On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Jordan Motzkin, CEO and co-founder of the company Big Box Farms spoke at Dickinson College. He focused on sustainability, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Motzkin described his own journey to establish his company, as well as the reasons why he feels so passionately about the issue of urban agriculture. The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of International Business and Management co-sponsored the event, which was attended by a number of students and professors as well as local residents.
Motzkin discussed the issues behind producing food in a sustainable way and noted that the food production process as currently structured is incredibly wasteful. He pointed out that the food production system does not adhere to the basic principle of design which is to fulfill a need in the most efficient way possible. This inspired him to start his company. Motzkin discussed both his successed and failures. He invested an incredible amount of time and money in meeting with venture capital firms in order to convince them to invest in his business but eventually decided not to accept their offers because he felt doing so would not enable him to stay true to the founding principles of the company. However, Motzkin emphasized that once he started looking at the problems facing his company in a different way he was ultimately able to come up with a solution that allowed him to finally get it off the ground. He noted that out-of-the-box thinking is key when trying to start a business.
During the question and answer session Motzkin fielded a variety of questions from students and professors ranging from the agricultural methods his company uses to the customers his company hoped to target. Students lined up after the question and answer session to introduce themselves to Motzkin and tell him about how much they enjoyed his lecture.
Mr. Motzkin also gave an interview for the Clarke Forum’s “Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty” series. This series acknowledges that today’s generation of Dickinson students confront a large number of intractable political, economic and social problems which are vital to reflect on because they may in time require fundamental changes in institutions, values and practices across the public, private and non-profit sectors of American society.
