told our very anxious employees

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that we would not give up until we've met
every local farmer in China.

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Today, we supply 240 types of produce

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from 57 local farmers.

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After almost one year of searching,

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we finally found chemical-free bananas

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grown in the backyards
of villagers on Hainan Island.

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And only two hours away from Shanghai,

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on an island that even Google Maps
does not have coordinates for,

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we found a place where cows eat grass

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and roam free under the blue sky.

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We also work hard on logistics.

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We deliver our customers' orders
in as fast as three hours

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on electric vehicles,

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and we use biodegradable, reusable boxes

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to minimize our environmental footprint.

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I have no doubt that our offerings
will continue to grow,

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but it will take time,

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and I know a lot more people are needed
to shape the future of good food.

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So last year, I founded China's first
food tech accelerator and VC platform

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to help start-ups to shape
the future of good food

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the way they want,

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be that through using edible insects
as a more sustainable source of protein

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or using essential oils
to keep food fresh for longer.

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So, you may still ask:

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Why are you trying to build
a sustainable food system

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by driving a patient movement

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in a country where it's almost
a crime to take it slow?

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Because, for me,

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the real secret to success is patience --

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a mindful kind of patience

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that requires knowing
how to act while waiting,

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the kind of patience I learned
with my grandmother's magic box.

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After all, we do not inherit
the earth from our ancestors.

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We borrow it from our children.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)