In The News

On the farm with Garces

Seedstock blog Monday, August 20, 2012

Seedstock, the sustainable agriculture innovation conference, blogs about Jose Garces' organic farm in Ottsville, northern Bucks County.

Garces has teamed up with a successful and well-known Bucks County organic farmer, Alex McCracken, who, along with his wife Jenn, owns The Turnip Truck -- an organic kitchen gardening company, also based in Ottsville. A year ago, when McCracken caught wind that Garces had purchased the Luna Farm property, he did something that he had never been bold enough to do in the past: he e-mailed Garces directly to see if he could play a key role at Luna Farm.

Original source: Seedstock blog

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NJ's Sourlands: The last green space between NY and Philly, just outside Bucks County

Smithsonian Magazine Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Smithsonian Magazine glances at Sourlands, an area untouched by development and rife with sustainable touches like organic farming and green tech entrepreneurs and the subject of a recent documentary.

Flesher hones in on the Sourlands’ microcosm of local sustainability, from small organic farmers to hunters to conservationists to green tech entrepreneurs. Though they face daunting obstacles such as climate change, local extinctions and an uncertain ecological future, Flesher says they do not sink into despair:

The environmentalists I meet and interview are rarely naïve. They seem to understand the big scope of the environmental problems we face. What is heartening is that these folks do what they can anyway, usually with a gritty sense of optimism. I believe this is a lot better than doing nothing.

Original source: Smithsonian Magazine

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Philly's finest farm-to-table offerings

OffManhattan Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Local restaurants are getting a reputation for farm fresh ingredients, according to OffManhattan.

To taste the freshest produce in the region, you can shop one of the city’s many farmers market, haul your selections back home, and crack open a cookbook. Or you can take the effortless route, and settle into one of the top farm-to-table restaurants in Philadelphia.

Uniquely positioned between ‘Jersey Fresh’ territory and Amish Country, Philly offers its chefs an impressive variety of local, seasonal ingredients from which to craft their award-winning menus. And diners will be excited to know that much of this produce makes its way from farm to plate just one day after harvesting. Yes, the peppery radishes and buttery greens in your appetizer salad may have been plucked from the dirt just hours ago.

Source: OffManhattan
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Bucks County Community College converts cars to electric

Community College Times Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Community College Times writes about how the Green Jobs Academy at Bucks County Community College teaches students to convert gas cars to electric.

Imagine a car that can run for 44 miles on $1.20 worth of electricity.

That recently happened at the Green Jobs Academy at Bucks County Community College (Pennsylvania) when 10 participants converted a 1990 Mazda Miata into a fully electric battery-powered car.

Source: Community College Times
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myYearbook sold for $100M, to stay in New Hope

Forbes Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Teen networking site myYearbook is expected to stay in New Hope after being sold for $100 million to Latino social network Quepasa, according to Forbes.

An unknown person once said that high school is the mouse race to prepare you for the rat race. For the next generation of million dollar milennials, that race is off to an early start.

It was a simple and irresistibly practical idea from siblings Catherine and David Cook. In 2005, the 15- and 16-year-old duo decided to trade the paper version of the regular high school yearbook for the digital one. myYearbook was born, a social networking website that the brother and sister team worked with throughout high school. The founder of the site would be Geoff Cook, the other sibling to Catherine and David, who would work to hire over 100 employees with the company. myYearbook exploded in popularity and in just six years it could proudly boast $17 million raised in financing, over 20 million members, 1.2 billion monthly page views, and $20 million in revenue as reported by both MSNBC and Business Insider.

Source: Forbes

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The $30M gift that can transform a college into a university

The Washington Post Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Delaware Valley College received $30 million in property and cash from the Warwick Foundation of Bucks County, and the gift is as much a psychological asset as an opportunity to grow from its agricultural roots, reports The Washington Post.

The donation announced in September includes a 400-acre farm worth about $15 million; a $10 million endowment to care for the land; and $5 million to support the college's long-term academic vision.

Warwick Foundation President Betsy Gemmill was already a fan of Delaware Valley when negotiations for the gift began about two years ago. Her father had once been chairman of the board at the school, which is about 10 miles from the family's farm in Warwick Township.
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Gemmill said (DelVal president Joseph) Brosnan sealed the deal with an ambitious agenda to add graduate programs and attain university status while retaining the school's agricultural heritage. The donation essentially doubles the institution's $16 million endowment and its land holdings.

Original source: The Washington Post
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Newtown philanthropist's Hire Just One initiative rolling along

The Washington Post Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Washington Post caught up with suburban Philadelphia philanthropist Gene Epstein, who is promoting his $250,000 effort to donate $1,000 to charity for each unemployed person hired.

Epstein, who amassed a personal fortune through car sales and real estate investments, has set aside his money for the first 250 hires - and thinks thousands more jobs could be created if others took on his idea, too.

"It's an encouragement to businesses to not wait," said Epstein, who thinks the incentive may be just enough to get small businesses over the hump to make a hire in tough economic times. "This becomes like an incredible stimulus program."

The idea came to Epstein at his sprawling home in suburban Bucks County last month. He said he hopes his program will encourage businesses in the region and beyond to make hundreds of thousands of new hires they wouldn't have otherwise made.

Original source: Washington Post
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Jassi Chadha enriches entrepreneurial ecosystem with TiE-NJ/Philadelphia

SiliconIndia Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Wildly successful entrepreneur Jassi Chadha has brought his expertise to TiE-NJ/Philadelphia, a newer chapter of the global entrepreneurship organization, reports SiliconIndia.

TiE NJ-Philly is an offshoot of TiE Tristate. New Jersey and Philadephia had quite a lot of entrepreneurs who would often find it difficult to make it to New York for various events of the Tristate. Hence the need for a chapter in this geographic area became a necessity. Today under the leadership of Chadha, the TiE-NJ-Philly Chapter is helping the budding entrepreneurs in this geography to realize their goals and dreams by conducting various events, providing mentoring, and networking opportunities.

"There are aspects of entrepreneurship like optimism, excitement, energy, and a sense of adventure that is inspiring to read and get excited. It also drives people to do more and pursue big dreams. However, the path of entrepreneurship is often lonely, hard, and the journey hectic with challenges of different sorts. That's why entrepreneurs need to be supported and find the right support in programs that TiE offers," says Chadha.

Original source: SiliconIndia.
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Flying Kite among new online operations tackling local news

The Philadelphia Inquirer Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on two online news publications that have launched recently, including yours truly.

As the market for news fragments, new models for journalism are emerging. Two of those experiments, Flying Kite and Patch, launched in Philadelphia last month.

"This is a fresh way to get fresh content about all the innovative things happening in our city," said Danielle Cohn, (Philadelphia Convention and Visitors) bureau spokeswoman.

Original source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Read the full story here.

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