“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12 1993–1996 Four years can be a long or short time depending on one’s perspective. In 1993, the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil took place when New York’s World Trade Center was bombed in the underground parking lot. In Washington, Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yassir Arafat shook hands outside the White House, sealing a breakthrough peace agreement that was supposed to end the Middle-East conflict. And 85 cult members died in Waco, TX after a 51 day siege by our government. At NOW Foods, business couldn’t have been better during our 25th anniversary year celebration. Lou Richard joined NOW full time to help prepare for our biggest move yet, as NOW had totally reached its space limit at 2000 Bloomingdale Road. Many new products helped drive business along and loyal customers made daily suggestions that led to continuous product and process improvements. In 1994, NOW made the big move to 550 Mitchell Road, where, amazingly, our unfettered growth continued. Elwood, Lou, David and I all found ourselves in a profitable family business that was growing substantially, helping people’s health, and lowering costs to consumers. Life was good. UNCLE LOU RETURNS In 1985, Elwood, Lou and Bill Richard sold Fearn Soya Foods to Modern Products in Milwaukee. Fearn had dropped in sales in recent years and had two disasters doom the company at once. In 1984, one third of Fearn’s major distributors went bankrupt, leaving the company with serious debt that couldn’t be collected. This was unexpected and caused a great strain on Fearn’s finances. At about the same time, Fearn’s only recall ever occurred and, basically, brought the company down. Fearn had been buying brown rice flour and quick-cooking brown rice from Nieman Brothers (manufactured by Riviana Foods), not knowing that ethylene dibromide (EDB), a grain fumigant, had been added during the process. The company received a letter from the New Jersey Department of Health requesting a recall after this showed up in lab testing. Fearn did conduct a very expensive recall that it expected would be covered by Riviana Foods, but that company claimed it was not responsible for the recall because it was not required by the FDA, only requested. Fearn sued and won a small settlement, but the tide had already turned and Fearn was forced to sell at an inopportune time. Sadly, our beloved Fearn company, which had been in our family ownership for 36 years, was forced to sell and moved abruptly to Milwaukee. Lou continued working for a year or so under Modern Products ownership, but disagreements arose and the time came for Lou to move on to greener pastures. From 1987 to 1993, Lou worked as an engineering consultant for a variety of large food companies (Nabisco, General Mills, American 1993-1996 71
