Their tongues loll to their knees. Im in another land, an expanse of hard, ugly, cratered-out earth the color of sand. The truth a mercenary has landed on. He needs every drop he can get., Dont you know? Because, while he does farm thousands of acres of pistachios, almonds and grapes, many believe the only harvest Vidovich is truly interested in is water. The scale of productionand the ability to process, market, and sell its own cropsallows Wonderful to be mostly mediocre in the fields and remain highly profitable. Seventy-five years ago, writer Carey McWilliams, in Factories in the Field, lambasted the ribboned Dukes and belted Barons of California agriculture. Vidovich owns the property in question, and he is well known in Valley circles. Its bringing water from the Dudley Ridge Water District in Kings County. He got himself into this jam. Theyre paying $340 a month for its privilege. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Indeed, as president of the board, Vidovich has a great deal of influence in directing much of the water districts business. 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. John Vidovich serves as the Vice President, Business Development of Discover. 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. All told, 36 men operating six machines will harvest the orchard in six days. The Wheat King begets the Cattle King, and the Cattle King begets the Cotton King, and the Cotton King begets the Nut King and Pomegranate Queen. Pace farmed in the valley and partnered with Vidovich for a while. 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. A public resource had been privatized for the purpose of growing tens of thousands of acres of nuts, he charged. Ive done no big wrong in my life that would cause me to have any. To manage the disease. Yet Vidovich said he is not personally a booster of the farm bill, and that his company might be better off without it. The hospital, senior citizens center, and football stadium all bore the signature of his giving. He doesnt know about the pipeline. Because its so much fun to say that Lost Hills has been found., The room full of growers applauds. The boss came back in, saw his do-nothing, and said only three words: Just get started. He began to move, and the job went quickly after that. Im down, Stewart, he protests. His dad had sold the bar and was adrift. Thousands of California oaks were felled. I steer toward the almonds, past a row of worker housing and a main gate. In any event, Vidovich fallowed his Angiola land and took its groundwater about 25 miles west to his Dudley Ridge lands. Food and Beverage Manufacturing . Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves, whose district would contain the proposed feedlot and slaughterhouse, suggests that the process for approval is just beginning. So its a really extraordinary kind of development thats never happened in agriculture in California before really to raise the living of your workers. I did not name the town, Lynda says. Each square-mile section is divided into blocks, and each block counts a precise number of rows. But that still doesnt mean that most people in town can afford to eat here. The baby is now a 20-year-old student at Bakersfield College. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.. Every mogul, every movie star. Its happening. The bosses wont speak of it, he says. I take out my cellphone and swipe across Google Maps. They greet me with smiles and handshakes. If only Eve had offered Adam a pomegranate instead of an apple, Lynda wrote, every day could have been a holiday.. A pump is shooting water out of the canal and into the Rain for Rent pipes. The believer and the skeptic do their tussle inside my head. Its just smart business. "Ten percent of farmers get 70 percent of the payment," Perez said. 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. Typically, each pound sells wholesale for $4.25. 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. Then the men of cotton, driven out of the South by the boll weevil, put the five rivers into canals and dried up the lake. Water fight between two of Valley's largest growers heads to court To read more copy and paste or select. The problem is this last drought lasted five years. Of the 22,000 acres they ripped during the drought, 18,000 acres are being replanted in pistachios. If she has her way, they will go to college, too. So the state couldnt deliver, in one year couldnt deliver any of it. He launches into a CFOs riff on the pistachio market. He had none of his fathers sentimentality. Resnicks billions rely on his ability to master water, sun, soil, and even bees. A large water pipeline being built near Lemoore in Kings County is raising eyebrows as much for its possible uses as for the name associated with its construction John Vidovich. A California developer, farmer, and water buyer, John Vidovich, is seeking approval to build a beef feedlot and processing plant near Lemoore on what appears to be a 789-acre project located along Highway 41, just south of Highway 198. On our trips to Disneyland, I must have blinkered my eyes heading down 99. Since international sanctions were lifted five years earlier, Iran has been crowding the market with its more buttery-tasting pistachios. Somehow, it made its way to Lynda. He doesnt feign surprise when I tell him about the pipeline, but he dismisses it as a private matter between private parties. The Southwest Kings GSA is chaired by John Vidovich, who runs Sandridge Partners, which owns hundreds of thousands throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Bankers and their fair-weather financing exasperated Resnick. As in most significant projects, there will be public hearings to review the proposed project's impacts. Down the great aqueduct, by freight of politics and gravity, came the excess waters of the Sacramento River. Gianquinto and Vidovich have repeatedly said that it would be nearly impossible for an individual to use state facilities to create a private water market using any water, let alone groundwater. Feudal. He blames Iran. This is how Resnick became a pistachio, almond, and pomegranate grower. The oil companies and insurance companies were looking to unload their farms in Kern County, Steir learned, chunks of earth that measured 20,000 and 40,000 acres. 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. It was going to houses. One of the most dramatic alterations of the earths surface in human history took place here. The miles clock by not as road but as story. I take a last bite of cauliflower rice. John Vidovich Facebook, Instagram & Twitter on PeekYou My business approach right now is to acquire as much water as I can to be diversified in water. "I have sent my opinion to three county supervisors and our city manager. Even if they had wheels, they wouldnt be going anywhere. As the head of a quasi-public agency, he knows he cant completely blow off my questions. He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. Scott: So you set out with this question: how was he defying nature? Hundreds of giant praying mantises standing on platforms of concrete are pulling oil from a Chevron field. Just ahead I can see the last section of pipe throwing a cascade of white water into a main canal belonging to the Lost Hills Water District. I did sell water out of Kings County to an urban user and people didnt like it, Vidovich said. The uncle died at age 22 fighting in Afghanistan. john vidovich documentary. For years, agriculture has been given a wide berth when it comes to monopolistic practices. He studied the situation. "A small farmer, if he gets his whole limit, it keeps him in business, whereas for us, it's a very small fraction of our revenue," Vidovich said. John, his oldest son, had served in the military as an intelligence officer and graduated from Santa Clara law school. I find a former partner of Resnick. He paid em three times what anyone else wouldve for their land and now theyre all gettin water because of his policies, Page said. I call the manager of the Lost Hills Water District. They made a new plantation here. I grew up in the suburbs where our playgrounds were named after the pioneers of fruit and canals of irrigation shot through our neighborhoods to the farms we did not know. Past Oildale and the boxcar where Merle Haggard grew up. The vibration is a stunning piece of violence to behold. Under her rethink agriculture program, the kids will be trained in plant science and irrigation technology, marketing and sales. By age 19, Lynda had dropped out of college, married a magazine ad man, and opened her own advertising agency. The imported flow arrives by way of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project, the one-of-a-kind hydraulic system built by the feds and state to remedy Gods uneven design of California. Problem is, I feel like Im 50. Main Street is Highway 46, which slices through the middle of town. The City of Lemoore is one such agency obligated to respond. It is one more way to extend the brand. From the east side of Tulare County to the west side of Fresno County, theyre planting more nuts and Halos. Hes fishing right now. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. Twine strung trailer to trailer hangs with the laundry of fathers, mothers, and children. Who would have thought that people would be asking their bartender to fix them a Pomtini? he said. Lynda isnt just writing checks, Donoso told me. Relatives arranged his passage, paying the coyote the new rate of $12,000. In the late 1970s, he went looking for a hedge against inflation. Im driving too fast for the ruts in the road. Vidovich went on a shopping spree. How much bigger can agriculture get. Lupe excuses herself to prepare dinner. Theres a section stacked with weights and a yoga room with mats on a hardwood floor. So the way Pablo uses own isnt necessarily a pejorative. No stranger enters this zone unless its to get rid of a body or dump waste from cooking meth or drown a hot car. Resnick himself had sold 5,000 acre-feet to a proposed new town in the farm fields of Madera. Already, Wonderful has bulldozed 8,000 to 10,000 acres of pomegranate trees over the past few years to send more water to its nuts. How can another record crop be sitting pretty on these trees? Anzaldos grandfather came from Guadalajara in the 1950s as part of the bracero farmworker program. Across the field, a heavy machine is stacking whats left of the trees into giant mounds. Of all the property available in Kings County, I'm not sure why he chose that property. But western Kern has no groundwater to draw from. I try to calculate how many hundreds of aluminum sections need to be linked seamlessly, or at least watertight, to cover the distance of a mile. I get out of the car and walk down an embankment. The nut must be hurried from bin to truck to processing plant to keep it from discoloring. As he walks away, I notice his $400 sneakers. SGMA refers to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2014 that mandates water basins be in balance by 2040. The land is turning to salt. She owns this place. He goes on to explain what he means by own. The Ninth Annual Wonderful Pistachio Conference at the Visalia Convention Center is an invitation-only affair, but I managed to sneak in and grab a seat. It took time to gain the respect of the people, and I was afraid. You Have Found Lost Hills! Vidovich, in 2009, according to media reports, sold the rights to 14,000-acre-feet of state water from a Kings County water district to southern California for $73 million. They point to three new pump stations along Angiolas main canal just north of the county line that have the ability to move 100,000 acre feet a year into pipes that head south and west. High 61F. Either way is a trespass. By harvests end, the Resnicks will have put their clamps on 4.4 million almond trees. Like many billionaires, he didnt have a decent explanation for his fortune. Resnick grabs at a pomegranate that might win a blue ribbon at the fair and tries to twist it free. The dam ends up holding and the levees, too. Hes never driven a tractor or opened an irrigation valve. I walk into the supermarket El Toro Loco, and the clerk directs me to the back office, where a tobacco-chewing Yemeni named Anthony Hussein is sitting beneath a photograph of an uncle in his U.S. Army uniform. Inside, a trainer watches over a line of treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bikes. Selling the farm to migrant families has required Lynda to rebrand agriculture. I notice she keeps the water running for a long time. Thats our goal. The Spanish rice isnt rice but cauliflower made to look like rice. A restaurant built by Wonderful for the purpose of making the company town look better from the roadside may enjoy a more forgiving bottom line than, say, the Subway up the road. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. The control Resnick exercises inside his $4.5 billion privately held company does relinquish to one person: his wife, Lynda, vice chairman and co-owner, the Pomegranate Queen, as she calls herself. Id have to say that fully half of my success has been luck. He became more involved with De Anza, working with his dad, whom he describes as bigger than life.. It is flowing to a place of dire thirst. The matter was headed to court when Vidovich paid a visit to Resnick. The fog is our history. The 789 acre project . 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. Even so, Resnick says, he learned a lesson from the 2004 recall of 13 million pounds of the companys salmonella-tainted almonds: Dont fight the FDA. Six hundred and forty acres dont look like 640 acresa square mileuntil they start ripping out the trees. You sure this isnt 18 tons an acre? he says, goading. A plume of dust joins up with other plumes of dust until the sky over the valley turns sickly. Welcome to the club. When all three phases are finished, 1,800 students will be attending the high school, middle school, elementary, and preschool. Its going to be what its going to be. He started cleaning pizza parlors and drugstores. And when youve been as lucky as weve been, you start to think you can ride out drought, too., He did learn one lesson. I write an email to the Wonderful PR team. is tobay beach open to the public 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. 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. for rent by owner sacramento craigslist; coleman . The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Whos it going to? None of the sales taxes go to City Hall because Lost Hills isnt a city. The Mojave Water Agency in the high desert needed a backup supply to serve its growing communities of Barstow and Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville. The 5.3 acres are so flawless and at odds with the town that the whole thing feels like a movie set. Down a rutted road, 100 trailers with foundations dressed in plywood back up against an orchard. His father worked as a truck driver, transporting crops to the city. During the holiday season, they sent out 4,000 gift boxes to their nearest and dearest friends filled with their fruits and nuts, along with a card of the two of them dressed in skin-colored body stockings, posing as Adam and Eve. To find its flow, Id have to go looking in a thousand irrigation ditches in the fields beyond. The net return on the pistachio proves that Wonderfuls dominance in the market has benefited every grower in the room. Everyone knew where it was going. We can surely help you find the best one according to your needs. According to news reports, he owns Sandridge Partners, LP, a farmland investment firm that has accumulated more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland in recent years. He can mix this private water with his leftover state water and ship it to at least one stranded neighbor who will pay the price. So much snowmelt comes down the mountain that it nearly takes out Oroville Dam. watts towers arts center No journalist had written a word about his rise as an agricultural giant, how he had turned public water into private water by grabbing control of Californias largest water bank, a project jump-started with $74 million in taxpayer money. Read our full comments policy: losaltosonline.com/comments, $5.00 One million acres of the valley floor, greater than the size of Rhode Island, are now covered in almond trees. It was a permanent water loss for Kings County and put Vidovich under a lingering cloud of suspicion among area farmers and water managers. Then he motions to Lynda, whos standing off to the side of the light-dimmed stage. This was the same distancegeographic, psychicthat allowed him and Lynda to clear-cut the oaks and to kill the independent pistachio commission, to grab a water bank that belonged to the state and to pretend for 30 years that Lost Hills wasnt a place of dire need. And then what happens in drought is there is this desperation to keep it going. Stewart was the second of their four children, the only boy. No whistle shouts mealtime in the modern-day company town. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until smoking. Today, most everything in this desolate reach of Kern County, save for the oil wells, belongs to Paramount Farming, which belongs to the Resnicks. Documentary film. Brad Steinwede. He called it fake junk, sued, and won. He sold a chunk of land to the builders of Sunnyvale and decided he could develop the rest himself. They were hardly the first rich people to use patronage to try to wheedle a citizenry toward their idea of a better life. A husband and wife sharing the reins is rare for corporate America, rarer still for industrial agriculture. So far, Lynda has shown only patience. If this were any other part of Kern, the farmers would be reaching into the earth to make up the difference. But you take some risks in business. Each time I called, his secretary hung up the phone. John Vidovich just wants to farm, he says. I walk up and reintroduce myself. Angiola agreed not to pump more than 36,000 acre feet a year, or more than 130,000 acre feet in any consecutive five-year period. We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content. What is the phone number of Vidovich John - De Anza Properties? As a consequence, the farmland here, nearly 100,000 acres planted in permanent crops, is completely reliant on the governments supply of mountain water. Tender sprouts poke out of the dry soil, and I bend down to feel their prickle. Do they sense the shaming about to come? High 53F. And its an area that doesnt have ground water, so its there completely because of the State Water Project. "The plan is to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, then submit," he explained to The Leader via a text. That was eight or nine years ago. Plastic drip-irrigation lines stick out of the ground at wrong angles. Amy Scott: Theres a stunning aerial photo in the magazine that shows these green green trees surrounded basically by dust. When I look around here at what weve built and then look back at my life in New Jersey, I think, How did it happen? For one man and woman to build something like this would be almost impossible today.. Theyre dusty with San Joaquin dirt. Hes so involved, in fact, he even chairs the monthly meetings for Buena Vista Water Storage District where Sandridge owns thousands of acres.