-
I was six when I had the first chance
to learn what patience means.
-
My grandmother gave me a magic box
as a birthday present,
-
which neither of us knew
would become a gift for life.
-
I became obsessed with magic,
-
and at 20, I became
an amateur dove magician.
-
This act of magic
requires that I train my doves
-
to sit and wait inside my clothing.
-
As a young magician, I was always
in a rush to make them appear,
-
but my teacher told me
-
the secret to the success
of this magical act
-
is to make my doves appear
only after they've waited patiently
-
in my tuxedo.
-
It has to be a mindful kind of patience,
-
the kind that took me
some years to master.
-
When life took me to Shanghai
seven years ago,
-
the mindful patience I learned
became almost impossible to practice.
-
In China, where everyone
and everything is in a hurry,
-
you need to outperform
over 1.3 billion other people
-
to build a better life.
-
You hack the system, bend the rules,
-
circumvent the boundaries.
-
It is the same when it comes to food ...
-
except that when it comes to food,
-
impatience can have dire consequences.
-
In the haste to grow more, sell more,
-
4,000 years of agriculture
in a country of rich natural resources
-
is spoiled by the overuse
of chemicals and pesticides.
-
In 2016, the Chinese government revealed
-
half a million food safety violations
in just nine months.
-
Alarmingly, one in every four
diabetics in the world
-
now comes from China.
-
The stories around food
-
are scary and somewhat overwhelming,
-
and I told myself it's time to bring
a mindful patience into the impatience.
-
When I say mindful patience,
-
I don't mean the ability to wait.
-
I mean knowing how to act while waiting.
-
And so, while I wait for the day
-
when a sustainable food system
becomes a reality in China,
-
I launched one of China's first
online farmers market
-
to bring local, organically grown
produce to families.
-
When we went live, 18 months ago,
-
the food we could sell then
was somewhat dismal.
-
We had no fruit
and hardly any meat to sell,
-
as none that was sent to the lab
passed our zero tolerance test
-
towards pesticides, chemicals,
antibiotics and hormones.
-
I told our very anxious employees
-
that we would not give up until we've met
every local farmer in China.
-
Today, we supply 240 types of produce
-
from 57 local farmers.
-
After almost one year of searching,
-
we finally found chemical-free bananas
-
grown in the backyards
of villagers on Hainan Island.
-
And only two hours away from Shanghai,
-
on an island that even Google Maps
does not have coordinates for,
-
we found a place where cows eat grass
-
and roam free under the blue sky.
-
We also work hard on logistics.
-
We deliver our customers' orders
in as fast as three hours
-
on electric vehicles,
-
and we use biodegradable, reusable boxes
-
to minimize our environmental footprint.
-
I have no doubt that our offerings
will continue to grow,
-
but it will take time,
-
and I know a lot more people are needed
to shape the future of good food.
-
So last year, I founded China's first
food tech accelerator and VC platform
-
to help start-ups to shape
the future of good food
-
the way they want,
-
be that through using edible insects
as a more sustainable source of protein
-
or using essential oils
to keep food fresh for longer.
-
So, you may still ask:
-
Why are you trying to build
a sustainable food system
-
by driving a patient movement
-
in a country where it's almost
a crime to take it slow?
-
Because, for me,
-
the real secret to success is patience --
-
a mindful kind of patience
-
that requires knowing
how to act while waiting,
-
the kind of patience I learned
with my grandmother's magic box.
-
After all, we do not inherit
the earth from our ancestors.
-
We borrow it from our children.
-
Thank you.
-
(Applause)