You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

When climate entrepreneur, E. Lee, co-founded farm work, she set out to build 1,000 climate smart farms across Kenya,

complete with dams, irrigation, and organic fertilizers.

The science was sound, but reality proved more complicated.

In her talk, she outlines what she discovered about the missing ingredient behind failed climate solutions

and how it challenges a core assumption of the environmental movement.

3,000 farmers supported $6 million in direct income to farmers.

50 tons of food waste prevented every month.

These numbers represent farmworks impact over the last five years.

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.

Now, before you judge me and think, how did we let this capitalist on the stage?

Hear me out.

Five years ago, I co-founded Farmworks with the grand mission to build

1,000 climate-smart, highly productive farms across Kenya. We invested in water dams, nethouses,

drip irrigation, organic fertilizers. We had every red climate solution by the book. But then, harvest

time came, and I realized when walking into our grading shed, there were crates of tomatoes rotting

away because we didn't have enough waters. Our storage room was bursting with onions. It looks

almost funny, but I was standing there thinking,

great, now what? At the end of the day, every farmer has to answer one question, who is going

to buy my produce and pay for all my hard work and investment? Without the financial outcomes,

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