–> Who: Ken Lee, co- founder and co-owner of …
–> What: …Lotus Foods, which imports handcrafted rice from small Asian family farms using the More Crop Less Drop system that uses 50% less water and 90% less seed while producing three times the yield.
–> How: Listen to this interview and learn more at Lotus Foods.
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In his quest to seek out people and ideas shifting how the world works to make it better, Scott Henderson talks with Ken Lee, co-founder and co-owner of Lotus Foods. They recorded this conversation during Unite for Sight’s Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale University.
While on a marketing research trip to China, Ken and his business partner, Caryl Levine, were served a bowl of black rice, which they learned had been traditionally served to the Emperor and locals treated the variety as food and medicine. It became their first product, Forbidden Rice.
Since then, Lotus Foods has grown into a major importer of varietal rices to the US market and is the commercial partner in the More Crop Per Drop pioneered by Cornell University. Traditional methods of rice farming locks up 25% of the world’s fresh water supply, requires large amounts of agrochemicals, breed mosquito-borne malaria, cause gynecological health problems for the mostly women labor, and yield just $1 – $2 of income for the rice farmers. Lotus Foods is using market approaches to spread the More Crop Per Drop program for the benefit of all involved in the production of rice.
Learn more at Lotus Foods.
