Interview with the Founder, Sequoia Price-Lazarus
My name is Sequoia Prince Lazarus. I’m the CEO of Lazarus Naturals and I started it four years ago. My perspective is, that like, you’re trying to make the most positive impact on the most number of people’s lives over the longest span possible, right.
CBD, you know, the potential for it to help people is huge. You can take it on daily basis and not feel inebriated.
There’s someone who wants to use this product and gain the benefits, it’s not affordable. So, I was like, you know, why don’t we start a company that, you know, and the focus of it was to really make the product essentially something anyone could afford.
When you look at it right, like it boils down to what the right thing is to do and I think the right thing is provide the most positive impact to as many people as possible in a way that’s lasting and sustainable.
Building Lazarus Farms: Becoming Vertically Integrated
My name is Evan Scandalous. I’m the VP of farm operations here at Lazarus farms. I manage personnel on the farm I also do project management for the build-out that we’ve done here at this property as well as day-to-day operations for the farm.
I started with the company about three years ago doing build-out projects and then moved out here when it became clear that that’s the direction that we wanted ahead as a company, was towards producing this product in a way that we could control a lot more of the input.
Right now, we have about 20 people here for the season, we’ve got a tremendously diverse skill set among the workers and their backgrounds are all over the place. We have some people that have a background with commercial agriculture, some people have experience with soil science, some people have degrees in horticulture, and we’ve all kind of ended up here through one way or another just because we’re passionate about the hemp and what this plant can do for people.
When we’re planning this farm out we made a really conscious decision to use an integrated pest management program, which means that we use bacteria and other or natural ways of controlling the issues that people would traditionally treat with pesticides or herbicides.
From the time that the plant is sprouted, or having you know beneficial bacteria is being used in the soil medium as well as in the field we’re using some different methods that help control bugs or infestations.
The other big thing that allows us to be pesticide and herbicide free is our location. Central Oregon has a ton of natural light, it’s inherently dry, we’re in a high desert up here and then we also have a lot of air that flows through the plants and will kind of stop a lot of the mold or other issues that can happen with this plant.
From the beginning, we wanted to make this product accessible to people Accessible, safe, tested for quality and to further the idea that people can use this product safely.
Where we’re at now, I think, we’re in a really positive space where we’re starting to get a lot of feedback from our customers. Whether they’re veterans, disabled, low-income; those people are telling us that these products are making a noticeable difference in their lives.
And some of the feedback that we’ve gotten has been very emotional. A lot of hard work on the farm a lot of hard work within the business, but when you are able to hear that from people it really makes a huge difference, and it seems like you’re actually working towards something that’s positive.
Want more Lazarus Naturals info? Read our Lazarus product review here.
Full-time Student, Blogger, and works at FN-Hemp
Photography, Animals, Environment, Tolerance
“..Hate cannot drive out hate; Love can do that.” Martin Luther King
