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.
我在六歲時第一次學到耐心的意義。 我祖母送我一個魔術盒 做為生日禮物, 我們都沒料到 它會變成人生的禮物。 我迷上了魔術, 二十歲時,我成了業餘鴿子魔術師。 為要表演這種魔術, 我得訓練鴿子待在我的衣服裡等著。 當我還是個年輕魔術師時, 總是急著要變牠們出來, 但是老師告訴我, 這魔術表演成功的秘訣, 在於一定要讓鴿子 待在禮服裡耐心等候之後, 才讓牠們出現。 必須是種經心式的耐心, 我花了好幾年才精通這種耐心。
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.
七年前,命運帶我到了上海, 我學到的經心式耐心幾乎不管用。 在中國,所有人事物都很急促, 你得要勝過其他 13 億人 才能打造更好的人生。 你要駭入系統、篡改規則、 規避界線。 在食物方面也一樣, 差別只在於,在食物方面, 沒有耐心會帶來很悲慘的後果。 因為急著要種更多、賣更多, 四千年的農業,在這個 天然資源豐富的國家裡, 被化學物質和農藥的濫用給糟蹋了。 2016 年,中國政府揭露, 短短的九個月裡就有五十萬件 違反食物安全的案件。 令人憂慮的是 世界上每四位糖尿病患者, 就有一位是中國人。 關於食物的真相 很駭人,且勢不可擋, 我告訴自己,該是把經心式耐心 帶入這些沒耐心的事物中的時候了。
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.
我說的經心式耐心, 並不是指能夠等, 而是知道在等待時如何行事。 所以,當我在等待 永續食物系統在中國成真的 那一天到來時, 我推出一個中國首發的 線上農夫市場, 把在地有機種植的農產品帶入家庭。 我們在十八個月前上線, 當時能販售的食物有點讓人沮喪, 我們沒有水果,也幾乎沒有肉可賣, 因為它們都無法通過 實驗室的零容忍檢測, 檢測的內容包括農藥、 化學物質、抗生素、賀爾蒙。 我告訴我們極焦慮的員工, 在還沒見到每個中國農夫之前, 我們不會放棄。
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.
現在,我們供應 240 種農產品, 來自 57 位在地的農夫。 經過幾乎一年的尋找, 我們終於找到了 完全不含化學物質的香蕉, 種在海南島村民家的後院裡。 在離上海只有兩小時的地方, 在一座連 Google 地圖 都沒有標示的小島上, 我們發現一處, 那裡養的牛在藍天下 自由自在地吃草及漫遊。 我們也投很多心力於物流。 用電動車,遞送客戶訂的貨 可以快到只需三個小時; 我們用能被生物分解、 可再使用的盒子, 來把我們的環境足跡減到最少。
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.
我毫不懷疑,我們的 出售物會持續成長, 但那需要時間, 我知道需要很多人才有可能 形成一個有好食物的未來。 所以我在去年成立了中國第一個 食物技術加速器以及創投平台, 來協助新公司創造有好食物的未來, 用它們想用的方式, 不論是使用可食用昆蟲 做為蛋白質的永續來源, 或是用精油來拉長食物的保鮮期。
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.
你可能還是會問: 為什麼你嘗試建立的永續食物系統, 用的是推動耐心的方式, 而且是在一個視進展緩慢 幾乎是種罪行的國家呢? 因為對我而言, 真正的成功秘訣是耐心, 經心式的耐心, 需要知道在等待時如何行事, 也就是我從祖母的魔術盒 所學到的那種耐心。 畢竟,我們並不是從 我們的祖先那裡繼承地球的。 我們是從我們的孩子那裡借來的。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)