ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Matilda Ho - Serial entrepreneur, investor
TED Fellow Matilda Ho is shaping the startup landscape to create more sustainable food systems in China.

Why you should listen

Matilda Ho is the founder and managing director of Bits x Bites, China's first food tech accelerator and VC fund that invests in entrepreneurs tackling global food system challenges.

With a mission to shape the future of food, Bits x Bites is a big step forward to inspire China’s entrepreneurial community to bring new ideas to solve global issues. It also serves as a critical catalyst to give startups the confidence and connections to prosper and make a meaningful and scalable impact. Bits x Bites has invested in companies that include a silkworm-based snack food startup, a drinkable salad CPG startup and a young company building weatherproof, cloud-connected farms to enable local food production by anyone anywhere.

In addition to Bits x Bites, Ho has founded Yimishiji, one of China's first online farmers markets to bring organic and local produce to families. Yimishiji stands alone as a farm-to-table e-commerce platform that has engineered food education and transparency into the entire supply chain and customer experience, effectively reshaping the relationship between Chinese consumers and farmers.
Prior to entrepreneurship, she filled leadership roles at IDEO and BCG (The Boston Consulting Group) in both Shanghai and Washington DC. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She currently serves as an advisor on the board of Shinho, China’s first and largest organic condiment company.

Ho is an emerging voice on food sustainability and entrepreneurship. She has been featured in articles by Fast Company, South China Morning Post and Inc. In 2017, she was named a TED Fellow and a GLG Social Impact Fellow.

More profile about the speaker
Matilda Ho | Speaker | TED.com
TED2017

Matilda Ho: The future of good food in China

Matilda Ho: O futuro da boa alimentação na China

Filmed:
1,440,344 views

Comidas frescas sem produtos químicos e pesticidas, estão cada vez mais difíceis de achar na China: em 2016, o governo chinês apontou meio milhão de violações de inspeção sanitária em apenas nove meses. Na falta de fontes seguras e sustentáveis de alimentos, a bolsista do TED, Matilda Ho lançou a primeira feira on-line da China, instituindo um teste de tolerância zero para pesticidas, antibióticos e hormônio nos alimentos. Ela conta como está fazendo para crescer sua plataforma do zero e como está levando alimentos orgânicos e locais para famílias que necessitam.
- Serial entrepreneur, investor
TED Fellow Matilda Ho is shaping the startup landscape to create more sustainable food systems in China. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I was six when I had the first chance
to learn what patience means.
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Eu tinha seis anos quando aprendi
o que é ter paciência.
00:18
My grandmother gave me a magic box
as a birthday present,
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Minha avó me deu uma caixa mágica
como presente de aniversário
00:21
which neither of us knew
would become a gift for life.
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e não sabíamos que ela seria
um presente para a vida toda.
00:25
I became obsessed with magic,
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Fiquei obcecada por mágicas,
00:28
and at 20, I became
an amateur dove magician.
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e aos 20 anos me tornei
mágica de pombas amadora.
00:33
This act of magic
requires that I train my doves
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Essa mágica requer
que eu treine minhas pombas
00:36
to sit and wait inside my clothing.
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para que elas esperem
dentro da minha roupa.
00:39
As a young magician, I was always
in a rush to make them appear,
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Como eu era jovem, estava sempre
com pressa de fazê-las aparecerem,
00:44
but my teacher told me
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mas minha professora me disse
00:46
the secret to the success
of this magical act
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que o segredo para o sucesso dessa mágica
00:49
is to make my doves appear
only after they've waited patiently
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é fazer as pombas aparecerem só depois
que elas esperassem pacientemente
00:53
in my tuxedo.
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no meu smoking.
00:55
It has to be a mindful kind of patience,
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Tinha que ser uma forma
consciente de paciência,
00:58
the kind that took me
some years to master.
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que levei alguns anos para dominar.
01:03
When life took me to Shanghai
seven years ago,
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Quando minha vida me levou
a Xangai sete anos atrás,
01:06
the mindful patience I learned
became almost impossible to practice.
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a paciência consciente que aprendi
ficou quase impossível de se praticar.
01:12
In China, where everyone
and everything is in a hurry,
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Na China, onde tudo
e todos estão apressados,
01:16
you need to outperform
over 1.3 billion other people
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você precisa ser melhor
do que 1,3 bilhões de pessoas
01:19
to build a better life.
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para ter uma vida boa.
01:22
You hack the system, bend the rules,
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Você tem que enganar
o sistema, burlar as regras
01:25
circumvent the boundaries.
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e driblar os limites.
01:27
It is the same when it comes to food ...
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É assim que funciona
com alimentos também...
01:30
except that when it comes to food,
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só que, quando se trata de alimentos,
01:33
impatience can have dire consequences.
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a impaciência pode levar
a consequências drásticas.
01:37
In the haste to grow more, sell more,
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Na pressa de produzir e vender mais,
01:40
4,000 years of agriculture
in a country of rich natural resources
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4 mil anos de agricultura
num país rico em recursos naturais
01:45
is spoiled by the overuse
of chemicals and pesticides.
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foram arruinados pelo exagero
de produtos químicos e pesticidas.
01:49
In 2016, the Chinese government revealed
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Em 2016, o governo chinês apontou
01:52
half a million food safety violations
in just nine months.
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meio milhão de violações de inspeção
sanitária em apenas nove meses.
01:58
Alarmingly, one in every four
diabetics in the world
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É preocupante que um a cada
quatro diabéticos do mundo
02:01
now comes from China.
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é da China.
02:04
The stories around food
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As histórias sobre os alimentos
02:06
are scary and somewhat overwhelming,
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são assustadoras e esmagadoras,
02:09
and I told myself it's time to bring
a mindful patience into the impatience.
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e me convenci que está na hora de trazer
uma paciência consciente à impaciência.
02:16
When I say mindful patience,
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Ao falar de "paciência consciente",
02:18
I don't mean the ability to wait.
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não quero dizer saber esperar.
02:20
I mean knowing how to act while waiting.
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E sim, saber agir enquanto esperamos.
02:25
And so, while I wait for the day
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Assim, enquanto espero pelo dia
02:28
when a sustainable food system
becomes a reality in China,
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em que o sistema alimentício sustentável
se tornará uma realidade na China,
02:32
I launched one of China's first
online farmers market
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lancei uma das primeiras
feiras on-line da China
02:35
to bring local, organically grown
produce to families.
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para trazer produção local
e orgânica às famílias.
02:40
When we went live, 18 months ago,
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Ao entrarmos no ar, há 18 meses,
02:42
the food we could sell then
was somewhat dismal.
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a comida que vendíamos
era bastante escassa.
02:46
We had no fruit
and hardly any meat to sell,
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Não tínhamos frutas
e quase nenhuma carne à venda,
02:49
as none that was sent to the lab
passed our zero tolerance test
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pois quase nenhuma das que enviávamos
ao laboratório passava no nosso teste
02:53
towards pesticides, chemicals,
antibiotics and hormones.
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de tolerância zero de pesticidas,
químicos, antibióticos e hormônios.
02:57
I told our very anxious employees
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Falei para nossos empregados ansiosos
02:59
that we would not give up until we've met
every local farmer in China.
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que não iríamos desistir até encontrarmos
com todos os fazendeiros da China.
03:05
Today, we supply 240 types of produce
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Hoje, nós fornecemos 240 tipos de produtos
03:09
from 57 local farmers.
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de 57 fazendeiros locais.
03:12
After almost one year of searching,
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Depois de quase um ano de procura,
03:15
we finally found chemical-free bananas
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finalmente encontramos
bananas sem químicos
03:18
grown in the backyards
of villagers on Hainan Island.
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produzidas nos quintais
de aldeões na Ilha de Hainan.
03:22
And only two hours away from Shanghai,
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E só a duas horas de distância de Xangai,
03:25
on an island that even Google Maps
does not have coordinates for,
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numa ilha que nem o Google Maps
consegue gerar coordenadas,
03:29
we found a place where cows eat grass
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encontramos um lugar
onde as vacas comem grama
03:32
and roam free under the blue sky.
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e andam livremente sob o céu azul.
03:35
We also work hard on logistics.
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Também trabalhamos duro na logística.
03:38
We deliver our customers' orders
in as fast as three hours
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Entregamos os pedidos de nossos clientes
em até três horas, com veículos elétricos,
03:42
on electric vehicles,
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03:44
and we use biodegradable, reusable boxes
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e usamos caixas reutilizáveis
e biodegradáveis
03:46
to minimize our environmental footprint.
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para minimizar nossa pegada ambiental.
03:50
I have no doubt that our offerings
will continue to grow,
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Não tenho dúvidas de que nossa
oferta continuará crescendo,
03:54
but it will take time,
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mas levará um tempo,
03:56
and I know a lot more people are needed
to shape the future of good food.
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e sei que é necessário bem mais gente
para gerar um futuro de bons alimentos.
04:02
So last year, I founded China's first
food tech accelerator and VC platform
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Ano passado, criei o primeiro programa
de apoio às tecnologias de comida da China
04:07
to help start-ups to shape
the future of good food
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para ajudar as "start-ups" a moldarem
o futuro dos bons alimentos como queiram,
04:10
the way they want,
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04:12
be that through using edible insects
as a more sustainable source of protein
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seja usando insetos comestíveis
como uma fonte sustentável de proteína
04:17
or using essential oils
to keep food fresh for longer.
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ou usando óleos essenciais para manter
a comida fresca por mais tempo.
04:22
So, you may still ask:
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Você ainda deve estar se perguntando:
04:24
Why are you trying to build
a sustainable food system
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por que você está tentando construir
um sistema sustentável de comida
04:27
by driving a patient movement
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através de uma campanha de paciência
04:29
in a country where it's almost
a crime to take it slow?
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num país onde é quase
um crime ir com calma?
04:34
Because, for me,
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Porque, para mim,
04:35
the real secret to success is patience --
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o segredo real do sucesso é a paciência,
04:39
a mindful kind of patience
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um tipo consciente de paciência
04:41
that requires knowing
how to act while waiting,
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que requer saber como agir
enquanto esperamos,
04:44
the kind of patience I learned
with my grandmother's magic box.
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o tipo de paciência que aprendi
com a caixa mágica da minha avó.
04:49
After all, we do not inherit
the earth from our ancestors.
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No fim das contas, não recebemos
a Terra de nossos ancestrais.
Nós a pegamos emprestada de nossos filhos.
04:55
We borrow it from our children.
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04:57
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
04:58
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Matilda Ho - Serial entrepreneur, investor
TED Fellow Matilda Ho is shaping the startup landscape to create more sustainable food systems in China.

Why you should listen

Matilda Ho is the founder and managing director of Bits x Bites, China's first food tech accelerator and VC fund that invests in entrepreneurs tackling global food system challenges.

With a mission to shape the future of food, Bits x Bites is a big step forward to inspire China’s entrepreneurial community to bring new ideas to solve global issues. It also serves as a critical catalyst to give startups the confidence and connections to prosper and make a meaningful and scalable impact. Bits x Bites has invested in companies that include a silkworm-based snack food startup, a drinkable salad CPG startup and a young company building weatherproof, cloud-connected farms to enable local food production by anyone anywhere.

In addition to Bits x Bites, Ho has founded Yimishiji, one of China's first online farmers markets to bring organic and local produce to families. Yimishiji stands alone as a farm-to-table e-commerce platform that has engineered food education and transparency into the entire supply chain and customer experience, effectively reshaping the relationship between Chinese consumers and farmers.
Prior to entrepreneurship, she filled leadership roles at IDEO and BCG (The Boston Consulting Group) in both Shanghai and Washington DC. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She currently serves as an advisor on the board of Shinho, China’s first and largest organic condiment company.

Ho is an emerging voice on food sustainability and entrepreneurship. She has been featured in articles by Fast Company, South China Morning Post and Inc. In 2017, she was named a TED Fellow and a GLG Social Impact Fellow.

More profile about the speaker
Matilda Ho | Speaker | TED.com