 Oh, great. What a pleasure to meet you. You too. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you very much Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce Idris and Sabrina Elba. You ain't good well ambassadors and also you have a few other jobs He's got quite a few other jobs Yep, I'm I'm African what can I say? Have jobs. Yeah Anyone who knows anything about Londoners knows that there's a fair amount of rivalry between different different parts of London, so Is this where you tell me you're a Titan fan? Mate, come on man I'm a Charlton fan. Oh, okay. No, that's misery. That is football misery. It's a London team. Good team So I was born I was born in the same year as Idris Idris of course born in East London in Hackney. I was born in Southeast London in Woolwich so You know, I have to say that I With a little I've achieved in life I pinch myself That I'm here now. Do you have that same feeling? Do you have that same? Or are you just so you know as confident as you seem that you know I come from I was actually born in a small place called forest gate Which is about two miles away from Hackney and Forest Gate Hospital is a tiny little place My parents lived in Hackney and the nearest hospital was Forest Gate and that's where I was born, okay? My parents came from Sierra Leone My mom's gone in and my dad Sierra Leone and my both they both lived in Sierra Leone So I say this to say that, you know, I pinch myself all the time my parents came 1971 with big dreams Had one child we lived in a small council flat council flat as in, you know, like a project, you know and You know, my dad worked at Ford Motor Company for 25 years. My mom works as a cholera core assistant And they're only child woke up one day and said I'm gonna be an actor My dad was like doing what acting and You know, I cut fast forward to here and being allowed to sit in this room With my partner and crime and wife and these wonderful people and and and talking about things that actually that hard work that I've done as an actor from Being 19 practically to now allows me the platform to use my voice in areas that I have not qualified to be in Quite frankly or or Ampley qualified. Maybe well, yeah, I depend on how you look yeah, you know, you know I come from a generation that saw hip-hop emerge and saw the 80s and Saw, you know, my great factor, you know, and saw Trump, you know, I've seen it all so Here's the thing, you know, we when you when you when you have that sort of life experience, you know I think it becomes more about what can you how can you articulate what you're feeling? doesn't matter that I can Do it at the forum, but can I articulate what I'm feeling do I have a point of view? And that's that's what I'm doing, you know, I don't sit here as an expert in food securities I sit as a citizen of the globe. I Like most people Mortified about the disparity of wealth Mortified about what we're doing to our planet and So here I sit. Yeah And let's talk about where that comes from My best friend is from Sierra Leone. Oh, yeah, so I've spent many years there. Oh the body The body fine Wow That's my line, I'm sorry keeps me in my mother-in-law and good standing Is that let me just ask quickly since you you know because you guys also it's a bit of a segue But we'll get back to Sierra Leone in a moment and also to East Africa, of course But you guys have your podcast, you know, you have this whole other line talking about many jobs in kind of talking to people about how to how to Well, are you telling me navigate your relationship or something like that? Tell me tell me whether yeah And well like no actually because we're new we were newlyweds when we started it But we at the kind of beginning of the pandemic we had COVID I feel like you probably all know that because I just was on CNN telling everyone he had COVID I was there with I'm no better. I was in the video. That was one of my greatest career moves And then we you know, we were exploring wellness like at the time there was so much misinformation I kind of convinced myself it was like my fault that I got COVID because my immune system was low I don't know I had my family calling from Africa drink hot water and like, you know You need to work on yourself and I was like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. I have it and looking at wellness and Exploring what that meant for me as a person of color like it felt like a very kind of niche space For one type of person one gender Anyways, I say that to say in that exploration We realized actually that a big part of our wellness had to do with the communities around us had to do with the Relationships in our lives because more than anything what was affecting us the most was the people we missed that we couldn't see in Lockdown so we realize Relationships are so important and then that spun into there's so many different kinds of relationships when we were talking Familiar partnerships best friends the relationship you have with yourself Relationship you have with the planet and we thought this needs to be a topic of discussion and as newlyweds How can we best learn we can learn by talking to people we respect and admire in that space So we started this podcast called couple them and we've had amazing conversations with amazing duos I mean everyone from like, you know Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, which is like kind of flashy But like Ben and Jerry's who we really admire in business and how they've sewed their ethics into their business and It's been a fun ride. And you know, we're looking at starting it up again. It just is very busy We had a lot of time during COVID but having to find some time again But thanks for asking about it because it does feel like one of those things that has shifted the paradigm of my thinking Into how you know, it's the first thing you learn in school The buddy system take a friend when you go to the bathroom and somewhere along the line We've lost this sense of collaboration. It's one of the themes of this Davos as well working together And we work for a number of different agencies and we constantly work on how do we bring the agencies together? And there are president of EFAT who we are goodwill ambassadors or will know or always like so Have you heard about this agency in that? And how can we bring everyone together? And I think collaboration is so important. Yeah So let's talk about that. But that's just for a moment pause to talk about so I mentioned my my own connection to my best friend to Sierra Leone, you know shout out to John Ceasey and Let's just talk about how what an incredible place West Africa is and Sierra Leone is The beauty the place the people There's a beach About an hour's drive from Freetown called beach number two Which is weird because there doesn't seem to be a beach number one But it is paradise, yeah, yeah West Africa Is beautiful, you know before there were borders that region is probably the most beautiful, you know Wing of Africa and still is And the people as you say have you know such a rich culture history And tragedy, you know West Africa being the sort of Hub of slavery that part of the world still remains to have an incredible character Characteristics Sierra Leone has been hit and hit many many times with Very devastating Adversity which it has recovered from over and over again And as it relates to me and my family, you know We feel proud to be survivors or people that are part of a survival group that haven't given up that haven't lost their Heritage that haven't lost their their hope, you know, and you know, we sit in an incredible seat of privilege While some of our brothers and sisters don't have a voice to speak up about the disprivileges So that's why I you know, I end up and you didn't ask me that question But it's good driver for me as to why I sit in the seat talking about things that essentially We affect us all and why we feel compelled to keep going and keep going. Yeah, and the what you have Kind of doubled down on if you like is the question of farming and And that it's interesting because it's so crucial But you tell us what why how did you get there and why is that the thing that you have? Kind of honed in on us as what needs to change in order to improve It's a shared journey. I think Sabrina has a lot of influence in Why and I'll let Sabrina tell that story as well, but I think also at a junction where you know Just a realization that Look in the 80s, you know, Ethiopia was going through an incredible Devastating famine and I just never will forget looking at children that were a Little bit younger than me You know, you've seen those images and it stuck with me and my mom and dad would be like my dad Especially, but I always put in Africa on the TV like that. That's what they're saying. That's what Africa looks like That's so interesting And I don't I don't need to take it to take you away from talking about the work Which we must talk about in detail But but how do you talk about this stuff without plugging into a kind of post-colonial racism kind of thing? How do you how do you get people to? Engage in the challenges while at the same time Getting that message right and celebrating those put that part of the world well I mean, I think the work that we focus on now in actually in any film topic venture we We you know find ourselves in is more about Investing in the people that we support as opposed to you know Sometimes what can be a short-sighted aid kind of focused model and obviously When there's a famine people need help then and there But why do famines keep happening again and again? We need to look at longer-term solutions that help empower the people on the ground Who are actually taking care of the land so that they can feed themselves Build a sense of entrepreneurship and independence and that's the work We do with EFAD and some of the other organizations we work with as well Just to be able to kind of move away from that Hand-out model that is it isn't good for anyone and it isn't good for the continent. It's solutions It's solution base that we look at and I think you know so with that framing We don't find ourselves in the language of aid You know we find ourselves in the language of solutions and investment Yeah, and making that that shift in the narrative is so important because I grew up with that Those commercials and I grew up with a stigma and I grew up with a stigma that you know The rural people weren't hard-working or just waiting for handouts and absolutely not I mean my family probably have 10 jobs each you look at a dress, you know and It's true rural people work so hard. They just are Need the investment is just to need the investment and guess what the investment is good for all of us Yeah, I was in Turkano in northern Kenya late last year and and saw that saw You know farming people who'd lost their livestock because of the drought people and I think you've said it very eloquently Who are the victims of climate change didn't cause climate change or you know, it's tiny infinitesimal Contribution to climate change. Yeah, your so your perspective is East Africa, obviously, you know, it's like I like this this connection He's like West Africa's Africa cross the tracks on both that we kept both ends Oh, and it was actually Sabrina's mother that you know really put us Onto, you know the put the put the put the ifa ifa on our radar, right? It was Sabrina's mother who comes from a small rural community who had farm-to-mouth, you know And that was the existence and part of their growth and It was a positive. I mean she heard pastoral memories are so beautiful. She talks about You know waking up every morning with her camels and being you know, sort of in in on just on the land and Having the most the best days and she she wanted to return to that after coming to Canada in the 80s I mean she left before the war. She wanted she wanted to go back to enjoy that type of lifestyle So I think you know people and we see it now I mean there's this weird kind of you know If you have to go work in the agricultural sector or outside of the cities like you're doing something wrong as a Young person you should be going to urban areas, but no Actually, you know the opportunity is in agriculture and we're seeing when we go and do these visits now that young people get it And they want that sense of entrepreneurship and they're like, okay great So how do we get out of the cities and go back actually and they find that their parents are quite more successful than they would have Thought and but there's this nice shift back But at the same time, you know, it only takes one drought or one flood or one Catastrophe to to leave a catastrophic Impact on people who are in these rural areas So they can't do it alone and it's the support that's needed to be able to not only mitigate it climate change when it happens But help people adapt and create solutions and we see so many solutions and I'm sorry I'm going on a rat now, but we see but you should go you want to hear I mean this because we in particular Talk about smallholder farmers. What is one of the specific things? Because I hear you I mean I was there and it's clear that just There is that aspect of it something needs to be done Places where they have had a year after year of drought. Yeah, there's also this sustainability question, which Absolutely, so you can talk a little bit more about that in detail about what you yeah, I mean I for me It's it's innovation and it's tech and it's diaspora investing and it's private sector investing and you know The philanthropic ventures will work in the interim, but we need private sector to come in and invest in these solutions If you don't know what the weather is going to be tomorrow. How are you supposed to farm? It's just simple simple things and you know and a lot of the programs that I see on eFat It's those simple things that make these massive changes for for people on the ground and those are the stories that I Take in so deeply when I hear you know a mother sent her children to school and bought this house And she's like the talk of the neighborhood because she's got this slight piece of Advanced technology compared to everyone else in the in her rural community It makes that much difference and everyone wants a piece of it But how do we all get ourselves involved in that innovation and how do we all get ourselves involved in that tech? Because we can't just leave it to government and private sector We need to look at ways that you know Idris always talks with diaspora investing back in there And you know, I love that you say this and I'm sorry. I'm gonna steal this from you I steal a lot of things from you You know, there's already a Disney. There's already a Warner Brothers. There's already a you know virgin There's there's all these massive corporations outside of Africa There's so much opportunity to have them in Africa and you start that by investing in the youth there It's a growing budding population so vibrant so many ideas I mean we met with global shapers earlier today And it was just like they're all smarter than us Which is kind of like they should be and young people really know what they're doing and when it comes with this sort of Innovative framework of thinking. I'm like these are the people that the world should be investing in You know, you think about Africa and you think about where its population has grown is going to double. Okay, and Outside of just the food security conversation around, you know investing in small farmers and making sure they can feed Themselves and and and not rely on imports. Okay, there is the employment conversation, you know and You know when you speak about farming you're thinking about farms But actually the ecosystem around farming is everything from technology as Sabrina says Start-up industries communication You know if the industry of farming for a very long time is supporting many sectors and Offers a lot of opportunities in the film industry when you get one good idea It unlocks other good ideas in the rest of the story and that's what that's what farming for me is like And you can unlock the fact that you know small-holder farmers who take up a lot of the land who? Actually fight for their rights for the land. Okay, but when they get them, they're empowered They are a business and their partners are businesses for me It's really important, you know, like this is a co-op of thought, you know, we're we're all together We're thinking together in farming when the when the farmers talk together and they Form co-ops they become much stronger the yields are better The the practices are better the communications better and then the pricing is better because they're all doing the same thing So that's why for us, you know, the small-holder farming. It's a good idea in A bad script and once you get it, right? It would unlock many more good ideas and then we can all watch a film and feel satisfied But it makes sense you want that happy ending and that there's so much more involved when you're talking about agriculture You're talking about gender. You're talking about climate. You're talking about like all these things are so interconnected and I think you know Before it's trendy or or whatever it is to start acting on these things It's it's important to build our understanding around how the world is so interconnected what food systems are how do they work for us? Why are they so fragile? You know and just to build that awareness because if you're championing one cause I guarantee you it's connected to another I was gonna say this is that's that's how you've got to the climate change Camping that you are also yes doing right? We're both on the board respectively of CI conservation international Europe with Sabrina and me and the in the American board and you know, it's all into late into interrelated, you know What we realize in is that if we invest in small home of holder farmers in natural based solutions You are enriching the ecosystems that you know will absorb the The emissions basically and and the more we can feed that cycle the the better it is so again, it's a and unlocks other problems as well, but You can't have the Sabrina says all the time You can't have a conversation about food without having about conversation about climate because it is Climate that is damaging and and stopping small holder farmers as well as lack of investment from feeding themselves and we can obviously see what happens when borders get in the way so when You know a war that happens in or an invasion that happens from Russia to Ukraine and how that affects Africa in a crazy crazy way. That's nothing to do with climate until Well, they can't eat they can't grow because the climate shifted and you know, you know Small holder farmers provide 80% of food. So at some juncture in that cycle will end up in a restaurant near you Okay, that's how it works. And that's I think that's where eFAD has an incredible system of trying to amplify this Agriculture isn't something that everyone's yeah, let's talk about farming, but Well, as we saw in the pandemic Food shortage is a real deal. It can happen and it happened within that sort of 36 psych said 36 month cycle where Food banks in LA with cool people in California were at food banks because they couldn't buy food So this is why it's important for you know for all of us to sort of have that understanding of it education and then Lobby in governments lobbying change makers Lobby and investors to kind of think about the solutions looking at eFAD looking at companies like CI that kind of go Okay, here's how we can do this, you know, yeah This is conversation. Let's ask you see if anyone has bet people do Yeah Thanks, I'm from Alex Eden from Mexico. I run an organization called system of bio and we work with smaller farmers all over the world providing technology investment and Recently, we've been able to channel a lot of climate funding to farmers But we believe that the market based solutions are really important One of the things that we fight a lot against is that the perception of a small holder farmer is one That's almost synonymous with poverty in Mexico. It's the Campasino in in Kenya For example, where our biggest office is is this perception of going to the city as being the smart Decision and so what a lot of our local teams are always asking me to do is find representatives to convince people that Farming is cool. It's dignified. It's important the so we talk about farm heroes and finding representatives So I'm is it's a pitch In Kenya, but I'm just curious in your communities Is it Something that you think finding other representatives to to put voice and talk about small holder farming as something that's really important because I've had does a fabulous job talking about agriculture from From in a very technical way, but I think it is also important that Mainstream voices talk about, you know, we've even talked to people about producing movies where you know Small holder farmers are in not just in the background a scenery, but actually protagonists and that sort of thing so I'm curious within your communities if this idea of You know, I guess celebrity representation and that sort of thing is something where You know getting down to the ground and convincing after I mean I'm always told in Kenya that it has to be a football player or Someone but I'm just curious about yes more of a movement to represent that because we actually need the farmers themselves to believe That they're heroes that they're doing really really important work And just curious your thoughts on how to get more people involved in that. It's actually a great question. Yeah It's an important one. It's The president of our of if had and I and Sabrina having these really detailed conversations around advocacy What it looks like and how it shifts in fact, you know, what is the brand language of farming? Do we know that we know what the brand language of McDonald's is right? What is the brand language of farming and what do we do for that? And it seems like it's like, okay Well, why don't we just amplify it tell some stories around it? But I think it's about the people That's we're gonna populate the faces the people the character We can't just brand them as farmers small holder farmers. These are people. It's the communities and we have to give them name we have to give we have to give Story character and understanding and we have to you good old-fashioned media good old-fashioned marketing You know, we were talking earlier about advocacy and how you know I want to bring Idris and I want to bring a mini Idris and I want to bring another mini Idris and Someone you know because I want to bring people that not ready for that mini When I'm talking about is that I want to bring like a hundred journalists I'm talking about you know big loud voices that feel as passionate as I do that are from those communities that are you know Can tell these stories better than I can not just you know We should have four more seats here because it isn't just fair. It's just Idris and Sabrina We don't come from the farms that we're talking about. We should have other voices So to your point, I think it's a really really good question It's a really good thing for us to think about you know We have to find the farming McDonald's model whatever that is Yeah, and I and I think you know We always make a point to say that we never want to feel like we're in a room speaking for Rural people we're speaking with rural people and it's about finding ways that everyone can speak with them And there's a young African artist named Mr. Easy who's really cool who works with e-fat as well And he did this tick-tock campaign with e-fat about encouraging young people to look at agriculture as an entrepreneurial Venture and it was so successful and it's just about finding the right voice for the right audience And I think you make such a good point. It might not even be a celebrity It could just be someone that is admired for the success story that they have in that same field But we always try because Idris does make a good point if you're going to talk about anything and you do have a platform To make sure you know what you're talking about because you know Because it can become really easy to derail the efforts of an organization that's worked so hard if you come up and use a soap box to just You know flaunt whatever it is that you want to flaunt for some, you know kind of virtue raising type thing So we we support organizations that we are passionate about that we care about it's not hard to care about the continent You just said how beautiful it was. You know, you got to go to Kenya So you know, you gotta go to East Africa. No, I mean, I was gonna ask you what you love about East Africa because I know it is Beautiful it's so I love that and I love the people like I find mice. I'm always in East Africa and I'm in Kenya Lux I found me there. I'm in Somalia a lot, but it is sometimes harder to get to where I'm from in Somalia and I just like the beauty. It's like there's you can't convince me. There's a more beautiful place on this planet than Khalifi I don't know if you guys haven't been to Khalifi Kenya Unbelievable and I'm trying to it just went without me and I'm trying to get it to go together Trying to do that every now and again You just need to drop a trip into free town at one time kind of you know without yeah, yeah, exactly Oh, yeah, no, I could probably couldn't he's tracking me on my phone Before I do Questions really keen to open the dialogue You look like you have one, okay I Microphone coming actually John if you just really excited meeting Canadians Canadian conspiracy and I agree with you on Kenya and Somalia I've been all over Africa. Well the world and They're at the top we work a lot with farmers in in Canada and elsewhere and One of the things we constantly hear is that the challenge is on the consumer side and all of us as food consumers Don't pay enough for what we're consuming and don't understand enough about what goes into it and what we require of it through regulations Do you think much and talk much about us as consumers and curious? What your thoughts are on how we can we can be better contributors to all all that you've been speaking about? Yeah, I think that's such an important part of the puzzle the consumer power in you know buying smart buying local Supporting farmers in your area. That's Big agro has some problems that need to be fixed and those can only be fixed if pressure is applied in the right way And I think that's absolutely through consumer power But that's also a journey that we we ourselves are on educating ourselves about what it is that we're eating because everything's so convenient Now it's like you buy a bag of chips where the potatoes come from where you know I want to it's so important to make yourself aware of that issue, but when it comes to how we Spread that that issue. I actually self-amiddley have difficulty in that in that area I don't know how best to communicate that when I speak to my best friend is a Canadian farmer You know, she's literally in Radville Saskatchewan right now you know and When talking to her family and then hearing how we work with rural farmers like you know There's so many interconnectivities and and how do you approach these conversations in the right way? I'm still looking if anyone knows the right avenues or the right forums to be able to make those Connectivities for everyday people because once you make that connection people get it You know when it once it affects your food and what you're eating you have so much more of an appreciation for where the food is coming from I think this is an important point. It's tough. It's tough in with what we're facing many people with the cost of living and that kind of stuff Right, it's hard. You want things to be cheaper. You don't want to pay more for food Right. I think there's some really interesting lessons to be taken from the cocoa industry and what's happened there with sort of you know fair trade and You know I don't think it's been taken far enough and it's not been taken far enough because the the big five chocolate companies are very very powerful It's all about money at the end of the day, but it needs to come down to you know The governments need to apply some power to conscious consumers. We want to be fair I think I think there is a level of consciousness around the food we buy if we know that it's come from Farm to table and we have to pay a little bit of a premium for that and that you know spreads the wealth I think people will embrace that but the actual Communications around that are just minimized of course. They're minimized because you've got big Conglomerates who can just pay to suppress that. I think there just needs to be a little bit of innovation around it I think a little bit of lobbying Social media is a really amazing tool to just raise the awareness So, yeah, I think I think it's a great. I love I love hearing you talk I'm just gonna say that to him but now I think I find the same problem in fashion where We we want to sort of outcast fast fashion as the bad guy And you know when I'm talking about more sustainable or greener practice in fashion You can't forget about the single mother with five children who can only afford to go to H&M I'm sorry fast fashion is the only option and it's the same in food You know when I was growing up my we ate McDonald's a lot My mom knew it wasn't the best for us But sometimes that was all we could get because it was cheap and cheerful and easy so you need to find a way to To have these conversations without excluding anybody. What's your answer to that? It's so interesting that to have that authenticity and to talk about your early life And then what's your answer? How do you talk to families? You just don't leave anyone out. You understand that it's so much more complex than Oh only bio organic and only shop at Whole Foods because it's great. It's not it's there It's not an option for everybody and that's just a reality of it So then we need to go outside of the individuals look at government What kind of policies can be implemented around healthy food choices particularly in schools for young people? It's so much bigger than the individual consumer, but the individual consumer is a such a massive piece And I think the coalition of farms. Sorry. I know you've got a question I know you've got a question too, but the coalition of farms is important Farmers having the strength to say no, no, no, no, we're all going to stay at the same price We're all going to try and raise our value and be respected and I need support around you know from all of us I hate to say I don't think we have time for any more. Oh, we have to that gentleman was really patient One more question. Okay, great. Can we mix the questions into two? Yeah, can we do two at the same time at the same time? My mind's very quick. It actually follows on from that nice comment from the Canadian You need to go on the government level. So in Switzerland, we pay $100 for a kilo 2.2 pounds in American British pounds. Okay, not the money the weight. We pay a very high price for for meat here It's subsidized. We subsidize the small holdings. I know it's a different level But it's done through governmental level and when I go back to my home country in Britain and Wales and Scotland All the farmers are now trying to cut out the middleman sell their produce locally and so on And this is really a way in them in the richer countries to go to really give the farmers Respect, which is what you say so they can move forward. So it needs to be that a higher level of policy level Okay, thank you for that as we kid and that gentleman there Yeah, just stand up. Yeah, thank you I'm Nimrod from vital capital. We are investing food in Africa heavily invested And all through small other farmers we work with 40,000 smaller the farmers We've talked about I heard you talking about the success and the needs Of course, there's a lot of needs and the success of the smaller the farmers I think that if we want to propel this industry, we have to talk about the success of the investors as well And there's a lot of investors private investors and private funds like us that invest through small farmers and do Good returns for them in for the investors I wanted to ask if you Emphasize this as well because I think this is the opportunity to mobilize a lot of private investment into the industry Absolutely, yeah, you need the success stories. You need the proof of concept You know de-risk in some sense for other investment to come in. I think it's so important. Yeah, I think that the Interfacing between Country small-holder farming's governments and private sector Needs to be readdressed needs to be incentivized to work way better Africa is open for business left right and center It's really is and if you ignore that market space You might as well ignore a whole chunk of your future quite frankly because it is We've heard it before of sort of bread basket, but I do absolutely agree that there needs to be better sort of setups for Private sector to to be able to participate and grow and grow and I think the diaspora actually have a keen Sort of role to play in that Personally Can I ask um what you're doing about it to and how are you showcasing to other investors and businesses? We we are first of all have our financial results that we can show that true working and true investing in small Holder farmers be to macadamia in Kenya. They're in Uganda or agro industrial center in West Africa and Golan other places So they double or triple their income Our investors make returns, you know that they could they that They outperform we outperform other Funds so there's an alternative for investor money And and about stories and branding. I mean we are very happy to see an agripreneur coming with Alexis and a Rolex to work because that's the example that young people will want to follow But it is so important to publish those that data and that's then those success stories and to share those stories Yeah, I think we're probably out of time. I'll keep talking if you don't I know we could just keep Um, thank you both very much. It's just a real pleasure