Roy Lubetkin (TPR'81) has taken the hydroponic road to success by becoming president and CEO of Backyard Farms, which operates year-round as the largest greenhouse grower of vine-ripened tomatoes in New England. The Madison, Maine, company cultivates 500,000 plants on its 24-acre site annually, producing nearly 17 million pounds of tomatoes.
What is the most appealing part of Backyard Farms' business?
The fact that the concept of locally grown, high-quality produce is a big hit. Right now, we're selling every tomato we can grow. We're also looking to expand into other types of produce and build more greenhouses to serve other markets.
An increasing amount of produce is imported from other countries. Do you take satisfaction in keeping things "in-house"?
Yes, it's a win-win combination. If a tomato has to come from Mexico or Holland or elsewhere, they have to pick it when it's less ripe to prevent spoiling. During the winter, most of them taste like cardboard. Our tomatoes, grown through hydroponics in our greenhouse, are picked at their peak of flavor and delivered to the store the next day.
What lessons have you carried with you from the Tepper School?
The main thing has been the idea of teamwork within the whole management game. You can be a CEO, but you're still only as good as the people on your team.
Settle the debate: Is the tomato a vegetable or a fruit?
(Laughs) People associate the tomato with vegetables because they put them on salads, but it's definitely a fruit. It's got seeds and gets pollinated by bees. In fact, many of our growers are Dutch, and they always say, "The fruit's looking good today."
--Chris A. Weber
