The net return on the pistachio proves that Wonderfuls dominance in the market has benefited every grower in the room. I did sell water out of Kings County to an urban user and people didnt like it. Rubbish, said Vidovich, in a Los Altos office decorated with maps of his land holdings. These are loaded, Resnick says. The front gates of the 25,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion on Sunset Boulevard magically opened without a guard giving a nod. It isnt going down because he wont let it go down. Theyre droughts best buddies.. Since the middle of the drought, the price of almonds has dropped almost by half. He could collect the rents while he slept. So everybody should have it, right? The math works out to $162 a tree. This is my wife. "Stakes are higher than ever," Myers told CNBC. Even for someone with Vidovichs savvy, the depth of this summers drought could be devastating. Well still make money.. But a controversial pipeline sits empty, as dry as dust, caught in an angry feud between two of Californias largest land barons, Silicon Valley developer and farmer John Vidovich and Pasadena-based longtime cotton king J.G. Whatever remains is not nearly enough to make up for the shortfall of imported water from the state. I sit in my car and wait in the parking lot. Even Wonderful Park is spelled with the same heart-shaped O that stamps a bottle of POM. Shes designing the curriculum.. Billionaire comes to the rescue of billionaire., But those two guys hate each other., Not anymore. The new plant, the size of seven super Walmarts and built at a cost of $300 million, rises out of a clearing like an apparition. Theyre dusty with San Joaquin dirt. I hop out of the car. No ones going to get fired for bringing home 2,500 pounds of nuts an acre. The piece, I was told, had left Lynda embarrassed and fuming. The new plantings arent cotton, alfalfa, or carrotsthe crops a farmer can decide not to seed when water becomes scarce. He told his neighbors to alter the flight of the bees or hed sue them for trespassing. Wanted: an animal-loving billionaire who might consider buying 1,993 threatened white rhinos instead of a new superyacht or a Picasso, or a Picasso onboard a superyacht. Father Stephen excelled in land deals, trading the toil of farming for successful real estate offices and expense accounts. Im down.. He isnt farming dirt. His father grew grapes, cherries, and apricots in the Santa Clara Valley . The rain of almonds has moved on to the next tree. Vidovich went on a shopping spree. To grow, Big Ag needed a bigger and more dependable supply. Their houses made from railroad boxcars have been painted purple, blue, yellow, and gold. She remembers handing the boy to her sister-in-law, who carried phony papers, and watching them cross by bridge into California. Yes. Where do you begin with a man of great riches if not the distant places you might have in common? Many are here without documents, after all. Yet the Resnick pipeline is doing just that. As the growers punch more holes into the ground looking for a vanishing resource, the earth is sinking. By the time he died an old man on his tractor in the Cupertino Hills, where he had planted grapes again and was making wine, the transformation of his valley by the silicon chip was complete. I cut across Twisselman Road to the pipeline gliding along the aqueduct like a silver snake. Stewart would deny that Giblers reporting played a part in their philanthropy. Somehow, 30 or 40 nuts arent compelled to drop. Each one blames the other, he said. He was the bad guy in agriculture for no bigger offense than that he was big. She is determined that their lives will play out differently from the lives of their parents, but she means no disrespect by this. Only after the media were alerted did Stewart and Lynda claim to have discovered the clear-cutting. Main Street is Highway 46, which slices through the middle of town. Legal bills for this and other Boswell-related disputes are costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said. It was linear, logical, fluid, and quite nearly destined. Hes farmingwater.. The July sun is a scorcher, and I fuss with the dial on the AC long enough to blow past the towns one stoplight and the aqueduct, too. The people here have traveled too far. For a long time, she got no credit. It wasnt a midlife crisis, he told me. Youre the one who leads the way on selling agricultural water to the cities. Drought turning to floodit is the story of California. The feedback were hearing is No. In fact, some of the workers think that we havent gone far enough., The workers arent around for a quick survey. Arax: This place called Lost Hills, it is kind of a modern-day company town not unlike Hershey, Pennsylvania. This is the Lynda who now endeavors to see farmhands as something more than workers. Whichever dish they choose, workers are asked not to take a bite until they have considered Lyndas latest concoction: an ounce of apple cider vinegar cut with ginger, mandarin juice, and turmeric served in small plastic cups like the wine of Mass. For now, shes playing country western music on the sound system and trying to lure a combination of oil-field workers, supervisors at Wonderful, and travelers driving the last miles of James Dean. But Paramount isnt Paramount anymore. He had none of his fathers sentimentality. You dont believe me?, No, I believe you, Resnick says. John, his oldest son, had served in the military as an intelligence officer and graduated from Santa Clara law school. Inside, a Wonderful media specialist sees that Resnick needs to be rescued. So how do we do even better next year?. Springsteen shook his head and smiled a thin, ironic smile. It wont hurt the canal, he said. His father grew grapes, cherries, and apricots in the Santa Clara Valley back when Stanford University still had a reason to be known as The Farm. He was about my size, but he was very tough. Then he turned and faced me. Some of them have paid $12,000 to buy their trailers and spent thousands more to fix them up. Its known as a census-designated place, which is another way of saying that Kern County has every reason to neglect it. They were pushing plates, costume jewelry, perfume, and model cars. What to give a grieving widow and her five children in Lost Hills but drinking water? Theres a section stacked with weights and a yoga room with mats on a hardwood floor. Former billionaire to auction world's biggest rhino farm after spending And so that water was feedingResnick pistachios and almonds and keeping them alive in the worst of the drought. Deadly in the rush of harvest, deadly in the quiet of fog, deadly in the blur of Saturday nights when the fieldwork is done and the beer drinking becomes a second humiliation. Past Bakersfield and the high school football stadium where Frank Gifford and Les Richter, two future NFL Hall of Famers, squared off in the Valley Championship in 1947 in the driving rain. Bernard, whats happened? Since international sanctions were lifted five years earlier, Iran has been crowding the market with its more buttery-tasting pistachios. The Sotos made a name for themselves in Lost Hills by taking their taco trucks into the agricultural fields. His father bought a neighborhood bar and ran it with the same iron fist with which he ran the house. Together, the Resnicks have wedded the valleys hidebound farming culture with L.A.s celebrity culture. It was the same distance that allows them to control more land and water130 billion gallons a yearthan any other man and woman in California and still believe it isnt enough. When the mansion was built in 1927, it was known as the Sunset House. She splits her time between Palo Alto and Inverness, and in her spare time likes wildlife photography, swimming, skiing and backpacking. Young men and women from Teach for America will do their two-year stints at the complex and live in village housing. He got himself into this jam. We send money home each month to our families left behind, Lupe says. The wide-open middle of California did its lullaby on me again. The State Water Project, for the first time in six years, delivers surplus flows. One hundred and twenty thousand acres of nuts and fruits and berries in California and still counting. Hes never driven a tractor or opened an irrigation valve. But with shared ambitions of buying land and moving water, theyre all doing the same thing, in our eyes.. I feel his gaze going past me, his voice turning oddly sentimental. It cant be farmed like it was, he says. On the whiteboard in front of the weights, the big boys list their totals. . At Wonderful Health and Wellness, were educating our employees about this health crisis. I get it. He was in the mood to gamble. The State Water Project that allowed western Kern County to grow into a farming behemoth has given no water or very little water over the past three years amid the worst drought in California history. His accountant suggested he buy apartments. The court settlement allows him to take the water to Dudley Ridge, but it cant go outside Kings County. The agency did not balk at the price tag: $5,321 an acre-foot. Her brother-in-law was killed recently in a car crash along Highway 46. The bowls on her kitchen table are filled with grapes, berries, bananas, and red and green bell peppers. Vidovich is the owner of Sandridge Partners, LP a farmland investment firm that has undertaken more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland. Look, I delegate a lot of things, obviously. But the smaller farmer still uses a pruning shears to make his most important cuts. The fog is our history. Whether its Fresno or Kings or Tulare or Kern counties, hes grabbing land where the groundwater is plenty or a river runs through it or the aqueduct spills its north-to-south flow. Also set to pitch in is hedge fund executive Donald Sussman who told . And Vidovich has said if he . But, until now, nobody had the money to fight back.. Ive told them all no. Nowhere to turn, I turn back around and roll down my window. Because, while he does farm thousands of acres of pistachios, almonds [] Last time he checked, he told me he owned 180,000 acres of California. Now its the Bobcats turn. The room smells of Vicks VapoRub. He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. Under his leadership, the company used its business smarts, political clout and legal strategies to acquire water and transform a modest cotton farm into an agricultural empire. Because when we dont manage it, they end up with severe chronic health issues and amputated limbs., Anzaldo is a man wired for solemn, but he does manage to smile once during lunch, when talking about the 1,150 workers whove earned bonuses of up to $500 for losing a collective 14,000 pounds in two years. The bureau happened to be my house in northwest Fresno. This is the closest to hills it comes. Maybe not since the wheat barons has the income disparity between farmer and farmworker been greater. I stand over the pipes and give them a hard slap. John was vital in helping the company's executive group reposition its strategy. No longer does it have to be a career that brings Mexicans to their hands and knees. When I tell her my name, she whispers into his ear. The courtship of Stewart and Lynda went fast. Never mind that this is one of the most over-drafted basins in California or that the land is sinking a half-foot a year. Surely, no one does this better than Wonderful? Giant pincers manned by a single worker grab the tree by the throat and start shaking. The sale got under the skin of valley farmers. The company operates the most wells in the lake basin and the deepest ones. She tells me her not-so-silent partner is Lady Lynda, who was so bothered that Lost Hills didnt have a sit-down restaurant of its own that she sought out Angelica. The nut must be hurried from bin to truck to processing plant to keep it from discoloring. He blames Iran. When the next shift ends, he tells me, the gym will fill up with workers looking to win the cash bonuses from the companys GetFit program. I cross the Tulare County line heading south into Bakersfield, and there in front of me, for no eye to miss, stands the Wonderful Citrus complex with its four-story storage building designed in the shape of an almighty box of Halo mandarins. The land is turning to salt. All but a handful come from Mexico. She is small with lively brown eyes and a sweet but confident voice. Plastic drip-irrigation lines stick out of the ground at wrong angles. This is a company that runs its resources to the max, he tells me. He did little, if any, catting around. I pity the outsider trying to make sense of it. One of his films, The Blob, became a cult classic, and they lived in a house on the Westside with two Rolls-Royces in the garage. On more than 150,000 acres 132,000 in Kings County alone, according to ParcelQuest the company grows, processes and sells cotton, tomatoes, wheat, alfalfa and seed crops. The crops we grow can only be grown in a few places in the world. It isnt a lot of water., Im not going to give you the numbers. As the head of a quasi-public agency, he knows he cant completely blow off my questions. He launches into a CFOs riff on the pistachio market. But that doesnt make people buy a second bottle. But its just a cover for taking water out.. One of his frat brothers was a wealthy kid whose father ran a janitorial business. That little red string is supposed to remind him to count to ten. We hope you enjoy Finding Lost Hills., The 11-minute film opens with a shot of swirling dust. Four thousand peoplemore than double the number on the highway signlive in town, and three out of every four rely on a payday from Wonderful. She had recently divorced and wasnt about to settle for a life in Culver City. He sold a chunk of land to the builders of Sunnyvale and decided he could develop the rest himself. More pumping, locals say, worsens the regions destructive land subsidence. Twenty miles outside Fresno, I cross the Kings, the river that irrigates more farmland than any other river here. It moves in a wave from trunk to limb to nut and back down to earth. What? Locals also are nervous about six new pump stations, controlled by Vidovich, that they fear could pump massive amounts of groundwater out of Tulare County, into the California Aqueduct, and down to Southern California. Hes trying to play dumb, but I can see the sliest of grins peeking out from his mustache and goatee. Its John Vidovich. His strategy, and his Silicon Valley wealth, arouse both admiration and suspicion in this rural community. But that still doesnt mean that most people in town can afford to eat here. Measuring the reach of the Resnicks, its tempting to lean on the hyperventilated language of the 1930s: Empire. Judge Orders Boswell, Vidovich Back to Their Corners in Ditch Bank I meet up with the Wonderful field man who first tipped me off to the pipeline. I now hear whispers of water belonging to farmers two counties away being pumped out of the ground and hijacked in the dead of night to irrigate the nuts of Lost Hills. I turn back around and find Route 46, the road that killed James Dean. Too many almonds. A parched Southern California suburb looking to keep up with a booming population. He doesnt wave me off or give chase. The big man with the goatee behind the wheel is Bernard Puget, a Basque sheepmans son who oversees these orchards. In a region of wall-to-wall plantings, one of the walls is crashing down. During the drought, the Boswell Company has drilled 52 holes into the old lake bottomseven of these wells reaching a depth of 2,500 feet. With that insight, he sold the company for $2.5 million and went into the security guard business. Every mogul, every movie star. Wages that used to go to workers stay in the pocket of the nut growers. The vibration is a stunning piece of violence to behold. I didnt see the tumbleweeds along the roadside and the strip of parched earth that separated what remained of the desert from the perfect rows of irrigated agriculture. Central Californias family raisin farms are drying up, Commercial bees, the unsung heroes of the nut business, From California to the Midwest, examining the perils of industrial farming and the risk to food, Drought has California farms destroying crops, rather than pay for water, Californias drought is all but over, but some wells are still dry, The color of the year has a political past, A California farm battles drought: Were out here trying to survive, Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on, Seasonal foreign workers fill critical landscaping jobs, enabled by easier access to visas. Each section of pipe is 40 feet long. "Water rights are like democracy," he told Forbes in 1989. Resnick has saved the front seat for me. Because it is a community of all Hispanics.. Real Time Billionaires - Forbes Six hundred pistachio growers in blue jeans isnt her usual crowd. Anything else I can help you with?, He seems in a hurry. They do that because they love it., A POM craze followed. The designers at the Mint made a porcelain doll with a tiny replica outfit so precise that it had to be hand-beaded with 2,000 fake pearls. But she doesnt dictate this or that. Angelica would prefer not to get into the details of their financial arrangement. The Yokut had a saying that when the farmer drained the last drops of snowmelt from Tulare Lake, the water would return. They thwack back. Has the San Joaquin Valley reached its Chinatown moment? The farmer moved the rain. She is the brander of the empire, the final word on their Super Bowl ads, the creator of product marketing.
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