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This means he can avoid the thievery of a labor contractor who acts as a middleman between the farmer and the farmworker and charges for rides and drinks and doesnt always pay minimum wage. He found it. They donated $15 million to found UCLAs Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital and more than $25 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to build a pavilion in their name. Vidovich has been buying land in the Central Valley for more than 20 years. Because of a lack of water? I ask. FAMILY OFFICE MARKETPLACE. And whats the end game of moving that water? The Kings is bone-dry as usual. Along a fan of the Kings River, a raisin farmer in Selma shows me his well thats coughing up sand. This is one of the ways the Nut King and the Pomegranate Queen are defying the California drought. It should be right here, but I dont see it. They are still paying off the $27,000 debt to relatives who hired the coyote. How much water are we talking about?, Id rather not get too specific. Marketplace is a division of MPR's 501 (c)(3). I hop out of the car. No one pushes their product harder. It was this persistence and, above all, good timing that explained his bigness. A plume of dust joins up with other plumes of dust until the sky over the valley turns sickly. John, his oldest son, had served in the military as an intelligence officer and graduated from Santa Clara law school. Now Lynda herself stands before us, a single light over her head. A meat store, an auto repair, a pool hall, and an arcade pass for a commercial strip. Yes, the pipeline belongs to Resnick. Read our full comments policy: losaltosonline.com/comments, $5.00 Most everything that can be touched in this corner of California belongs to Wonderful. Young men and women from Teach for America will do their two-year stints at the complex and live in village housing. His father worked as a truck driver, transporting crops to the city. If anyone doubted the health benefits of the juice, they spent more than $30 million in research to prove that it fought heart disease and prostate woes. 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. Lynda isnt just writing checks, Donoso told me. If you have any trouble accessing your account or linking your subscription, our. These are trees and vines raised in nurseries and put into the ground at a cost of $10,000 an acre to satisfy the worlds growing appetite for nuts and fruits. I take out my cellphone and swipe across Google Maps. "We have one of the premier colleges in the country, and they want to put a slaughterhouse right next to it? He yanks and pulls, and it finally comes off, throwing him a foot backward. Vidovich has more than one reason to be evasive. On a Facebook page with postings in Spanish, they offer a glimpse of life inside pistachio world. They give thanks for a job that provides decent wages and access to a free wellness center next door staffed by a full-time doctor, physicians assistant, registered dietitian, and marriage and family therapist. It would involve a public permitting process and be very difficult, not to mention expensive, both men said. He doesnt know what pipeline means. The highway runs two lanes here, three lanes there, through miles of agriculture broken every 20 minutes by fast food, gas station, and cheap motel. Not long before, Vidovich was trying to grab water from Resnick, not give it. Stewart would deny that Giblers reporting played a part in their philanthropy. The piece, I was told, had left Lynda embarrassed and fuming. I know I cant do this forever, he says. Vidovich is the owner of Sandridge Partners, LP - a farmland investment firm that has undertaken more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland. They both knew what they wanted. Or at least this is what I can glean through the car window. I stand over the pipes and give them a hard slap. Who would have thought that people would be asking their bartender to fix them a Pomtini? he said. Look it, Im from Beverly Hills. This hasnt convinced the people of Lost Hills, however. But he did pass and was admitted to the bar in 1980 at the age of 24. Even if I were to move water and sell it, it would be to farming operations.. The farmers responded that the path of a bee wasnt something they could supervise, and they threatened to sue him back. Research is showing that grapeseed oil is healthier than corn oil and canola oil and may be better for you than olive oil, he tells me. Central Californias family raisin farms are drying up, Commercial bees, the unsung heroes of the nut business, Drought has California farms destroying crops, rather than pay for water, A California farm battles drought: Were out here trying to survive, Farm country frets over impact of John Deere strike, Inside the trial of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes, Californias drought takes a toll on the states clothing manufacturers, Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. We send money home each month to our families left behind, Lupe says. The truth, as always, probably lies somewhere in between. Hes headed to the Wonderful plant, 13 miles north of Lost Hills, to drop off his load. Hit enter to search or ESC to close. Here, private water jumps from Tulare County to Kern County, but government jurisdictions dont count. And the Resnicks run the place, thats where this story gets conflicted and very complicated because in the last five to eight years they have committed millions and millions of dollars to making this place better educating the children, helping the workers deal with obesity and things like that. He wonders what agriculture will look like in western Kern in ten years. Were still trying to figure out who our typical customer is going to be, Angelica says. He guides me back into the main store with its displays of fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cold cuts, and baked goods. I catch Highway 99 in rare somnolence. 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. The sellers include farmers in the Tulare Lake basin who are pumping so much water out of the ground that the levees protecting the town of Corcoran are sinking, not by inches but by feet. At the time, I was heavy with state water but the state water had low allocations and I had no other water source over there (Dudley Ridge land in western Kings County).. Scott: So we should talk about the labor that makes this all possible. He ran, unsuccessfully for city council in his hometown of Los Altos Hills in 2006. Its his pipe, not mine. Nothing will stop the houses. He got into UCLA and joined a Jewish fraternity. Angiola was rehabbing old wells, drilling new ones and installed a large pipeline. We changed the culture of safety, and we think we can do the same with health, Anzaldo says. All Rights Reserved. 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. Wow. Lets meet again in two weeks, he said. John Vidovich. 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. Number one, the settlement agreement between Angiola and Lower Tule/Pixley irrigation districts wont allow Angiola or Sandridge to move the water out of Kings County. Four tribes of Yokut lived along its shores. Since international sanctions were lifted five years earlier, Iran has been crowding the market with its more buttery-tasting pistachios. They knew little about the company except it was selling its keepsakes for five times the amount Teleflora was. The farmer isnt here to smell the cracking open of wood, the ripping open of warm secret earth. 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. Russo and Ellsberg needed a place to photocopy the 7,000 pages, and Lynda volunteered the Xerox machine at her ad agency on Melrose Avenue. In the Wonderful fields, he tells me, at least 80 percent of the workers carry no documents or documents that are not real. The hospital, senior citizens center, and football stadium all bore the signature of his giving. But why is insulin so expensive in the first place? At the time we were handing out college scholarships in the valley, but Lynda decided it wasnt nearly enough. A year and a half after hearing Sandeland in the wake of Giblers storyLynda kicked into high gear their mission to save Lost Hills and several other farmworker towns where Wonderful operated its orchards and processing plants. Subscribers support the Los Altos Town Crier please log in or subscribe to continue reading. Boswell farming company pumps there too. Theres a section stacked with weights and a yoga room with mats on a hardwood floor. Its vastness makes you feel safe and in jeopardy at the same time. But farmers Jack Mitchell and Milt Pace are upfront about their distaste for Vidovich and especially Hurley. My head keeps hitting the sunroof. Laton Lions Club shows off at popular annual rodeo and parade held April 1-3, City officials say developer says he will not pursue a controversial 12,600-cow feedlot outside city's boundaries, City of Lemoore officials cite serious concerns about proposed cattle feedlot, Lemoore Council likely to respond to proposed feedlot near Lemoore and college, Photo Gallery: NAS Lemoore aviators conduct change of command while in the air, Naval Air Station Lemoore to get new Carrier Air Wing commander in December. Theres a lot happening in the world. 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. More than one ballad was about the valley, so he came to Fresno. Resnick also has lands just south of the Kings/Kern county line in Lost Hills and many of Vidovichs detractors believe thats where a lot of that Angiola groundwater is going. John Vidovich Retired Financial Services Executive Greater Roanoke Area 2K followers 500+ connections Join to view profile Tri-County Lakes Adminitrative Commission Alfred University About. Since it is also true that Lost Hills has belonged to the Resnicks for 30 years, one of us might have blurted out, What took you so long to find it? As the film runs to credits, I can see that one credit is missing. EDMUND JOHN VIDOVICH Lake Havasu City, Arizona Trinitas Partners LLC Investment Management Redwood City, California CENTRAL CALIFORNIA ALMOND GROWERS ASSN. It sure looks heavier than last year., Bernard smiles and nods to the others. As for making a major water grab in the Central Valley, Page said Vidovich has nothing on the Wonderful or JG Boswell companies, both of which have far larger land holdings than Vidovich. 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. One of the neighbors watched in disgust as the bulldozers tore into the hillside. The math works out to $162 a tree. I take a last bite of cauliflower rice. Contact howardb@latc.com or call him at (650) 397-5213 with any questions or to learn more. Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. Each tree produces 22 pounds of nuts. There was a majordomo of the house, a butler, a chef, a sous-chef, three housekeepers, a limo driver, and a trio of assistants who worked in the basement, juggling Lyndas calendar and the buying, wrapping, and shipping of gifts she handed out to her Rolodex of highfalutin people. Stewart had made it clear that Lynda would not be joining us. How can another record crop be sitting pretty on these trees? She is twinkling from earlobe and finger.