When people apply for the MBA program at Stanford University, they face a famous question, “What matters most to you, and Why?” The simplest question is the hardest to answer. This question pushed me into deep thinking when I learned about it many years ago. It sustains for many years in my mind, and I find that the answer is a wonderful je ne sais quoi.
Six years ago, I visited Tibet in the summer before I became a college student. This experience inspired me to get my answer for the first time. Tibet, an area with lacking oxygen, owns the plateau which has the highest altitude in the world. As the junction of contemporary technology and venerable religious culture, industrial mechanization and classical humanism evolved into a peculiar intertexture at here.
One thing that left me the greatest astonishment is that some people here did super devout ascetic practices. They hike for dozens of miles, with a frequent whole-body kowtow for every 20 feet.
It is the 21st century. People have already owned advanced technology and a fully functional social system. However, why do some people still do ascetic practices?
I finally got some advice at the end of the journey. Tibet has a mega-musical which resonated with me tremendously. The lyrics showed the answer of a legendary local lord from thousands of years ago:
“I want the living to be free from famine.”
“I want the poor to be free from distress.”
“I want the old to be free from senility.”
“I want the perished to go peacefully.”
Then, I know that these people always live in the future. It’s regardless of one’s education, material wealth, etc. They keep thinking about why they can arrive here, and where they should go. And I apperceived that the more prosperous our daily life is, the more emotional ascetic experience we need. It is so important that we should always look forward to a wonderful future. We should exert all our energies to be there and ignore the distress today.
It leaves me a second question: how should I use my whole life to pursue my passion?
Uniquely, my living in America begins in a small town in Oklahoma. People here taught me several lessons that I treat as lifetime mental wealth. The first lesson is about the sense of real capitalism. As a mid-west state which advocates cowboy culture, people here present particular personal charm: staunch, loyal, peaceful, independent personality with family responsibility, respecting for the spirit of contract. I was so lucky since my first two years in America were in such a safe and harmonious town, every local citizen showed me the highest amity and the brightest smile.
The second lesson came from my professors at the department of agriculture at OSU. Even though I have graduated from there for a long time and have lived in various American states for four years, I have never seen people like them anymore. They have so strong and special personal characteristics. There seems like an invisible long river flowing on their bodies, feels like Mississippi. Things in the river are the over 200-year lineage and sedimentation of the American agro-industry’s history and spirit.
Ancestors’ wishes were passed down for thousands of years. And we finally give their dream a modern and solid solution: ESG. With ESG management and investment, people share a common dream of a common future.
According to the most recent report from “Action Against Hunger”, an NGO based in America, there are as many as 811 million people still going hungry.[1] Food, agricultural products, and natural resources are the only ‘products’ whose user is all the 7.9 billion people all over the world. Investing in innovation in this sector will contribute to the improvement of all humanity’s living quality. There exist vast opportunities, values, and growth space. Most importantly, it is full of benevolence.
Investors’ interest in the agricultural (especially the AgTech) field has had an explosive increase in recent years. The AgTech startup and scaleups are growing at 56.1% CAGR since 2016.[2] New technologies such as vertical farming, alternative protein, advanced supply chain management, decomposition of the residuals, etc. dramatically enhance the efficiency of the production and delivery. People updated the market shelves with the next generation of food products that are safer and more nutritious. I find my true lifetime deep love in the new technologies, business models, missions, and solutions in this industry. I believe that it will be one of the best ways to solve those sustainable problems both ethically and scientifically.
Fortunately, I received integrated education in the traditional agribusiness field. I also gathered many experiences in some investment companies. I have built up an elementary network with professionals, scholars, and founders of AgTech companies from China. What’s more, I have made up my mind to keep in this industry for a long time. I want to see, even to push the next innovation. And I want to donate my power for the next improvement of the whole humanistic structure.
Thank you for reading all the way here. There is only one more step to schedule a talk with me. Just click on this button , you can email me easily. And I will reply to you in 24 hours.
[1] Action Against Hunger International Nutrition Security Policy, page 8
[2] FoodTech Data Navigator, The Official 2021 Foodtech 500
