Good Food Farm was established in 2004, in Penobsquis, New Brunswick. Tom Lask, owner and operator of Good Food Farm, grew up on a conventional beef and corn farm. After years of using his skills working as an agricultural engineer, he decided to farm organically as a full-time profession.
At just over forty acres of leased land, Good Food Farm is largely devoted to certified organic seed production of dry edible beans and cereal grains. Vegetable production - mainly root vegetables ranging from rutabagas and parsnips to five varieties of carrots - occupies roughly one acre. Recently, Tom has acquired an additional acre of black currants, which he plans to expand with the production of high-bush blueberries.
Why organic? Tom refers back to a particular incident on his family’s farm many years ago: “I was told by my father to go spray the corn for weeds, and it turned out that I ended up missing 16 rows. That corn ended up being full of weeds, but was also a foot higher with bigger cobs, compared to the rest of the corn. I looked at it and said – ‘There is something going on here…’”
Skeptical of the strong chance that chemicals could, in fact, infiltrate the food stream, organic farming became increasingly attractive to Tom, and once he acquired land in 2004, he knew what farming practices to implement for quality food. “Throughout the years, I have had concern that what we eat in the form of processed food, factory-farmed food, has something in it, other than just plant material...I farm to produce food, seed I can trust to be good food, clean of chemicals and genetically modified organisms.”
Tom is a firm believer that one can grow more food per acre organically than conventionally. After 30 years of testing this on a small scale, Good Food Farm has successfully expanded to larger plots of land from which it is providing to markets throughout New Brunswick.
“The old saying goes, ‘You should leave the land in a better state than you received it,’ and that is what I’m trying to do.” --Tom Lask - Good Food Farm.
