Born in Phoenix, Arizona father and mother were both from cattle ranching and farming families. Lon’s father, Bobby Ball and Uncle Germain farmed the family ranch and grew cotton, Lucerne, sugar beets, cattle. His mother, Sandra, was granddaughter of Charles P. Mullen who had the largest ranch in AZ history near Prescott.
Education
1963-1968 University of Colorado, Boulder Colorado, USA, BA degree Majors: Sociology and Anthropology, 1963-1968
Work History
1963-1969 General Manager of Parshall, Colorado cattle ranch, Ptarmigan Ranch while attending university mountain ranch with 600 cows. Ranch sold by family in 1968.
1968-1970 Founder of Sisyphus Construction 1968; sold business in 1970
1971-1972 World Family Association , non-profit organization, volunteer
1971-1974 Founding shareholder, Celestial Seasonings, Inc., Boulder, CO, herbal tea manufacturer 1970; Production Manager 1971-1974. Custom supplier of medicinal plants 1975 to present. It is now a $420 million subsidiary company. It merged with Hain, Inc. and is now The Hain Celestial Group (Nasdaq: HAIN) traded on the NYSE with over $1.2 billion sales. Lon sold his stock in Celestial in 1980 to finance Trout Lake Farm Co.
http://www.celestialseasonings.com/
http://www.hain-celestial.com/index.php
1973-2000 Founder, with his sister, Teresa, and sole owner Trout Lake Farm Co. 1973-2000, Trout Lake, WA; Organic grower of medicinal plants, spices and Brown Swiss cattle. Built this irrigated farm from 75 ha unimproved land to 1050 ha of intensive row crop farm in two locations, Trout Lake and Ephrata, WA irrigated under center pivots with Federal water. By year 2000 TLF grew, processed and sold internationally 82 species of medicinal plants in dry, fresh and liquid extract form. Lon sold 51% interest to Amway Nutrilite in 1999 for $18 million. Lon was general director who oversaw annual sales of $12 million, processing and drug manufacturing, 320 employees, 270 customers; production in 5 countries on 4 continents and exports to four continents.
http://www.nutrilite.com/en-us/Nature/WhyNutrilite/trout-lake.aspx
http://www.troutlakefarm.com/
1989-2000 Founder and sole owner, Flora Laboratories, Inc, an FDA regulated over-the-counter drug manufacturer of full homeopathic mother tinctures 1989-2000. This company was included in the sale to Amway Corp. Three retail products were marketed manufactured from TLF medicinal plants; 1st Sneeze Echinacea, Florased Valerian and Caisse’s Tea, an anti-cancer blend.
1998- Present Russia
Expanded organic medicinal plant collection to Russian Far East and farming in China, 1998. TLF formed partnership with Amurbiopharm Tea ’OOO’ in Khabarovsk to collect wild medicinal plants in Primorye in Cheguevskii Raion. Worked in international trade, shipping containers to North America with Natalia V. Chistiakova. We exported Eluthero, limonik, Aralia, chaga, Rhodiola rosea, oblipiho, Glycyrrhiza uralenis, etc. An office was bought and established in Khabarovsk. Lon established residence in Slavianka, HasanskiiRaion. Lon has two sons and one daughter who are Dual Russian/American citizens.
1996-2008 Myun Organic Farm, China
Lon founded organic farm beginning with first trip in 1996 with the help of his Chinese employee, Dr. Zhang Huaxin of the Chinese Academy of Forestry in various locations in China. A general downturn in the herb market in the USA made continuation impossible because of worldwide surpluses. We did, however, continue with Nepeta cataria, a cat stimulant for pets. Lon built a row crop farm (lease land), driers and mill for processing of catnip leaf for export to cat toy market in USA.
President, Trout Lake Farm, LLC 2000-2002, reporting to majority shareholder, Amway Corp., $7 billion revenue company.
Founder and owner of Klickitat Organics, LLC. 1999 to present. Klickitat Organics grows medicinal plants and spices on the original farm land that was bought in 1973 where his older children were raised. It continues operations under the director, Lon’s older son, Nate Johnson under the name of Farmgate Organics, LLC. This ‘home farm’ is being managed as production farm and also as a tourist conference center and special events.
2010-Present BioRice ‘OOO’. One thousand and eighty, 1,860 ha of rice land has been privatized and registered in Novoselskoye, Spasskii Raion that will leased to Chinese rice producers. In addition to Lon’s liquidation of property in USA, the rice land income will enable cash to help develop Bird Lake grazing operation owned by new company, OOO Rancho Khasan, for horse, deer and cattle grazing.
Lon will be able to bring sufficient resources in capital and talent to Rancho Khasan with his many past business contacts and associates in addition to his property sales and proven ability to attract capital investors and young American and European ranchers who are priced out of home rangeland.
Elected Offices:
Trout Lake Community Council 1975-1990
Klickitat County Port Commissioner from 1989-1995
http://www.portofklickitat.com/original.html
The Port of Klickitat during my tenure was awarded Bonneville Dam lock spoils by an act of US Congress by its lobbying efforts in 1994 to complete Bingen, WA industrial site.
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic, Co-founder & Director
WA State Organic Program, Co-founder & Director
Organic Trade Association, Director 4 terms
Associations:
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic (OTCO), certification agency for administration of USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture NOP (National Organic Program) founder and board member 1981-1986, 1992-2002.
Washington Tilth founder 1978; later came under administration of Washington State Dept. of Agriculture-elected Board member to State Board 1990-1996
Society of Rangeland Management – Member
Organic Trade Association, a professional trade association, Board member 8 years; Chairman of Livestock Committee
Organic Consumer Assn.: Member
American Herbal Products Association, Board Member 1998-2006 http://www.ahpa.org/
OCIA, Organic Crop Improvement Association- Board member 1990-1994 Iowa State
Trout Lake Presbyterian Church, member
Witness for Peace
J Street
B’Tselem
Trout Lake Grange 210, farmer’s association member and office holder, Lecturer and Dairy committee, 1973-Present
