Vivian Lin Transcript
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to The Future Of Food Is You, a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host Abena Anim-Somuah, and each week I talk to emerging talents in the food world and they share what they're up to, as well as their dreams and predictions for what's ahead. I love this new generation of chefs, bakers, and creatives making their way in the world of food, drink, media, and tech.
Today's guest is Vivian Lin, founder of Groundcycle, the New York based company closing the loop between produce and compost. She's an avid environmentalist and is using her design skills to solve complex waste issues. Vivian and I discussed the story of how Groundcycle began, what it means to be a closed-loop operation, why she believes that community will fuel an eco-friendly future, and her three tips for starting to lead a more sustainable life today. Stay tuned for our chat.
If you're an aspiring magazine collector, you need to check out Cherry Bombe. Each issue is thick and lush and celebrates women and culinary creatives via gorgeous photography and great stories and recipes. Whether you collect magazines, read them and pass them along to your friends, or cut them up for your vision boards or collages, you'll love Cherry Bombe. You can find Cherry Bombe wherever indie magazines are sold, places like Now Serving in L.A., Golden Fig Fine Foods in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Books are Magic in Brooklyn. Or visit cherrybombe.com to order an issue today.
Kerry Diamond:
Hi everybody, this is Kerry Diamond from Radio Cherry Bombe, and I have a little housekeeping for you. Cherry Bombe is on the road. We’re hosting eight events this summer and traveling from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon with lots of stops in between. Head to cherrybombe.com to check out our events calendar and see if we’re coming to a town near you, or maybe our travel schedules will overlap. That would be fun.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Now let's check in with today's guest. Vivian, thank you so much for joining us on The Future Of Food Is You podcast.
Vivian Lin:
I'm so excited to be here.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Can you tell us where you grew up and how did food show up in your life?
Vivian Lin:
I grew up in New York City-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Nice.
Vivian Lin:
... and I've been a native New Yorker all of my life. Food showed up in my life through... Actually my parents owned a restaurant.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, we love a restaurant kid. Yeah.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, growing up. And it was just a block away from where I lived, so I was basically there after school every day. It was a Chinese takeout restaurant. I'm a first-generation Asian American and parents didn't know English when they started their business.
I would say that growing up I didn't know where my food came from, which was a big one. Now that I do know where things come from, it's changed a lot. Growing up I feel like I just went into supermarkets and thought that food just showed up there. It was magic. Didn't think about it.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You were a city kid.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, didn't think about it at all, but I started learning about farms and agriculture and sustainability and all these things, and it really changed my perspective on food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What part of China is your family from?
Vivian Lin:
My family's from Fuzhou, so it's a southern part of China. I didn't even get to visit until my high school years, but I wasn't really connected to my food, even though I was surrounded by it. But also my parents love cooking. My dad's a big chef, my mom cooks every day. Food was a big part of the Chinese culture, but I feel like I just didn't really see the behind the scenes of food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Since you're a restaurant kid… I love restaurants, I love the way they work. I worked in restaurants in high school. What was your most favorite thing to do in the restaurant and what was your least favorite thing to do in the restaurant?
Vivian Lin:
I was pretty small when I was in the restaurant, so I could really only do things like pack rice into containers or-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And you guys had the cardboard containers?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, the takeout containers.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, nice.
Vivian Lin:
I would help pick up the phone sometimes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Ah, customer service.
Vivian Lin:
Customer service. I would go downstairs and help my dad prep too and see that whole process. So cool to see how much work goes behind the restaurant. And least favorite thing now I would say the fact that they didn't compost. I didn't realize it then, but yeah, a lot of restaurants don't compost, which is really upsetting because you're working with organics all the time.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Obviously again, you've had this very close relationship to food, and took some time learning where it came from, but you didn't end up going into this route right away. So you actually went to college for architecture. What was the motivation to become an architect and what were some of the big lessons you think you learned in general?
Vivian Lin:
I would say that my dad also inspired me to be an architect, because he's a really handy guy and he was always building when I was growing up. So I was always watching him paint and build this and he knows how to make so many things. Working on projects with him inspired me to go to architecture school.
Also, architecture school was where I started learning about sustainability more, and it's a big topic of green buildings and green building technology, and you learn how to design systems and design so many things. So I feel like architecture can really apply to a lot of different disciplines. Now, looking back at that, it's so helpful, those design skills in creating my own sustainability company.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What was your senior project? Did you have to build something really cool and what was it?
Vivian Lin:
I feel like the most memorable project was when we designed an entire gallery exhibit and it got built that semester.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. Where did you go to architecture school, if you don't mind me asking?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, so I went to RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and it's upstate, a little bit near Albany. A little bit far from home, but not that far.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Can you tell us more about some of the projects and how that build came about?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, so it was a project in which we got to design an exhibit for a neighborhood school. We basically got to design an entire exhibit featuring Duchamp's works, and then it actually got built, which is something that hardly ever happens in architecture school. A lot of the times you're making a lot of models and-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Or drawing in CAD and stuff.
Vivian Lin:
Drawing in CAD, presenting and all of that, but it never actually gets actualized, which is also something really interesting in the architecture profession in general is that projects take such a long time. It's really rare for you to actually see the fruits of your labor, which is interesting because now I work with compost and everything is so tangible. You see the food waste, you feel it, you carry it, you touch it, you smell it. It's so tangible and it's something that has an immediate gratification to it.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Did you work as an architect when you came out of school and what was that process like?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, so I actually worked for a pretty large design firm called Rafael Vinoly Architects. They have a lot of huge buildings all around the city, all around the world.
Yeah, I was working on stadium designs. I was working on courthouse designs, athletic facilities, all these different large constructions, but Ive always wanted to be more sustainable in my personal life. So even though I wasn't able to pursue it in my professional life, I was always on the side doing things that were better for the planet.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. What did that look like? Let's visualize, you're two years into the game at the architecture firm. What was your day-to-day sustainable practice looking like?
Vivian Lin:
For example, it's little things, like I would bring my own hand towel to the bathroom instead of-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow.
Vivian Lin:
Because I would use the bathroom so many times and using all those paper towels just seemed wasteful to me, so I just brought my own hand towel and I would just launder it. Little things like that. Or bringing my own lunch, not using single-use utensils. There are just so many little things that I was doing to be more sustainable.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You start to think about composting. Again, you mentioned you hadn't grown up composting. When did you start to get this better understanding of food in its impact from a resources perspective?
Vivian Lin:
I started Groundcycle during the COVID pandemic. I was working at home, my architecture job, and still on the side looking to be more sustainable, but I was listening to all these Earth Day conversations virtually and everybody kept mentioning compost. I was finally like, "What is this thing that everybody's talking about? Let me look into it." And I did a lot of digging and I was like, "Wow, this is so amazing that you can throw something away and it actually benefits the planet." And my mind completely got blown, I was like, "How come I didn't know about this earlier?" And I knew that immediately I had to start doing it.
I was working at home and living with my parents at the time so I already told them, "We're not throwing anything away anymore. I'm going to figure out how to compost immediately." And then it was the same week that New York City canceled the entire city's compost collection. Like home pickups and drop-offs, all the options were basically gone. So it was the worst time for me to start composting and I just started doing a lot of research on how other cities do it. Basically figured out that maybe I could work with local farmers to do it, and started reaching out to local farmers because they have the space to do it, and they're also working with organics all the time. Found some farmers that wanted to work with me. And then I didn't know how to drive either.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's where that native New Yorker is showing.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Do you know how to drive now?
Vivian Lin:
I do know how to drive now.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Nice. Shout-out composting.
Vivian Lin:
But yeah, I convinced my best friend to drive to the farm with me, and wrote a letter to some friends and family and got 13 people signed up the first week.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow.
Vivian Lin:
And this was just two weeks after I had the idea.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's incredible. I want to talk to you a bit about the transformation process of getting especially your parents to compost, especially people who've worked in the industry for so long. Because I think so many people think about sustainability as this big leap, big change, but again, I feel like you've done such a good job on focusing on the little thing. So how did you go to get mama and papa Lin from what is composting to where they're at now?
Vivian Lin:
I think it's really a habit change. Composting is something, once you learn about it and how it's done and the whole process and you want to do it, once you start composting, you won't go back. Once you understand that your waste can become beneficial, I feel like it's hard for you to even throw out a banana peel without composting it.
It took my parents getting used to, but they saw when they went to the farm with me, where it was actually going and the farmers who were working so hard to produce their local veggies. And to know that you're being part of that cycle is so beautiful. I think it just takes a little habit change.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, let's talk about the inception of the company. So it sounds like it was a side hustle, and when did you officially go full-time on Groundcycle?
Vivian Lin:
Yes. I started the company in May of 2020, and then by July I quit my job as an architect to pursue Groundcycle full-time. It was crazy because early on I didn't have a website, I just had a private Instagram account.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, you made it private?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. It was a private Instagram account just for the friends and family and people to see what I was up to, and then slowly more and more people wanted to join on. They were telling their friends and their ...
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I will say, I found out about you because when interviewed Camille Jetta, who's a good friend of ours, who's the founder of Dinner Party, I found out about you through her because she was talking about she really wanted to build dinner parties sustainably in every form, and composting was the most tricky thing, and you were her saving grace in that time. And I know you guys have a beautiful relationship and have worked on some stuff together.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, we compost for Dinner Party now, which is amazing because she started the restaurant after seeing me start my company.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wait, no way. That's so cute, I didn't know that. Wow, that's so beautiful.
Vivian Lin:
We even through our zine party there, so it's been fun to collaborate on all these fun things. I also live a block away from there.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. She did say you were neighbors, which was really fun. Oh my God, that's so exciting. Wow. What was it like transitioning from the certainty of an architect? You'd gone first to school for it, you made a career. You had a true career degree, if anything, to figuring it out, especially in an area you were constantly knowing about or learning about.
Vivian Lin:
I felt a sense of urgency and that I needed to work on this problem. The entire city of New York had no way to compost and everything was going to landfill. And just thinking about that huge problem and the fact that I have an idea that can solve that problem, I really wanted to dedicate all of my time to doing that. I didn't even have to think about whether or not to stay an architect or to continue building Groundcycle. I just knew that the city needed this solution.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Were you worried about doing that for a city thing or was it just more like you just wanted to be private?
Vivian Lin:
I'm just more of a private person.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I respect that, yeah.
Vivian Lin:
It started off as a private account. I obviously opened it up since then, but a New York Times reporter found out about what I was doing before I even had a website.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. While the account was still private?
Vivian Lin:
While the account was still private.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Very cool.
Vivian Lin:
Because my partner was picking up a large order from the Union Square Farmers Market for me, and she was just curious and he didn't even know that she was a New York Times reporter. He told her about my idea and she immediately wanted to follow the story and write something about us because she didn't know that composting had been canceled at that point either. I knew that that article was going to come out and then I was off to the races, making a website before that came out.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
It's like the scene in the montage, just you frantically running around.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, yeah. It was hectic. My website came out two days before the article came out.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Nice.
Vivian Lin:
And then it was emails, reach outs, people filling out our form, signing up. Yeah, it was a crazy time. And then having to figure out, because I still didn't know how to drive. How to scale it up from there too, from one route to two routes to three, four, and multiple routes per day. Just being able to accommodate so many people who wanted to be on our program, exchanging produce and compost, I feel like we made it so easy for people that it's a no-brainer.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Why did you decide on the name Groundcycle?
Vivian Lin:
I had a few options, but I feel like Groundcycle encompasses everything that we do. Everything that grows from the earth can return back to the earth, and I love the idea of a cycle. Everything that we do is closed-loop, which means that everything we deliver out to our members, we also collect back. Everything is a cycle. We're not just doing one part of sustainability, we're doing all of it.
And I think that that is really important because we're trying to optimize on what we can do and our impact, while we're different people. So even though we started doing produce and compost swaps, now we're other things, like delivering member-made products, collaborating with other sustainable businesses. It's been so fun to encompass all these people into our cycle.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, that's really awesome. And you say closed-loop because I just want to add this, you do also deliver veggies to other industries and services along with collecting compost, but you started originally just collecting compost?
Vivian Lin:
No, I've always done both.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Really?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. Interesting. Why was it important for you to do both, even though the inspiration for the company started from this need to just offer a service that was missing?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. When I connected with our farmers, I also realized that they were having trouble getting their veggies out to people because all these farmers' markets were closed, restaurants were closed, they had nowhere to bring all the vegetables that they were growing. So it made sense to me to bring organics to the farm and then bring back local produce so that none of our trips are wasted. We're always doing something, no matter where we're going.
And also the fact that people at home wanted deliveries. They wanted local food, they wanted healthy food. For us to make it as convenient as possible, I feel like everybody was just so happy to get those veggies. Then you're also part of the cycle, you're not just doing the right thing because you really want to. You're also getting rewarded for doing what you're supposed to do.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Can you lay out the landscape of composting in New York City right now?
Vivian Lin:
Since we started there's a lot that's happened in the city regarding compost. The city is currently rolling out their brown bin program to the five boroughs, which they've never done before. My neighborhood of Midwood that I grew up in, never had compost, but now they're rolling out a program that encompasses more people.
The only thing about it is that they're not actually composting it right now. They are trying to use it to generate methane for energies, so they're anaerobically digesting all of the organics that they're collecting right now. And the system is not great because there's still biosolids that are generated from the process that need to be landfilled. Things are always changing with what the city's doing, and I think that it's important for composting to be stable. If it's something that people are doing and they lose that habit, it's really hard to gain that momentum back. And so for us, we've always been consistent. Throughout the past four years we've never stopped collecting compost, we're a reliable source. We connect people with actual farmers.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really cool. Can you explain the close looped for the Groundcycle system? So say I'm Abena, I live in Brooklyn, and I'm going to be a Groundcycle customer.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. We service homes all over New York City. We pick up organics in this five-gallon bin, and then if you want, we deliver farm fresh veggies while we do that, so we close the loop that way. We work with residents at home, but we also work with offices, businesses, events, to pick up compost and close the loop there. Anywhere that there's organics, we basically want to collaborate with you and save those from getting wasted. Organic waste is a third of New York City's waste.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I'm curious, when you are bringing customers, because again, it seems like even the nature of the composting in New York is bleak. How do you help your customers and businesses with compost education, and just continuing to find more ways or think about more things that they can include?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, I think knowing the people who are doing it is so important. That's why we do a farm tour every year so you can actually pull the vegetables-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Very cool.
Vivian Lin:
... and see the whole process there. Also, seeing the actual process of how compost gets processed. We always bring volunteers out to see the actual process and get their hands dirty. I think it's so important knowing the people, otherwise it's really easy to doom and gloom and feel like the climate problem is such a big problem that I can't do anything about. But there's so many people who are working on solutions.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. I mean, it seems like composting obviously makes sense from a residential perspective. You're a smaller scale, you're just learning on your own. For the businesses that you work with, what are the climate forward and compost solutions that you offer them?
Vivian Lin:
We collect compost from all different types of businesses, restaurants, coffee shops. And we also even do food rescue, so we work with grocery delivery companies who have so much waste. We actually are able to divert a lot of the edible food from getting wasted there. So we donate any edible food that the business can't use anymore, and then we compost the rest.
We work with florists who are working with organics all the time and don't have a convenient way to compost. But I feel like we always try to close that cycle by rewarding the people who compost with us. For instance, if there's leftover flowers from an event, maybe we can give it to a restaurant, then we're collecting that compost once the flowers are not beautiful anymore.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's amazing.
Vivian Lin:
It's creating a ecosystem where people who need things are getting them, and then things are getting disposed of responsibly at the end of the day. Yeah, everything is cyclical with us. Even grocery companies, who have all this extra food, we've been partnering with community organizations to donate that extra food for events, for community fridges, all these ways of reuse, recycling, and keeping everything going for as long as possible.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I've loved following your Instagram because it's really great to see how things are working. And it's fun, I don't get to hear these parts about restaurants and flower people going together, but you do this thing with the Sunday fridges where you gather volunteers to take the food and then donate it.
Vivian Lin:
It's been so fun to see how it impacts our volunteers to see the amount of waste. Because you can hear all these statistics out in the world and all that, but when you actually see it in person it really changes you. And I feel like everybody who's come to volunteer with us and see the whole process, they can't go about their lives in a normal way anymore. You just realize how much waste there is and how we can use these creative solutions to not produce a lot of waste.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Something I've loved as well, is that addition to offering the services, you have other accessible points, like anyone can volunteer, it sounds like, and sign up. Is that the case?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Okay, amazing.
Vivian Lin:
We have a lot of different volunteering opportunities.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Nice. That's really cool. But then also just came out with your zine, Seedlin, which is so beautiful. And then also you have other things as well, partnering with fun restaurants, so just do fun events to get people excited. How do you think about using community in that sense to get people excited about sustainability and composting?
Vivian Lin:
Community is so important. Every single person who is a Groundcycler does such cool things, so I always want to bring their work to the forefront too and create a whole ecosystem. It's fun to be creative with the people in our community on how we make sustainability more approachable and more fun. We just had a zero-waste bake sale where all this rescued food that we got from this grocery company, we were able to incorporate into baked goods. And then have people come and see that this wasted food is becoming something so beautiful and now you can enjoy it.
I think community is everything. I couldn't do this by myself. There has been so many people who've rallied behind Groundcycle and made it what it is today. I'm just really excited to continue building with them.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. Well, we're huge manifestors on the podcast, so I have to ask, it sounds like you're interested in so many touchpoints. You're in restaurants, cafes. Is there someone or an organization that you'd love to offer Groundcycle's services to?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, so I recently met Henry Rich. He started Rhodora and-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, nice.
Vivian Lin:
... Public Records and Purslane. They're a really sustainable restaurant group. Hopefully I can collaborate with them on all the amazing venues that they have, but they're super interested in zero waste. They're really mindful of what they're doing, and they do events all over the city, and if we can help them compost easier and make their lives a little easier, then that's amazing.
But I love connecting with people who are activists in their fields. He's been such a big inspiration and I heard him talk last week.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well, if anyone knows Henry Rich, we have a avid composter if we'd love to make it happen. Yeah.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. And honestly, everybody in the Cherry Bombe community, I love all the people that you guys have in your network. And I have also collaborated with many of them, so I'm excited to continue building.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Something I want to talk to you a lot about is just the landscape of sustainability. I think it's really important, who are stewards of the earth and especially who gets to talk about sustainability. Hearing Indigenous perspectives, hearing perspectives from locals, but the sustainability space tends not to be diverse. I think there's a stereotype and a trope when it comes to those who are involved.
So as women of color, I'm really curious, how do you think about the role that you play in the work that you're doing, and how do you hope you inspire other women, other people of color, to get on board?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. Actually, something really interesting that I've experienced is most of the people who get involved with us are women.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Really?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. Besides maybe one or two people who volunteered with us, everybody has been women and women of color.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Girl power.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. No way.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. I feel like seeing people do it is so important. The fact that I can represent the Asian community and I can be in all these different groups, but I'm also ... Sustainability is my focus. I hope that I can inspire people.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I think it's so cool that you're giving people that access point and not just, "Compost now." It's like, start small, get in community, get involved, and then it just becomes who you are. It's really cool.
Vivian Lin:
Yeah, exactly. It's all about the little things that add up. The climate crisis is such a big problem, and I feel like a lot of people get overwhelmed, but there's little things that you can incorporate and just build bigger. You have to start somewhere.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Definitely. What advice would you give to people who are listening to this and thinking, "I live in a big city. It's so hard for me to even do things day to day," but to really commit to those little sustainable practices that get you inspired.
Vivian Lin:
I would say get curious. There's so many different resources nowadays. You can find solutions online, go into a deep wormhole if you want, like I did, but also just connect with people who are doing it around you. Go to your community garden, talk to the people there. There's so many different resources that you can tap into, so lean on others, ask questions.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I want three practices in my life where I can choose to be sustainable. What do you think are three great starting points for anybody?
Vivian Lin:
Eating more local food. That's a big one. Composting, huge. And then the third one is supporting small businesses that are doing good work. They're all over the world. These refilleries where you can get zero-waste groceries. A lot of things that you do every day, just make a little habit change and figure out something more sustainable.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How do you hope that your work with Groundcycle inspires other businesses to think about sustainability?
Vivian Lin:
Other businesses should know that we are here for them. We literally offer so many different services that help you be more sustainable, and we can be a resource to you. I've accumulated so much knowledge about all these sustainable practices, so reach out.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And how do you think then that work inspires city councils, governments, federal agencies, to think about ways to integrate policy that just makes us more sustainable as a world?
Vivian Lin:
Big question. Listening to the people who really care about this is such a big one. We've had so many rallies, so many petitions, so many things that express how much we want composting, but the city isn't listening to it. So it's pretty frustrating in that sense of there's almost 50,000 signatures on this petition to not eliminate community composting, yet all of these jobs have been cut. All of these sites are losing their land. It's hard to be optimistic when it comes to that.
I started Groundcycle because there was no option from the city. So I feel like individual change really has to happen and we have to continue pressuring the people who have the power to make it easier for everybody.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Vivian, thank you so much for joining us on the show. This was the best environmental studies class I've ever had. And if we want to continue to support you, where are the best places to find you?
Vivian Lin:
Yeah. We have a public Instagram now-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
There it is.
Vivian Lin:
@_groundcycle. And we also have a website, groundcycle.org. You can reach out either way, but I would love to get connected.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much.
Before we go, our guest is going to leave a voicemail, just talking to themselves 10 years from now. You have reached The Future Of Food Is You mailbox. Please leave your message after the beep.
Vivian Lin:
Hey, future, Viv, I'm so proud of you. I don't know where you'll be or what you'll be doing, but whatever it is, I know it'll be straight from the heart. 10 years is a lot of time, but not nearly enough time for all the big things you want to do.
I hope by this time composting is so normalized that you can work on some other big climate solutions. Maybe Groundcycle will be national, or even a global movement. I hope the world is healing, or at least in a better place by now. I hope you are surrounded by the most amazing and inspiring people. They want to help you, let them. I really hope your team has grown and that you learn you don't have to do everything yourself.
I hope you found more peace in your life and take moments to reflect on everything you've accomplished. Maybe you'll even be living on a farm by now. Are you growing your own flowers? Have you finally started something successfully from seed? Did you build that eco community you've always wanted? Are you even still living in New York? Either way, I hope your plant knowledge is abundant and that by now you'll be able to identify everything living around you.
Don't forget to take time to smell the roses, sit in the sunshine, touch the dirt, soak it all in. It's such a big blessing to witness nature all around you. I hope you stay inspired and curious. I know you will. And I know you'll still be spreading joy and helping people wherever you go. I love you so much, Viv. Keep pushing, the world needs you.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to leave a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our show. The Future Of Food Is You is a production of the Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Thanks to the team at CityVox Studios, executive producers Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, associate producers Jenna Sadhu and Elizabeth Vogt, and content operations manager Londyn Crenshaw. Catch you on the future flip.