He came on board full-time in 2011, give or take, he said. Of all the property available in Kings County, I'm not sure why he chose that property. Sandridge Partners received most of its subsidy for upland cotton production but also received payments for growing six other commodities. He makes $10.75 an hour. They settled in Brooklyn among Jews who had fled their own pogroms, and his grandfather went into the needle-and-embroidery trade. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. His father, Stephen Vidovich, formed De Anza Properties and helped develop the valley. In fact it should be getting smaller, more sustainable and thats what youre seeing play out on the land right now. I had not seen any. Lynda believes that if theyre enticed in the right direction, the 1,300 workers might choose to prepare the same healthy fare at home. So far, Lynda has shown only patience. The city of Los Angeles, by comparison, consumes 587,000 acre-feet. And Vidovich ended up pumping water an extraordinary amount of water out of the ground in an area where theyre pumping so much water on the ground the land is sinking. The Resnicks brought him aboard in 1999, and now he works alongside Lynda and consults daily with the company chef. Springsteen shook his head and smiled a thin, ironic smile. I dont believe we should be sending water to LA, he said. 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? First off, Hurley said, hes not Vidovichs henchman. Thousands of acres of pistachio trees now await the next flood. Ever since I was a kid, I have felt its pulla gravitational presence on the land and in my own story. Thats why he built the pipeline. The suit alleges that then-Fire Marshal John Vidovich implemented an "Operation Catch-up" program in which he used untrained and inexperienced inspectors to perform duties after media reports that the LAFD had thousands of overdue inspections. It comes out like pee, says her 11-year-old daughter. 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. The juice isnt selling like it used to. Wheres it coming from? I saw horrible things, Margarita says. One way or the other, we got rid of our last farm a few years before I was born and moved to the Fresno suburbs. for rent by owner sacramento craigslist; coleman . What do you need to know, sir?, Whats it been like here during the drought?, Drought, no drought, makes no difference. Down a rutted road, 100 trailers with foundations dressed in plywood back up against an orchard. Vidovich owns the property in question, and he is well known in Valley circles. They hide from the fact that it relies on the subjugation of peasants from Mexico they themselves have brought here. My life is about California. Whatever remains is not nearly enough to make up for the shortfall of imported water from the state. 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. And so that water was feedingResnick pistachios and almonds and keeping them alive in the worst of the drought. Mark Arax: Yeah. I enter an equipment yard where a Wonderful farmhand is standing next to a tractor. Satellite images from NASA show the area around the well fields Angiola was pulling from is the epicenter for land subsidence in eastern Tulare County from overpumping. Now, hes involved in a project that could set him up as a water marketer on an extreme scale. On Sleepy Farm Road outside Paso Robles, the Resnicks were looking to add 380 acres of wine grapes and build a small reservoir with groundwater. John Vidovich and the Discover executive team are rated an A- by 65 employees. 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. Share with Us. Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. By the time he graduated from UCLA in 1960 and entered its law school, he was bringing home $40,000 a yearthe equivalent of $320,000 today. They married in 1972, and he sold the alarm company for $100 million. Maybe this explains why the United Way could declare the valley one of the nations skinflints, a place where the wealthy farmers donated to the childrens hospital or Fresno State athletics but almost never to the communities filled with Mexicans where their crops grew. Where do you begin with a man of great riches if not the distant places you might have in common? Hes using it to irrigate his almonds and pistachios in Lost Hills. Vidovich made an offer on the land and Page took it. Because it is a community of all Hispanics.. Theres not much left over, he says. Of the 22,000 acres they ripped during the drought, 18,000 acres are being replanted in pistachios. So much snowmelt comes down the mountain that it nearly takes out Oroville Dam. 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. With water from the delta becoming more unreliable, he said, farmers have to hoard land for the groundwater. Their houses made from railroad boxcars have been painted purple, blue, yellow, and gold. Our relatives have been patient. He worries because there isnt enough water now to properly irrigate the almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates. If youre messing with peoples lives and it doesnt work, thats serious. It had to work. Tens of millions of dollars spent on philanthropy in Lost Hills wasnt just good for the people, she discovered. Why not we start with an extended interview or two? I offered. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. Kings and Tulare farmers and water managers want to know. John L Vidovich, 65. We saved the best for last, he says. I stick to the left lane and try to stay ahead of the pack. Stewart and Lynda created a new brand, the Halo, from the same variety of mandarin. Maybe not since the wheat barons has the income disparity between farmer and farmworker been greater. While he was just starting out, he also enlisted in the Navy and served in the reserves for six or eight years, he cant recall the exact term. Hes smiling but speaks only Spanish. I thwack both lines. When he was told there were fields upon fields, he did not believe there could be this many fields. But the appellate court still found Vidovich liable and he could still have to pay out a major amount. She divorced her husband in 1968 and began dating Anthony Russo, who worked at the RAND think tank in Santa Monica with military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. Billionaire comes to the rescue of billionaire., But those two guys hate each other., Not anymore. From the vaulted ceilings with gold-leaf moldings hung two blown-glass chandeliers. Yes, locals have a bad taste in their mouths from Vidovichs water moves, I was told by several people, many of whom said they were too afraid of retaliation to use their names. For years, agriculture has been given a wide berth when it comes to monopolistic practices. When he materializes onstage, he is wearing narrow black jeans, a black mock turtleneck, and a dark jacket. The court settlement allows him to take the water to Dudley Ridge, but it cant go outside Kings County. 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. Amy Scott: Theres a stunning aerial photo in the magazine that shows these green green trees surrounded basically by dust. One cousin arrived only last week. Lets call it what it is, he says. Yet he doesn't think the farm bill in its present form is going to achieve its protectionist goals. This last-ditch water in Lost Hills wont make everything right. His second son is a psychiatrist. The Sotos made a name for themselves in Lost Hills by taking their taco trucks into the agricultural fields. Water that he will take, critics fear, and eventually sell to Southern California cities. Thank you for reading! Its vastness makes you feel safe and in jeopardy at the same time. 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. Promotional Rates were found for your code. He and Lynda wanted to run their own ads for their own brand. While fans often love to make their own posters inspired by the franchise, the new artwork is taking various facets of the franchise and highlighting it from the artist's . Unlike many other billionaires, they could poke fun at themselves. Being Wonderful means more than growing, harvesting, and distributing the best of the best. It took time for the wax to dry. Low 42F. These books indicate who obtained the land, and include a physical description of the tract and where the land is located. Mitchell agreed, giving Vidovich credit for seeing where groundwater laws were headed before anyone else. Resides in Beaver, PA. In the kitchen corner, cases of bottled water are stacked halfway up the wall. But she cannot remember the last time she or Manuel or their children drank it. If only Eve had offered Adam a pomegranate instead of an apple, Lynda wrote, every day could have been a holiday.. The partner kept the Cutie name but only after paying the Resnicks tens of millions of dollars. One million acres of the valley floor, greater than the size of Rhode Island, are now covered in almond trees. Ive never given an interview to a newspaper or magazine before. Theyre now building an $80 million charter-school complex in Delano, just down the road from Cesar Chavez High. This is Lynda.. All the new water pours into the delta, and what doesnt go out to sea fills up the aqueduct again. He leveled its hog wallows, denuded its salt brush, and killed the last of its mustang, antelope, and tule elk. Giant pincers manned by a single worker grab the tree by the throat and start shaking. Just get started became one of his guiding principles. She didnt understand his drive. The GSAs are supposed to set pumping limits to stop overdraft. When its Pablos turn, he hands Hussein a check for $437, and Hussein counts out $433 back to him in cash. He uses more water than any other person in the West. On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The borough measured no more than 2 square miles. Inside sits a young man named Pablo. How much was plunder? Besides, Pace and others say, overreaching is another Vidovich hallmark. So were seeing a shift now and then to have nature imposing its will on the situation. 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. A cross of Jesus hangs from the bedpost. Its not the fidget of boredom. The sale got under the skin of valley farmers. On the way out of the market, Pablo buys a case of Pacifico. Thats when the Resnicks decided to sell the concept of wellness to their 4,300 employees throughout the valley the same way they sell workplace safety. His law license is inactive, according to the California State Bar Association website. 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. Plastic drip-irrigation lines stick out of the ground at wrong angles. What happens to Wonderful? He was about my size, but he was very tough. I didnt know good land from bad land. Absolutely not. They rely only on rain, which concentrates the flavorful oils. Thats how he came upon the San Joaquin. Read our full comments policy: losaltosonline.com/comments, $5.00 He and Lynda decided in 1984 to buy the Franklin Mint, the maker of commemorative coins and other kitsch, for $167.5 million. The plastic unfurls across the grove like a giant roll of Saran Wrap. When I got out of law school, I probably had 100 people I was employing.. Vidovich went on a shopping spree. I find a former partner of Resnick. 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. "In talking to the planning department, I found out that the initial step is to notify essential agencies in the area for comments. What kind of empire are you trying to build?, Im here to show the farmer that ags footprint needs to get smaller., I chew on his answer for a second. The tumbleweeds on open ground give you a peek into what Lost Hills looked like before the aqueduct made a river here. 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. I dont know how Hershey did Hershey, Pennsylvania, but Lynda is present in every painted sunburst, every planted flower, every blade of grass. Bernards eyes are fixed straight ahead. One more bin, a post reads. Ive told them all no. Coke, Gatorade, and Monster Energy are sky-high in sweeteners, but dont be fooled by that SunnyD, either. He was going to Vegas, hanging out with his own Damon Runyon characters, and making plans to get even bigger. The shelves spill piatas, gloves, hats, pruning shears, and loaves of Bimbo white bread. Thats a billion-dollar crop. Fifty-three percent of our employees are obese, and 12 percent of them have diabetes., The growers start to fidget. It must have wounded all the more because she and Stewart thought of themselves as progressive Democrats. 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. My husband would have been shot dead like the others, but he was lucky. The pizza dough is cauliflower, too. I was 16, and his packing house was my first job, a baptism into the money, money, money world of the men who grew fruit and the men who sold it. 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. Phone Number: (724) 495-**** John T Vidovich, age 84 View Full Report Address:***** Butternut Ridge Rd, Elyria, OH. I cash them the same. Thousands of California oaks were felled. The curriculum is being created by Noemi Donoso, the chief of education for the Chicago public schools before Lynda recruited her to Wonderful. There is also an existing subdivision just southeast of the college near Highway 198 (Cimmaron Park). The fight between the Tulare Lake Canal Company, controlled by the J.G. John, his oldest son, had served in the military as an intelligence officer and graduated from Santa Clara law school. She washes two kinds of lettuce and cuts up fresh papaya to mix into a salad. John Vidovich. There are a lot more rural areas that would be able to support that operation.". When Lynda learned that half the students receiving thousands of dollars in company scholarships were dropping out of school, she wasnt deterred. Theyve (Vidovich and Hurley) been way out front on SGMA, Mitchell said. When you first meet John Vidovich, everything from his ball cap to his dirty boots tells you hes a farmer. If they pass a law saying I cant sell it, then I cant sell it. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. By harvests end, the Resnicks will have put their clamps on 4.4 million almond trees. We cant insist on wellness the way we can insist on plant safety. By car and foot, I trace the silver pipeline as it creeps north through Wonderful pomegranate orchards. Pablo prunes and irrigates the almond and pistachio trees and applies the chemicals that cannot be applied by helicopter. But thats not an issue I deal with., I dont even know what it was, to be honest with you.. Tender sprouts poke out of the dry soil, and I bend down to feel their prickle. It specifically set aside $2.7 billion for water storage projects. Youre the one who needs to see., We pull out of the parking lot, past the palm trees and roses, and head up the thin ribbon of Highway 33 into the dust-swirling tunnel of nuts and fruits. The farmers there are raising almost 1 million acres of crops, and fewer than half these acres are irrigated with flows from the Kern. But this outwardly unassuming multimillionaire has become a lightning rod of controversy. 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. Tell me, he asked, though it wasnt entirely a question. 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. 3,907 tract books containing official records of the land status and transactions involving surveyed public lands arranged by state and then by township and range. Olson did not indicate what the response might say. He became more involved with De Anza, working with his dad, whom he describes as bigger than life.. Theres a lot of people who dont like me, he said after his fathers death. The knoll begins to rise. John Vidovich just wants to farm, he says. 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. Now theres something here. The giant J.G. He tells me to meet him in Lost Hills. The way the Bobcat goes full steam, it takes but a few seconds of splendid violence to uproot a tree. So the way Pablo uses own isnt necessarily a pejorative. "There are a lot of unintended consequences in agricultural policies, (but) the intent is to maintain a viable and healthy agricultural base," he said. But you ask the growers we process, and theyll tell you that year in and year out, no one offers a better price. Then there was the nail in the coffin for folks like Pace and Mitchell when Vidovich appeared in a National Geographic film called Water and Power: A California Heist, which ran in mid-March and again on June 25. Typically, each pound sells wholesale for $4.25. This amounted to 14,000 acre-feet. Well still make money.. This is how Resnick became a pistachio, almond, and pomegranate grower. 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.