Podcast Summary: TED Talks Daily

Episode: The missing piece in climate action (it's not what you think) | Yi Li
Date: January 19, 2026
Host: Elise Hu
Speaker: Yi Li, climate entrepreneur and cofounder of Farmworks
Location: TED Countdown Summit, Nairobi, Kenya, 2025

Overview

This episode features a powerful and pragmatic talk by Yi Li, who draws from her experience as CEO and cofounder of Farmworks, a company aimed at developing climate-smart agriculture in Kenya. Li challenges a core tenet of the environmental movement by arguing that financial sustainability—profitability—must come first if climate solutions are to be truly effective and scalable. Her narrative, grounded in real-world setbacks and hard-earned revelations, reframes the conversation around climate action to prioritize economics, not just technology or good intentions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Moving Beyond Classic Impact Metrics

• Yi Li opens by citing Farmworks' traditional success indicators:

  • 3,000 farmers supported
  • $6 million direct income to farmers
  • 50 tons of food waste prevented monthly
  • [03:43]

  "But what if I tell you they are no longer the most important metrics to me anymore? Today, the number one metric that I care about as CEO of Farmworks is our profitability."
  — Yi Li (03:56)

2. The Reality Gap: Grand Solutions vs. Daily Marketplace

• Initial efforts focused on technical climate solutions—water dams, net houses, drip irrigation, organic fertilizers—followed "every right climate solution by the book".
• The challenge: When there was no demand, produce rotted; storage overflowed.
• Fundamental question for every farmer:

  "Who is going to buy my produce and pay for all my hard work and investment?"
  — Yi Li (05:03)

3. The Burnout of NGO Cycles

• Farm communities are jaded by waves of NGOs/startups promising change but vanishing when funding dries up.
• Notable farmer feedback:

  "Every two years there is a new organization... They disappear after two years. So we'll see how long Farmworks can last."
  — Kenyan farmer (paraphrased by Yi Li, 05:40)

4. Learning in the Markets, Not the Boardroom

• Li plunged into Marakiti, Nairobi’s bustling vegetable market—learning firsthand the realities of supply, demand, and pricing.
• Initial setbacks and tough market conditions, including being physically shoved, proved deeply instructive.

  "On my first day I got pushed down to the ground by a market vendor. Not exactly the welcome I was expecting."
  — Yi Li (06:55)

5. Scaling by Partnership, Not Imposition

• Due to unmet demand, Farmworks expanded by training and partnering with more local farmers.

• Surprising resistance: Technologies like drip irrigation often sat unused; methods weren’t adopted if not financially rewarding for the farmers.

  "We were imposing solutions, but not really solving problems."
  — Yi Li (08:18)

• Drip irrigation saves water, but running costs (fuel, materials) deterred adoption.

• Key Realization: Without capital or guaranteed returns, good ideas rarely get implemented.

6. The Most Powerful Incentive Is Income

• Instead of further training, Farmworks started simply buying and distributing produce from farmers, providing direct income.

  "With the income from us, the farmers actually started to invest in better practices."
  — Yi Li (08:47)

• Economics, not knowledge alone, proved to be the necessity for adoption.

7. Shifting Youth Narratives

• The myth: Young people don’t want to farm.
• The reality: "Young people in Kenya love agriculture. But what they love even more is to have a decent job and earn a decent income."
  — Yi Li (09:13)
• 80%+ of Farmworks’ employees are under 30.

8. Evolving the Dream: From Building Farms to Empowering Farmers

• The initial dream to “build 1,000 farms” persists, but those farms are now farmer-owned and driven by local knowledge and efforts.

9. Painful Business Lessons

• For years, even after establishing a market, Farmworks continued to lose money.

• Necessary cutbacks included closing demonstration sites and halting expansion.

  "Turns out it was really difficult to save money compared to spending it."
  — Yi Li (10:38)

• But profitability was essential for lasting impact.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Real sustainability, climate or otherwise, must come from economics first. I'm not talking about choosing profit over planet, but...without the viable economics, our climate projects might remain as expensive experiments, but not really scalable solutions.”
  — Yi Li (11:10)

• “When farmers earn an income, they can invest in better practices. When companies achieve profitability, we can protect and scale our impact. When communities prosper economically, they're able and can afford to care about their environment in the long term.”
  — Yi Li (11:25)

• Call to Action:

  "The best thing we can do for our climate is to build economically viable solutions. Let there be economics first. Then, and only then, can we unlock real, lasting climate impact."
  — Yi Li (11:34)

Key Timestamps

• 03:43 — Yi Li begins her talk
• 05:03 — Raises the fundamental profitability question facing climate-smart farming
• 06:10-07:20 — Reality of Nairobi’s Marakiti vegetable market; market entry challenges
• 08:18-08:55 — Realization: Providing economically meaningful solutions matters most
• 09:13-09:39 — Youth involvement and employment in agriculture
• 10:38 — Struggles and hard lessons of reaching financial sustainability
• 11:10-11:34 — Conclusion: Economics must underpin lasting climate solutions

Conclusion & Takeaways

Yi Li’s TED talk punctures familiar assumptions of the climate action sphere, advocating for economics as the indispensable foundation rather than an afterthought. Her story highlights that truly sustainable and scalable environmental impact depends on creating viable markets and profitable models that empower local actors—turning idealistic interventions into living, growing solutions.

This episode is a must-listen for social entrepreneurs, environmental advocates, and anyone interested in how climate action can move from pilot projects to transformative change.