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John Vidovich just wants to farm, he says. Marketplace is a division of MPR's 501 (c)(3). There before me, two aluminum pipes, side by side, 12 inches in diameter each, slither in the sun. 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. When a farmers orchards encompass 186 square miles, finding the field man can be a challenge. Here, private water jumps from Tulare County to Kern County, but government jurisdictions dont count. I applaud, too. Maybe not since the wheat barons has the income disparity between farmer and farmworker been greater. On the whiteboard in front of the weights, the big boys list their totals. Longtime friend and associate Ted Page defended Vidovichs operations. Theyre our future, she says. I feel too good to give any of it up.. Ive gone too far. Her husband, Manuel, will awaken in 30 minutes to prepare for his night shift. The film ends with the laughter of kids playing inside the giant sunburst at the center of the soccer field. Your account number is your one-line street address as printed on your newspaper use normal capitalization. Lets meet again in two weeks, he said. Some of them have paid $12,000 to buy their trailers and spent thousands more to fix them up. Marketplace host Amy Scott spoke with Mark Arax, who wrote an articlein The California Sunday Magazine about the Wonderful Companys farming business and issues of sustainability in the Central Valley. The nut must be hurried from bin to truck to processing plant to keep it from discoloring. You know so I could say, Well, I didnt pass because I was so busy with this project.. But out in the Buena Vista Water Storage District where Vidovich chairs the board, his original detractors all love him, Page said. 650) 397-5213 with any questions or to learn more. And its an area that doesnt have ground water, so its there completely because of the State Water Project. They were actually harvesting record crops. Stephen Vidovich retired but kept a watchful eye on the company, getting daily reports and giving advice, John Vidovich told the San Jose Mercury News after his fathers death. The making of a billionaire over the next half-century was a series of dots that connected in the California sunshine. I sort of remember growing up on a farm, he said. Hes carrying 55,000 pounds of crop in two swaggering trailers open to the sun. So, capturing that south fork floodwater would benefit both Kings and Kern county farmers, according to Semitropics Gianquinto. His father had lost it in a bet. The Spanish rice isnt rice but cauliflower made to look like rice. However, Vidovich has been somewhat of a welcome presence to some in Kings County. I call the manager of the Lost Hills Water District. California showed me why.. But why is insulin so expensive in the first place? One year, it delivers 900,000 acre-feet of snowmelt. Now its the Bobcats turn. Taxpayers support the continued production of such commodities, at least in theory, through direct payments to farmers amounting to $5 billion last year under the direction of the farm bill. Its loaded, Bernard says. Fallowing the farm until the footprint gets smaller and smaller. One mile, two miles, three miles, fourit keeps going until it reaches another county and back to one of the main canals in the Dudley Ridge Water District. Inside sits a young man named Pablo. He guides me back into the main store with its displays of fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cold cuts, and baked goods. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. San Antonio south doesnt exist anymore. He is a small, good-looking man with a patch of black hair under his lip. As a consequence, the farmland here, nearly 100,000 acres planted in permanent crops, is completely reliant on the governments supply of mountain water. Boswell Company, and Sandridge Partners, controlled by John Vidovich, will be back in court on March 23 when Judge Valerie Chrissakis will decide whether the Sandridge pipeline is subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act If so, it would mean the 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. Each face wears its own weary. By locking up the land, he said, Vidovich will be able to deny smaller farmers like him and Pace the water they need for their own operations. Developer, farmer and water trader John Vidovich plans to build a beef feedlot and processing plant near Lemoore according to a preliminary application filed with the county. He went out and bought an alarm company. If you have any trouble accessing your account or linking your subscription, our. In fact, Vidovich frequently moves water by pipeline, Pace said, pointing to a massive line Vidovich installed that appears to take Angiola groundwater through his Dudley Ridge lands. Then some of the money we save goes to pay the coyote. After Vidovich sold his Dudley Ridge state water, Pace said he drilled several wells in Green Valley, built a pipeline across I-5 and took the valleys groundwater to keep his Dudley Ridge trees alive. More recently, he filed a voter initiative in 2016 to allow a 48-foot-tall hotel after the Cupertino City Council shot down a De Anza proposal for building a 105-foot-tall hotel in the western Santa Clara Valley town. accounts and the history behind a news event. They spend $50 a month on bottled water. A balancing of books in an office in the city has decided that this orchard and others around it, covered by too little water, can go. Eli Lilly announced a cap on insulin costs. Of course, I know everyone in the world, she told one reporter. Agriculture in the south valley has extended far beyond the provisions of its one river, the Kern. I understand the fear, but its not based on reason.. I park the car and walk in the direction of a scattering of buildings slapped together with stucco and corrugated tin. Wages that used to go to workers stay in the pocket of the nut growers. Proposition 1 is a $7 billion bond passed in 2014 that would pay for a host of projects from flood control to water quality. For college, he picked California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo over the hill and majored in agriculture business. The Resnicks are growing again. I roll past Tulare, where every February they hold the biggest tractor show in the world, even bigger than the one in Paris. Either way is a trespass. The partner kept the Cutie name but only after paying the Resnicks tens of millions of dollars. Young men and women from Teach for America will do their two-year stints at the complex and live in village housing. At the buildings he was cleaning, he noticed that no one was watching the front and back doors. I want to know that what we built will continue into the future.. Stephen Vidovich died in 2007, at the age of 81, driving a tractor near one of his remaining vineyards. They were selling 2,500 acres of oranges and lemons and a packing house for a third of their appraised value, Resnick said. His father bought a neighborhood bar and ran it with the same iron fist with which he ran the house. The neighborhoods didnt have sidewalks; when it rained, the kids had to walk to school in the mud. How much water are we talking about?, Id rather not get too specific. He had left for the cornfields a few minutes before the killings.. She wasnt content to pursue the usual list of wealthy businessmen as clients. He got into UCLA and joined a Jewish fraternity. For as far as I can see, the water in the canal runs inky through the orchards. "In talking to the planning department, I found out that the initial step is to notify essential agencies in the area for comments. Vidovich isnt the only pumper in that area, his supporters note. By harvests end, the Resnicks will have put their clamps on 4.4 million almond trees. Each square-mile section is divided into blocks, and each block counts a precise number of rows. Vidovich wrote out a check for the full amount, then went looking for the water to prop up Resnicks monopoly. Vidovich continues to run De Anza and in a surprisingly hands-on manner. Well still make money.. The Boswell comments are in a letter sent from the El Rico GSA, while Vidovich's concerns are outlined in a letter from the Southwest Kings GSA.. So off the developers went in search of farm water. The new plantings arent cotton, alfalfa, or carrotsthe crops a farmer can decide not to seed when water becomes scarce. Exactly what groundwater would be moved? So in that time, we started cleaning windows, too. They named the business Clean Time Building Maintenance. I'm going to let the regulatory agencies go through their process and go from there. Billionaire comes to the rescue of billionaire., But those two guys hate each other., Not anymore. Stewart and Lynda created a new brand, the Halo, from the same variety of mandarin. Hes headed to the Wonderful plant, 13 miles north of Lost Hills, to drop off his load. John Vidovich just wants to farm, he says. Dont let his boots, blue jeans, and ball cap fool you, the old-timers say. Digging in was its own wisdom, he discovered. And how will the Resnicks fare? Its an economy of scale on a scale no ones ever tried here. Mr. Vidovich was a descendant of one of the pioneer farm families that settled here from Croatia . Arax: That is the question that you know Im dealing with in this magazine piece. This is the Lynda who now endeavors to see farmhands as something more than workers. The front gates of the 25,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion on Sunset Boulevard magically opened without a guard giving a nod. The baseballs will be crushed into juice. She tells me the water comes out of the tap yellow and foul smelling, and she doesnt trust it. He did little, if any, catting around. Hes fishing right now. In the city of trees, I find a paved road with speed bumps that takes me to the harvest of pistachios. Its happening. The bosses wont speak of it, he says. When I started to realize the socioeconomic issues of the Central Valley, I decided to stop writing checks to other charities and bring my business acumen into the project. She is small with lively brown eyes and a sweet but confident voice. Whos it going to? If their fears come true, the Los Angeles water grab in Owens Valley would pale in comparison. He and Lynda wanted to run their own ads for their own brand. John Vidovich serves as the Vice President, Business Development of Discover. No farmer ever is. He was about my size, but he was very tough. TV Shows. Main Street is Highway 46, which slices through the middle of town. He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. Look it, Im from Beverly Hills. Before we go much further, you should probably know a little more about Vidovich. I come upon a Wonderful field man in a four-by-four truck who listens to my bewilderment and takes pity. His ego had gotten the best of him, he conceded. Somehow, it made its way to Lynda. Just get started became one of his guiding principles. He launches into a CFOs riff on the pistachio market. I notice she keeps the water running for a long time. I ask him how the drought has affected Wonderful. The fight between the Tulare Lake Canal Company, controlled by the J.G. A public resource had been privatized for the purpose of growing tens of thousands of acres of nuts, he charged. "This is the first step of a long journey. I do all the calculations from the numbers I am able to gather, and I cannot figure out how these nuts are getting enough water. Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code. If he had his druthers, he said, hed still be living in a little ranch house in Culver City. Its the summer of 2016, eight weeks before the big pick, and Im zigzagging across the almonds and pistachios, square mile after square mile of immaculate orchards lined with micro-irrigation systems and heavy with nuts. Hes getting ready to introduce Lynda, the main speaker, but first he wants to address the federal governments recent recall of Wonderful pistachios. But Paramount isnt Paramount anymore. Subscribers keep our independent community news in business. Preview. Its happened before, he said, up in Green Valley, which is west of Interstate 5 and a few miles north of the Kern County line. John Vidovich, ultimately, followed in his fathers footsteps after obtaining a law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. Because its so much fun to say that Lost Hills has been found., The room full of growers applauds. His many land purchases and involvement on water boards are all about farming, not selling water to L.A. Theres a mythology out there that Angiola is stealing water, he said. Nowhere to turn, I turn back around and roll down my window. "There's the argument that to get rid of (farm subsidies) entirely might eliminate the small, inefficient farmers.". Im in another land, an expanse of hard, ugly, cratered-out earth the color of sand. When you first meet John Vidovich, everything from his ball cap to his dirty boots tells you, Positive Cases Among Kern Residents: 310,095, Recovered and Presumed Recovered Residents: 305,002, Percentage of all cases that are unvaccinated:71, Percentage of all hospitalizations that are unvaccinated:83.13, Source: Kern County Public Health Services Department. SpanishStyle Oxtail Stew Recipe. That still leaves the majority of the workforce beyond his cajole. John, his oldest son, had served in the military as an intelligence officer and graduated from Santa Clara law school. State water dwindling year after year. And one of the things he was doing was sort of an off-the-books irrigation deal? I hop out of the car. This is a big crop, the field man tells me. He makes $10.50 an hour, and the company provides him with a 401(k) plan and medical insurance. He makes $10.75 an hour. I did sell water out of Kings County to an urban user and people didnt like it, Vidovich said. Lessons? he says, sounding perplexed. Once his parents decided to go, he decided to go, too. But this is water for Mr. Resnick. Vidovich made an offer on the land and Page took it. They do that because they love it., A POM craze followed. The pistachio trees in Wonderful number 6 million. Our relatives have been patient. He worries because there isnt enough water now to properly irrigate the almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates. He was short, bull-like, and didnt take crap from anyone. A few weeks later, I found myself riding up the elevator of a high-rise on the Westside of Los Angeles. The water sent to Kern County1.4 million acre-feet a yearhas doubled the cropland. He is a single man who rents a bedroom from other family members for $150 a month. Too many almonds. If you study his moves, you can see a method to the acres he is accumulating. As you know, our philosophy at Wonderful is doing well by doing good. Vidovich says he uses that Angiola groundwater to farm in Dudley Ridge, so the groundwater isnt leaving its home basin. Bernards eyes are fixed straight ahead. Subscribers support the Los Altos Town Crier please log in or subscribe to continue reading. Thats why he built the pipeline. I didnt see our creation, much less the figures bent under the canopies of vine that our creation counted on. By then, Wonderful, if it still exists, will be a portfolio run by men even farther away than Beverly Hills. But I had some good people helping me.. Thirty-five percent of our pre-diabetic population has gone into the healthy range, she tells the team. They greet me with smiles and handshakes. From now on, theyll grow on land that offers a double protection against drought. It was the early spring of 2008, and this time his secretary didnt hang up on me. 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. What if he dropped his lawsuit and the two of them worked together to solve their water problems? But the appellate court still found Vidovich liable and he could still have to pay out a major amount. SGMA refers to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2014 that mandates water basins be in balance by 2040. This road ends abruptly at the rise of a second fence. April 17, 2020. But most of this water has been spent by the Resnicks and other account holders in years two, three, and four of the drought. Documentary film. They are suing Angiola for what they say was Hurleys illegal takeover of the tiny Atwell Island Water District. Unlike many other billionaires, they could poke fun at themselves. This year's farm bill, the most recent incarnation of agricultural policy dating back to the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, is a controversial $300 billion package that combines poverty-relieving nutrition programs with big payoffs to agribusinesses. Im going to Kern County, just shy of the mountains, to figure out how the biggest farmers in America, led by the biggest of them all, are not only keeping alive their orchards and vineyards during drought but adding more almonds (79,000 acres), more pistachios (73,000 acres), more grapes (35,000 acres), and more mandarins (13,000 acres). We produced a short documentary film. Under his leadership, Buena Vista has installed a pipeline system to reduce reliance on canals, which lose a lot of water to seepage and the district has become extremely active in buying up land for water banking. All the rest of that stuff its just jealousy and innuendo, jealousy and innuendo, jealousy and innuendo.. One million acres of the valley floor, greater than the size of Rhode Island, are now covered in almond trees. I meet up with the Wonderful field man who first tipped me off to the pipeline. If he sticks even a toe onto her turf, says a former business partner, she gives him a look that sends him right back.. He was the bad guy in agriculture for no bigger offense than that he was big. It can be squeezed only so much. When asked if he applies the skills he learned in his military intelligence training to his life today, he answers that we all use the things we learn through life. Wheres it coming from? Once, he came home from school and discovered the family car gone. Mobil and Texaco and Prudential Life were willing to practically give the ground and trees away. As he drives off, he throws a clue out the window. "There is a national will to be self-sufficient in agriculture. Boswell had tried to tear apart a copy of The King of California when his secretary asked if he might autograph it. Thank you for reading! He is irrigating 121,000 of those acres. On Oscar night, she handed out free samples to the stars at the Vanity Fair party. Ultimately,youre going to dry up that aquifer under the earth, and thats whats happening now. Resnick grabs at a pomegranate that might win a blue ribbon at the fair and tries to twist it free. He wouldnt know one of his Valencia orange groves from one of his Washington navel orange groves. Talk to me, Hussein says, draining a can of Rockstar. Theyre baby tumbleweeds that have come home. We want good groundwater, too., You mean no more pipelines carrying water in the dead of night?, The pipeline. He stammers a bit. The colors turn brilliant in the light made spectacular by the particles of dust. Hes a 61-year-old developer who grew up on a farm in Sunnyvale in the heart of what would become the Silicon Valley. If this were any other part of Kern, the farmers would be reaching into the earth to make up the difference. Nearly $365 million worth of Wonderful almonds will have dropped down from the dry sky. Somehow, 30 or 40 nuts arent compelled to drop. Vidovich has been buying land in the Central Valley for more than 20 years. Down the great aqueduct, by freight of politics and gravity, came the excess waters of the Sacramento River. I grab my notebook and walk up to one of the vans. Or at least this is what I can glean through the car window. At one point, he was moving nearly 30,000 acre feet a year, according to Angiolas records. I feel his gaze going past me, his voice turning oddly sentimental. Since international sanctions were lifted five years earlier, Iran has been crowding the market with its more buttery-tasting pistachios. The graders, sorters, and beeping forklift drivers head to an immaculate caf, where the Wonderful Saladroasted chicken, mixed greens, cilantro, pistachios, and slices of mandarin in a blue cheese vinaigrettesells for $3. No way, according to Vidovich and his longtime associates. It was kind of a crutch in case I flunked, he said. "I have sent my opinion to three county supervisors and our city manager. "At a time of high food prices and record farm income, this bill lacks program reform and fiscal discipline," Bush said in a statement May 21. He holds a little more than 100,000 acres in Kings County, 40,000 acres in Kern, and 10,000 acres in Tulare County. Its just smart business. "We have one of the premier colleges in the country, and they want to put a slaughterhouse right next to it? Yet he doesn't think the farm bill in its present form is going to achieve its protectionist goals. To change the microbial life in our digestive tracts and reduce inflammation that leads to disease, we have to reintroduce fermented foods into our diet. Like many billionaires, he didnt have a decent explanation for his fortune. We'd love to hear eyewitness Do you know what I am? The land is turning to salt. If only Eve had offered Adam a pomegranate instead of an apple, Lynda wrote, every day could have been a holiday.. Number three, water from Angiola cant physically get to Semitropics proposed storage cells. I ask her if she is concerned about wasting water, given the drought and the distance the water has traveled20 miles from a well in Wascoand that the cost goes up the more they use. The junk scattered about could be a lot worse. The family takes showers in it, and she washes their laundry in it, and if she runs the water long enough, she will use it to wash her vegetables and cook her rice and potatoes. He did his internship at Alkaloid - the la. He was in the mood to gamble. Absolutely not. I enter an equipment yard where a Wonderful farmhand is standing next to a tractor. My business approach right now is to acquire as much water as I can to be diversified in water. Together, the Resnicks have wedded the valleys hidebound farming culture with L.A.s celebrity culture. We are sensitive to that. The city of Los Angeles, by comparison, consumes 587,000 acre-feet. This project may not be fully thought out," said Neves. A pair of those eyebrows belonged to former farmer and three-term Kings County Supervisor Tony Oliveira, who served from 1999 through 2010 and didn't find out about the upcoming project until Jan. 11. Page had been a longtime board member of the Semitropic Water District and Vidovich wanted that kind of expertise. 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 listening with their heads bent down. The vibration is a stunning piece of violence to behold. A woman named Lupe is standing above me on the wooden stairway that climbs to the front door of her trailer. When its Pablos turn, he hands Hussein a check for $437, and Hussein counts out $433 back to him in cash. Brown oxtail in batches and set aside. Already mechanization is changing, you know, the labor situation. Then I get lucky. I cash them the same. These are loaded, Resnick says. He worked as a gardener in Los Angeles and then heard about the almond trees on the other side of the mountain where the living was so much cheaper. He emptied the sky of tens of millions of geese and drained the 800 square miles of Tulare Lake dry.