News

The Philly Farm & Food Fest returned to the Philadelphia Convention Center this past Sunday. Over 4,000 attendees chatted with local farmers,  artisans & businesses. The second shot at Philly Farm & Food Fest had a great mix of tastes, education & variety. The cheeses were mouthwatering, the sauerkraut was freshly fermented, and there was even crisp local apple cider. I kicked off my locavore dream tour with a (Find out about how the Philly Farm & Food fest went, complete with awesome pics - after the jump.)

Happy Friday, Green Philly Friends! Hope you got a dose of spring with this warmer weather & the Philadelphia Flower Show last week! It's been a while since a good ol' sustainable link roundup, but there's so damn much going on in Philly & in green-land. Here's some of our favorite links & must-know tips.

Attention local food & brew lovers: we hope you made it to the one-of-a-kind the Brewer's Plate this year! The Brewer's Plate had a perfect balance of local noms, brewskies, liquors and dessert. Each exhibitor was enthusiastic about their tasty creation, and the pours were generous. As Ann Karlen, Executive Director, Fair Food stated, "The event benefitting Fair Food was a huge success in bringing together brewers, restaurants and consumers as a way to celebrate local foods and artisans – a very big part of our mission. We tried something new this year, as we featured Aimee Olexy in our VIP area where she led a guided tasting of cheese paired with beer. Everyone really found it interesting and enjoyed it". Let's take our tastebuds and revisit the Brewer's Plate 2013:

Last Friday the New York Times announced that it's eradicating their green blog. My first reaction? Boo! Hogwash! That's a bunch of crap! In all seriousness though my worry is that this cut is sending a message that environmental issues just aren't that important. While times are certainly tough for print publications these days, and cuts may be necessary this is a big blow to the Times eco-minded readers. Though in hindsight the demise of the green blog isn't all that shocking given that in January the Times announced that it was dismantling their Environment Desk team. The New York Times managing editor for news operations, Dean Baquet said, "Today, environmental stories are partly business, economic, national or local, among other subjects," Baquet said. "They are more complex. We need to have people working on the different desks that can cover different parts of the story." Not an unfair point but let's be real here...

This weekend an estimated 40,000 people marched in Washington DC to support action for climate change. They gathered outside President Obama's doorstep to urge immediate rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline and energy extraction practices that threaten the environment. The Keystone XL Pipeline project would pipe some of the planet's dirtiest oil from Canada through America to be shipped overseas through the Gulf of Mexico. This tar sands oil proposal could be disastrous for our planet - producing tar sands crude that kicks out two or three times as much carbon pollution as producing conventional crude oil.

Flying Fish Brewing Co. has announced that they'll debut a new beer early this February and donate 100% of the proceeds to New Jersey victims of 2012's Superstorm Sandy. The new beer named "Forever Unloved Sandy" or F.U .Sandy for short is dubbed a hybrid wheat-pale ale. I say hats off to Flying Fish; The thing that strikes me as especially cool about this is Flying Fish isn't just donating profits but every dollar and cent to NJ Sandy Storm Relief. The F.U. Sandy brew will produce approximately 100 kegs of beer, sales of which will generate $50,000 directly towards a charity.  The recipient of the F. U. Sandy funds will be a grassroots NJ-based charitable organization dedicated to Superstorm Sandy relief and chosen by Flying Fish fans via social media.  Read on to find out how you can nominate a charity.

Yes we can... Again....  Back on a cool November night, my BFF and I sat on her couch as Brian Williams announced Mr. Barack Obama had been elected for a second term as President of the United States. Environmentalists were quick to bash the competition like the Sierra Club, mentioning "we" won over the corporate fossil fuel giants: Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars the fossil fuel industry dumped into this election to elect Mitt Romney, we proved that corporations are, in fact, not people. Obama's next four years in office are crucial to the environment as my 850-word election eve post begged. Although he still has to get buy in from Congress on sustainability initiatives, the momentum could bring some great changes. Since today is Obama's inauguration, here are my 10 green goals for President Obama's 2nd term:

Happy December readers - It's our favorite month! There's so much GREEN (and red) decorations, people are drinking local booze & mulled wine, and there's a ton of live trees INSIDE people's homes. Philly's trucking full speed to close out 2012 - Here's some of the latest green happenings you missed:

Make sure you get out there and voice your opinion. People have fought hard (a long time) for that right. (And if you're not sure, guess who the oil & gas industry have been giving most of their money to this election.)