I owned a large section of land forested with Incense Cedar. After test runs at several shingle mills throughout the shingle producing states, I learned it would take some specialized saw mill equipment. Cashed in my police retirement and took a second loan on property to purchase the necessary equipment, all over the objections of my family.

The pricing of my beautiful shingles was considerably lower than my competitors and they not only looked better, but emitted a pleasant smell (Incense cedar is an apt name). I couldn’t make enough of them, building material outlets across the country took all I could make. First year of production sales neared a million dollars.

Jimmy Carter was President and talked of the logging industries environmental problems. I didn’t pay much attention. We were a small company that only selected trees that were dead or dying. Called “snags” these trees were the ones that made the best shingles (no kiln drying necessary).
I repaid my debt, and used my profits to buy more land with Incense Cedar. This is when the “Spotted Owl” was designated as an endangered species and Incense cedar logging was banned. With the stroke of a pen, I was out of business. The specialized equipment designed to mill trees you could no longer log, was now worthless. The largest industry in the small county of Amador, CA were lumber mills. All logging operations were affected by other restrictions. Should have paid attention.

I took my old dump truck, skip loader and equipment trailer to north San Diego County where I purchased 8 steep, rural acres of undeveloped land on a handshake and a small deposit. I lived there in a small trailer for 7 years and built my home. Planted 1,500 trees, mostly avocado and lime trees. After my avocado and lime trees were producing, I started a small business supplying Mexican restaurants, fruit stands and catering trucks with my fruit. A small sand and rock mining operation, along with occasional jobs provided my income.

The California Avocado Commission regulated sales in the states west of the Mississippi River. Mexican avocados were only allowed to be sold east of the river. This protectionist policy was deemed necessary in order keep the California growers in business. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted in 1993 and signed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. High costs of land, water and labor as compared to our competitors, sabotaged another business. Pay attention.

The small sand and rock mining business, selling sized river rock to stone masons and plaster sand with small amounts of dried, ground kelp added, started doing well. When wet, the slippery addition of kelp allowed for a better flow of the concrete being pumped through hoses.
My association with the American Kelp Corp, (where I obtained my kelp) grew and together we signed a partnership to develop the kelp muds from the Kelco Co. a 100 year old business with proprietary rights to the removal process of sodium alginates from macrocystis pyrifera kelp. I had experimented for years using the dried kelp, mixed with worm castings and saponin (derived from desert yucca) on my avocado trees. The results were amazing and totally organic. Organa Products was formed.

The Kelco proprietary extraction process yielded 150 cubic yards of kelp muds daily (7 days a week). Part of this process required the use of powdered perlite. Perlite, a naturally formed mineral that benefits agriculture by keeping the soil structure loose and light was the perfect addition to our products. Previously Kelco had used land fills to dispose of their kelp muds. New regulations did not allow this due to compaction problems.
Our contract with Kelco included not only the daily removal, but a place to store it, until we had developed our own products to the point where we were not overrun. They had been paying $35 per ton for trucking and disposal fees (land fills). They agreed to a 5 year, decreasing scale contract, starting at $45 per cubic yard. We would receive $7 per yard in the final year.

Kelco in it’s long existence had developed many other food grade, long chain biopolymers. The sodium alginates derived from sea kelp were used in over 50,000 products. It provided three characteristics many products depended on; suspension (ability to keep ingredients mixed i.e. catsup, mustard, mayo). A thickener and to provide a (smooth texture on your pallet i.e. ice cream, sauces, salad dressings).
Xanthan gum was discovered by a research team at the USDA and first brought into commercial production by Kelco in the early 1960’s. Other polysaccharide gums are now available. Kelco’s proprietary rights for kelp processing were due to expire in 1995. Both China and Germany had developed the processes necessary to begin production of a kelp substitute (Xanthan). We were in the final trial stages of marketing our Organa Products line with a 35 Home Depot stores test and a joint advertising program.

In one of the biggest, business blunders in history, Monsanto Corp. successfully purchased Kelco Co. for billions of dollars. Their stupidity did not stop there. In an effort to save money, experts in Kelco’s success were let go. They would not honor our contract with Kelco, instead offering $20 per yard. We could not operate on that amount, given the capital costs expended and the time it would take in product development.
You can’t be sure of anything in life. You’ll never know when some politician, governmental action or inaction, even a large mismanaged corporation that will destroy your work. Chalk it up to a “tough lesson learned” and “PAY CLOSER ATTENTION”.