Travel live with us to Guangdong, to explore the rise of one of the most important sustainable agriculture movements on the planet. Here in the heart of China’s Pearl River Delta, entrepreneurs are working to rebuild social trust between farmers in China’s countryside and the huge populations of its rapidly growing cities. As urban dwellers with disposable time and income are expressing renewed interested in tradition, while looking for new ways to prioritize food safety and health, new businesses are spring up to meet the growing demand. Meet the innovators who are working to strengthen rural communities, promote sustainable agriculture, and mobilizing technology to bring food from farm to table in China today. This event is co-hosted with the China Institute.

Event Recap:

How can the concept of ‘Farm-to-table’ work in a country with 1.4 billion mouths to feed?

Simply put, ‘farm-to-table’ is a social movement that seeks to address food-related challenges, such as food security, economic development, and sustainability, with the common objective of reducing barriers between local, small-scale farmers and consumers.

In our recent episode of Taste of China – together with the China Institute – we sat down with the farmers leading this movement in Guangdong, China, to learn what it takes to bring food from farm to table in this vast country.

Meet the people behind this movement, and catch our event replay below.

Watch the full conversation here

Get a free recipe card from Mr. Guilin HERE

SPEAKERS:

Matilda Ho Managing Director of Bits x Bites

Matilda Ho is a serial entrepreneur and investor driving to create more sustainable food systems. She is founder and managing director of Bits x Bites, China’s pioneer food tech venture capital investing in startups tackling global food system challenges. With a mission to shape the future of good food, Bits x Bites is a big step forward to inspire and support the entrepreneurial community to bring new ideas to solve global issues. To date, it has invested in startups that are advancing gene editing for high-performing crops, functional chickpea-based protein ingredients, as well as cost-efficient, non-GMO cell-based meat production without an actual animal. In addition to Bits x Bites, Matilda has founded Yimishiji, a farm-to-table grocery e-commerce platform that has engineered food education and transparency into the entire supply chain and customer experience.

“By establishing a more direct connection between [farmer and consumer]… the final cost of the produce can be reduced by up to 50%.” – Matilda Ho

Fred Young Founder of Rainbow of Hope

Formerly an English teacher and real-estate consultant, Fred Young the founder of Rainbow of Hope. He spends most of his time promoting a vision of eco-communities that enrich both urban and rural lifestyles, and teaching about farming, community organizing, and NGO management. In the future, Fred hopes to spend more time nourishing, coordinating and educating the farm community. The first youth of his village to attend university, Fred retired from the corporate world in 2008 and fearlessly returned to his hometown in West Hunan, giving back to his community by creating an organic farming business and the Rainbow of Hope program.

“While everyone appreciates organic farming, both farmers and consumers face the challenges with the higher cost of this high-quality produce.” – Fred Young

Xiong Guilin Organic mushroom farmer in Guangdong

Xiong Guilin runs an organic mushroom farm in rural Guangdong, and distributes his organic produce locally and across China, through farm-to-table programs like Fred Young’s Rainbow of Hope and Matilda Ho’s Bits x Bites. Mr. Xiong earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at a university in Shaoguan, before moving to the countryside to start his farm. He runs a family-owned mushoom farm, and uses the mushrooms both to sell directly to consumers, and to produce organic fertilizer to grow his crops.

“How we produce and deliver food right now is not sustainable. In order to provide a more resilient supply chain, we need technology to enable this [food movement] and we want to invest in the food technology to address food safety problems facing China.” – Xiong Guilin