He purchased his first 640-acre section in the late 1970s and kept adding more sections of almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, and citrus until he stretched the lines of agriculture like no Californian before him. A good deal of sunshine. As you know, our philosophy at Wonderful is doing well by doing good. Lupe excuses herself to prepare dinner. The aqueduct was built with tax money, yes? I thank him and hurry down the dirt road through the almonds, eyeing the rearview mirror to see if a Resnick truck is following me. That was eight or nine years ago. A member of the commission, on the eve of its demise, told me, Stewart wants to be a benevolent dictator. In the Wonderful fields, he tells me, at least 80 percent of the workers carry no documents or documents that are not real. Its been more than a year since the grand opening, and theyre still operating in the red. So, if i cant make money on that water farming, I will sell it eventually to an urban area and thats a right I have. Have we gone too far? She delivers it in classic Lynda style. Vidovich, he said, is just the new water baron on the block, thats all. Not a chance. The softballs will go to market as whole fruit or as seed pods in a package. The nuts are kept there a few more daysany longer and the ants will attack themto complete their drying. We changed the culture of safety, and we think we can do the same with health, Anzaldo says. Its California., Sure. But Paramount isnt Paramount anymore. Where the pipes butt up against Twisselman Road, a more clever bit of engineering is required. The new plantings arent cotton, alfalfa, or carrotsthe crops a farmer can decide not to seed when water becomes scarce. Either way is a trespass. Rather, they say, theyre harvesting health and happiness around the world through our iconic consumer brands. Their crops arent crops but heart-healthy snacks and life-extending elixirs. I walk up and reintroduce myself. Arax: They lose their livelihood. FAMILY OFFICE MARKETPLACE. If Resnick retains every drop, he might squeeze 25 acre-feet of water a day out of both pipes. Do you know what I am? Burglar alarms, on the other hand, offered round-the-clock vigilance without coffee breaks. He wonders what agriculture will look like in western Kern in ten years. Marketplace is a division of MPR's 501 (c)(3). Nearly a third of the harvestthe nuts grown by Wonderful, the nuts grown by hundreds of farmers who belong to the Wonderful brandwill come through these gates. Hes now the president of that powerful panel. At this point, he said, he uses about 30 percent of his land for farming and 70 percent for water. A public resource had been privatized for the purpose of growing tens of thousands of acres of nuts, he charged. Use the 'Report' link on He wanted to stay in the customer service business and heard from his doctor that Teleflora, the giant flower-delivery company, could be bought for a buyers price. When he was told there were fields upon fields, he did not believe there could be this many fields. None of this is my idea. By car and foot, I trace the silver pipeline as it creeps north through Wonderful pomegranate orchards. The gas to and from the orchards costs him $80 a week. The men and women who planted, irrigated, sprayed, and picked our crops were phantoms. Its a bad day, he says, shooing me out. I roll past Tulare, where every February they hold the biggest tractor show in the world, even bigger than the one in Paris. In Lost Hills, they call her Lady Lynda. She shows up in high fashion and stands in the dust and tells them about another charter school or affordable-housing project she is bringing to them. Still, he was starting to think about his legacy, and thats why he finally agreed to meet with me. The checks the workers bring in here from Mr. Resnick are the same checks they bring in for years. The making of a billionaire over the next half-century was a series of dots that connected in the California sunshine. Seventy-five years ago, writer Carey McWilliams, in Factories in the Field, lambasted the ribboned Dukes and belted Barons of California agriculture. In any event, Vidovich fallowed his Angiola land and took its groundwater about 25 miles west to his Dudley Ridge lands. The matter was headed to court when Vidovich paid a visit to Resnick. I saw horrible things, Margarita says. Longtime Los Altos resident Stephen John Vidovich, founder of De Anza Properties of Sunnyvale, died of an apparent heart attack June 19 as he was driving a tractor on his property in the Cupertino hills, said his son John Vidovich. For years, agriculture has been given a wide berth when it comes to monopolistic practices. If I follow them south into Resnick almonds, I can see where the water is going. The colors turn brilliant in the light made spectacular by the particles of dust. "Even with the subsidy, I think cotton is a losing battle," he said, predicting that the commodity would increasingly come from China. Theyve gone back to the nut line. This is the route my grandfather, one of a legion of fruit tramps, took as he drifted from farm to farm in the 1920s picking crops. He came on board full-time in 2011, give or take, he said. Hes dressed Italian chin to footLoro Piana jeans and Hogan tennis shoes. She was the daughter of Jack Harris, a film distributor, who moved the family to Los Angeles when Lynda was 15 to produce movies. I retrace the road I came in on and cross old Tulare Lake, which rose by flood and sank by drought. Brad Steinwede. Yet the Resnick pipeline is doing just that. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. The bloodless ones stay away. Theyve (Vidovich and Hurley) been way out front on SGMA, Mitchell said. To fix the subsidence, and keep the town dry in the next flood, residents and the state prison are having to pay $10 million in extra taxes. Altogether, Resnick has purchased 300,000 acre-feet of water from farmers and water districtsat a cost of $200 millionto cover his shortfall during the drought. Boswell told me what a fool he and his forebears had been for wasting water, sun, and soil in California to raise fiber, of all things. "When commodity prices are at record highs, it is irresponsible to increase government subsidy rates for 15 crops, subsidize additional crops and provide payments that further distort markets.". Talk to me, Hussein says, draining a can of Rockstar. He points to the young almond trees that envelop his 20 acres like a siege. What happens to them if Wonderful downsizes? Unlike many other billionaires, they could poke fun at themselves. Documentary film. Ive never seen her up close, never watched her in action. She was aiming to surround herself with famous actors and artists and public intellectuals. His operation is extensive and very smart.. Neves also added that there would undoubtedly be an effort to explore more reasonable sites for the facility, away from educational and city populations. In exchange, the state would get banking rights in Semitropic, said General Manager Jason Gianquinto. He guides me to the caf, and we grab our lunches from the buffet. He thinks Ive understated the crop.. What is the phone number of Vidovich John - De Anza Properties? By the time he drove back, he was a citrus grower. What? Resnicks billions rely on his ability to master water, sun, soil, and even bees. There, he tells me, in the shadow of the states great concrete vein moving snowmelt north to south, I will find a private, off-the-books pipeline that Stewart Resnick has built to keep his trees from dying. The crops we grow can only be grown in a few places in the world. We pile back into the van and head up the road. He became more involved with De Anza, working with his dad, whom he describes as bigger than life.. The city of Los Angeles, by comparison, consumes 587,000 acre-feet. From a safe, Ellsberg had lifted the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of how successive presidents lied to the public to cover up the failings of the Vietnam War. Lupe and Manuel, like many of the residents, grew up next to each other in a pueblo called San Antonio deep in the state of Guerrero, a mountainous region of dramatic beauty. Observers worry that Vidovich plans to pump Kings and Tulare counties dry, park that water in Kern County and then sell it to the highest bidder in dry years, leaving a once-thriving farm district barren. Theyre no longer in danger. This isnt the Lynda posing for photos with Barbra Streisand. Theyre listening with their heads bent down. The space for a familys secrets is only a few feet. If those seem like minute details for the head of a major development company to trouble with, hes even more hands-on with Sandridge Partners LP, the family business he formed for farming acquisitions. Hes headed to the Wonderful plant, 13 miles north of Lost Hills, to drop off his load. He doesnt wave me off or give chase. His father, Stephen Vidovich, formed De Anza Properties and helped develop the valley. All I know is I dont want to split it up or sell it in some leveraged buyout. They have no way to grasp the $50 million to $80 million a year that the Resnicks say they are spending on philanthropy. To find its flow, Id have to go looking in a thousand irrigation ditches in the fields beyond. President George Bush has been outspoken in his criticism of the bill, which he vetoed last week before being overruled by majorities in the House and Senate. Her brother-in-law was killed recently in a car crash along Highway 46. Big fish eat the small fish here. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. I saw her a few months ago. The courtship of Stewart and Lynda went fast. I sit in my car and wait in the parking lot. Across the field, a heavy machine is stacking whats left of the trees into giant mounds. Wild salmon and all these sides made from scratch. She wanted me to put our $5 million in an account, draw interest, and we could live happily on the 50 grand a year.. He ran unsuccessfully for the Los Altos Hills City Council in 2006, served on the Santa Clara County Planning Commission and is former chairman of the Santa Clara County Republican Committee. Hundreds of giant praying mantises standing on platforms of concrete are pulling oil from a Chevron field. 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. Two men sit inside separate cabins of a small tractor with pincers on one side and a catcher on the other. I get out of the car and walk down an embankment. He was headed to the fields at the same time that another farmworker, drunk on beer, was coming home from the fields. This is a big crop, the field man tells me. The John Wick: Chapter 4 posters are rolling in one after another. Main Street is Highway 46, which slices through the middle of town. Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. To top it off, the greedy SOB (farmers rarely uttered Vidovichs name) intended to keep his 7,000 acres of nut trees in Dudley Ridge. Tonight, feeling no pain, hell sit in one of the strip clubs in Bakersfield and maybe buy himself a fancy lap dance.. Mostly, though, they cant wait for the avalanche of nuts to end. The contents of each catcher, 500 pounds of almond meat, are placed on a conveyor 20 feet high and dumped into a big-rig hauler for transport to the Wonderful processing plant. Along a fan of the Kings River, a raisin farmer in Selma shows me his well thats coughing up sand. The film ends with the laughter of kids playing inside the giant sunburst at the center of the soccer field. Here and there a mulberry tree, its canopy pruned back, breaks up the red-smeared sky.. This project may not be fully thought out," said Neves. Thousands of acres of pistachio trees now await the next flood. So were seeing a shift now and then to have nature imposing its will on the situation. And in fact these guys were able to squeeze and buy water in the open market, and do a few other things to keep their crops going and they were in the midst of drought. Page met Vidovich in 2005 when Page was farming 400 acres out near Wasco. Even as the supplies of federal and state water have dropped to near zero, agriculture in Kern keeps chugging along, growing more intensive. John Vidovich is a real estate developer who specializes in land use and development deals involving everything from mobile home parks and large apartment complexes to wine vineyards, pistachio farms and water baron. But most of this water has been spent by the Resnicks and other account holders in years two, three, and four of the drought. But we werent there long. They moved to Highland Park, home to Johnson & Johnson and close enough to Rutgers University to hear the fans screaming at Neilson Field. The rain of almonds has moved on to the next tree. Bernard, whats happened? Your account number is your one-line street address as printed on your newspaper use normal capitalization. 2022-02-14 - BY LOIS HENRY. Scott: So we should talk about the labor that makes this all possible. His trees were drinking from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, from rivers and irrigation canals and the water bank. Hes got another meeting to attend. 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. The 20-year-olds look like 20-year-olds; the 30-year-olds, like 40-year-olds; the 40-year-olds, like 60-year-olds. Cotton still grows on the lake bottom, but less and less each year. Each face wears its own weary. Problem is, I feel like Im 50. The pistachio trees in Wonderful number 6 million. Except when you plug John Vidovichs name into the equation. Because of a lack of water? I ask. So how do we do even better next year?. Keep it Courteous. Up and down the Central Coast, restaurants are boycotting their wines. I look back at Resnick. Scott: How sustainable is this operation given that California only recently came out of a long drought and may actually be headed there again soon? State water dwindling year after year. Theres a section stacked with weights and a yoga room with mats on a hardwood floor. In a swirl of dust, a worker atop a different machine is blowing the almonds from their spot beneath the trees to the middle of the row. Three dogs, part pit bull, the menacing part, have given up on the shade and lie on the open road. For the promotions of the upcoming Keanu Reeves movie the makers are revealing exclusive posters for the feature made by handpicked artists around the world. Under lights, he prunes, plows, and irrigates the almonds. Shell check in every so often to see how business is going. Boswell had done for the town of Corcoran. This last-ditch water in Lost Hills wont make everything right. He unfolds a $20 bill from a wad he keeps inside a bent paper clip, and we take a seat in the far corner. Arrayed before him were small bowls of almonds, pistachios, and easy-to-peel mandarins, a plate of ground white turkey meat cooked in olive oil, and a glass of pomegranate juice. Ive gone too far. We can surely help you find the best one according to your needs. The rent is $540. Two strains of salmonella found in their pistachios had caused a multistate outbreak of illnesses. This is a forgotten community. Its a $500 million project, of which Semitropic is hoping to get $250 million from Proposition 1 funding. And so I began with slaughter and madness and then moved on to bartenders for fathers. As it happened, just down the road, on the other side of the lake bottom, Resnick had captured his own body of water, the Kern Water Bank, and planted millions of nut trees on desert scrub. Halfway through his solo performance, he interrupted his set to tell us a piggy bank had been set up by the exit to donate money to the hardworking men and women in the fields. When the concert was over, I took my wife and children backstage to meet him. The POM tanks, Im told, are backed up with a three-year supply. Hes smiling but speaks only Spanish. But nobody didnt like my dad.. A cross of Jesus hangs from the bedpost. You may have never heard of John Vidovich, but his impact on the day-to-day life of the average southern San Joaquin Valley farmer is difficult to be understated. He was a big drinker, a big liver who loved the fast life. He hired Bert Steir, a Bostonian with a Bronze Star from the Second World War and a degree from Harvard, to come west and work his deals. Well, maybe just a little guilt, but thats Jewish. He said the prod for all their giving in Lost Hills happened in Aspen, of all places. Web Directions. EIN: 41-0953924. If youve ever had Wonderful Pistachios, POM Wonderful pomegranate juice or Halo mandarin oranges, youve had produce grown on one of the largest farms in the world. No way, according to Vidovich and his longtime associates. John Vidovich is scion of his family's development firm, De Anza Properties, which owns Rancho Shopping Center and is renovating Los Altos Gardens. The nut must be hurried from bin to truck to processing plant to keep it from discoloring. The water is cold, clean, and salty, though not too salty for a desperate man. The wind kicks up dirt from the reap of oil and almonds, and the dust cloud carries back into town, raining down on the elementary school first.
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