john vidovich documentary

A giant pistachio nut flashes on the big screen. 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. Theyve (Vidovich and Hurley) been way out front on SGMA, Mitchell said. 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. Yet the Resnick pipeline is doing just that. It takes a life every six seconds. He gambled on the price of nuts going up, and he gambled on the water never going dry. If I follow them north through Resnick pomegranates, I can find out where the water is coming from. It takes a lot of work to get ahead. She and Manuel were able to buy their trailer several years ago. In the kitchen corner, cases of bottled water are stacked halfway up the wall. Look, these farmers go back two, three, and four generations. Lynda believes that if theyre enticed in the right direction, the 1,300 workers might choose to prepare the same healthy fare at home. By age 19, Lynda had dropped out of college, married a magazine ad man, and opened her own advertising agency. Its artificiality had achieved a permanence; its permanence had created my California. 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. A road will pick up and connect me to where the tube is going. Were still trying to figure out who our typical customer is going to be, Angelica says. Hes fishing right now. Today, most everything in this desolate reach of Kern County, save for the oil wells, belongs to Paramount Farming, which belongs to the Resnicks. So were seeing a shift now and then to have nature imposing its will on the situation. Promotional Rates were found for your code. His company has donated items to Stratford Elementary School and recently helped Kings County Sheriff Dave Robinson create a pheasant-raising and release program for jail inmates to earn credit. This water basically came from a land owned by someone who's also a near billionaire a guy named John Vidovich. When nature bites down hard, and the government flow gets reduced to a trickle, growers in Kern turn on their pumps and reach deeper into the earth. Shes designing the curriculum.. Because he hadnt done it with Daddys money or what he considered a superior brain, he attributed his wealth to luck and to a simple lesson he had learned early in life. My dust cloud tells him Im getting close. Not the people. I now hear whispers of water belonging to farmers two counties away being pumped out of the ground and hijacked in the dead of night to irrigate the nuts of Lost Hills. Dont let his boots, blue jeans, and ball cap fool you, the old-timers say. Hes a 61-year-old developer who grew up on a farm in Sunnyvale in the heart of what would become the Silicon Valley. The curriculum is being created by Noemi Donoso, the chief of education for the Chicago public schools before Lynda recruited her to Wonderful. But not even the two projects working in perfect tandem can defy drought. To carry water from someplace far away to another place far away, he says. At Wonderful Health and Wellness, were educating our employees about this health crisis. The matter was headed to court when Vidovich paid a visit to Resnick. Its John Vidovich. A meat store, an auto repair, a pool hall, and an arcade pass for a commercial strip. Stewart and Lynda planted 15,000 more acres and bought a juice plant. From now on, theyll grow on land that offers a double protection against drought. Its not true, he wants to farm.. His second son is a psychiatrist. 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. 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. I kept my notes and tapes and waited for another day. Thats a billion-dollar crop. 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.. Up and down the Central Coast, restaurants are boycotting their wines. It wouldnt even make a couple of sections of his almonds. Last time he checked, he told me he owned 180,000 acres of California. 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. For the bright kids who have no interest in a bachelors degree, she has designed the Wonderful Agriculture Prep Program to serve an additional 1,000 students. FAMILY OFFICE MARKETPLACE. I know I cant do this forever, he says. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. Do they sense the shaming about to come? Sugar kills, she tells them. The math works out to $162 a tree. Just get started became one of his guiding principles. The fog is our history. 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. Once a river is at flood stage, that usually means all other rights have been filled and the overflow is free game. This sale made headlines because it was engineered by one farmeran outsider from the cityfor his benefit only. We changed the culture of safety, and we think we can do the same with health, Anzaldo says. She was the daughter of Jack Harris, a film distributor, who moved the family to Los Angeles when Lynda was 15 to produce movies. When he first planted seedless mandarins in the valley 17 years ago, the bees from the citrus orchards around him were flying into his groves, pollinating his flowers, and putting seeds into the flesh of his fruit. Its not the fidget of boredom. The checks the workers bring in here from Mr. Resnick are the same checks they bring in for years. I then move to the far side of the orchard, where another worker, riding a huge mower, is kicking up an even bigger cloud of dust. In contrast, John Vidovich, who helms Sandridge, comes from a Silicon Valley farming-turned-developer family. Groundwater and floodwater are two very different things. The price for pistachios has climbed from $4.50 a pound to an unbelievable $5.25 a pound. It took time to gain the respect of the people, and I was afraid. The farmer corralled the snowmelt and erased the valley, its desert and marsh. We can surely help you find the best one according to your needs. He remade himself into a graduate of the UCLA law school, a cleaner of Los Angeles buildings, a vendor of security alarms, a seller of flowers in a pot, a minter of Elvis plates and Princess Diana dolls, a bottler of Fiji Island water, a farmer of San Joaquin Valley dirt. Then I get lucky. He guides me back into the main store with its displays of fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cold cuts, and baked goods. The farmer isnt here to smell the cracking open of wood, the ripping open of warm secret earth. Ill have to go deeper if I can.. The river is nothing if not fickle. Vidovich has more than one reason to be evasive. On this same stretch of 99, I once wrote a story about farmworkers who moonlighted as meth cookers to make ends meet. Down a rutted road, 100 trailers with foundations dressed in plywood back up against an orchard. Two men sit inside separate cabins of a small tractor with pincers on one side and a catcher on the other. He was going to Vegas, hanging out with his own Damon Runyon characters, and making plans to get even bigger. Vidovich is the owner of Sandridge Partners, LP - a farmland investment firm that has undertaken more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland. Theres a lot of people who dont like me, he said after his fathers death. What kind of place is this? I did sell water out of Kings County to an urban user and people didnt like it, Vidovich said. The 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno has overturned a $73.4 million verdict against McCarthy Family Farms and Bay Area developer John Vidovich and Sandridge Partners involving a land and. This 79-minute documentary focuses upon the overall culture of bullying at Mentor High School; outlining the abuse both teenagers endured and the efforts made by both sets of parents to address their concerns prior to their children's suicide. Now its the seven-week nut harvest that brings out the inhalers. The punitive damage portion, about $73 million, was overturned on appeal and the case has been sent back to Kings County. It was a permanent water loss for Kings County and put Vidovich under a lingering cloud of suspicion among area farmers and water managers. I cash them the same. "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. It might be nice if my kids and grandkids could turn to a book someday and read about what weve built., He and Lynda were changing the way food was grown in California and sold to the world. How can another record crop be sitting pretty on these trees? 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. Turn onto Twisselman Road off I-5 and continue west until it intersects with the California Aqueduct. They slap back with the cold vibration of water. Wow. 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. Sandridge Partners received most of its subsidy for upland cotton production but also received payments for growing six other commodities. Bernard, hard to believe, is driving straight toward the aqueduct. ! it says. Hes carrying 55,000 pounds of crop in two swaggering trailers open to the sun. He owns the land next to the aqueduct where the reservoir would be built and is the one who brought the floodwater project idea to Semitropic a few years ago. So I ask about the big picture. The Spanish rice isnt rice but cauliflower made to look like rice. State water dwindling year after year. When the clamps let go of the trunk, 8,000 almonds, green outer shells wilted and partly opened, the meat inside a wooden womb, lie scattered on the flat dry earth. "There are a lot of unintended consequences in agricultural policies, (but) the intent is to maintain a viable and healthy agricultural base," he said. And, you know, at some point in time that water is in risk of going to an urban area. My health, knock on wood, is good. The calculation and hubris inside it. These are loaded, Resnick says. Because the more you invested in your employees and their communities, the more productive they became. And when youve been as lucky as weve been, you start to think you can ride out drought, too., He did learn one lesson. She washes two kinds of lettuce and cuts up fresh papaya to mix into a salad. It was linear, logical, fluid, and quite nearly destined. The project is indeed within eyesight of Lemoore and across Highway 198, where West Hills College sits, and, also, where an approved 200-house subdivision is scheduled within walking range of the college. Because a human picker is not needed in the almond and pistachio groves, the nut harvest doesnt spread around money the way it spreads around dust. Yet Vidovich said he is not personally a booster of the farm bill, and that his company might be better off without it. But western Kern has no groundwater to draw from. No ones going to get fired for bringing home 2,500 pounds of nuts an acre. Before we go much further, you should probably know a little more about Vidovich. 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. Unlike many other billionaires, they could poke fun at themselves. 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. This is a company that runs its resources to the max, he tells me. It should be noted here that Angiolas general manager is Matthew Hurley. He went out and bought an alarm company. Down the great aqueduct, by freight of politics and gravity, came the excess waters of the Sacramento River. Stewart gambled and won for many years. You know so I could say, Well, I didnt pass because I was so busy with this project.. She wanted to tell the story of the pomegranate, he told me with a touch of sarcasm. John Vidovich is VP/Executive Director:Sales at Student Loan Corp. See John Vidovich's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. Its been more than a year since he gave me the cold shoulder at the pistachio conference. Sandridge Partners received federal farm subsidies totaling approximately $1.06 million last year, the largest of any agribusiness in the nation, landing it a headline role in this year's debate. Lynda isnt just writing checks, Donoso told me. One of the first things he did with his monopoly was kill the California Pistachio Commission, the industrys marketing group, by yanking his funding. I grab my notebook and walk up to one of the vans. He takes a look at his watch. So beginning in the 1940s, Kern farmers went out and grabbed a share of not one distant river but two: the San Joaquin to the north and the Sacramento to the north of that. for 30 days. The hillocks that existed back in Yokut Indian days were flattened by a hunk of metal called the Fresno Scraper. Lynda is also mapping out a farm-to-food program where students will grow fruits, vegetables, and grains on a plot of village land. Anzaldos grandfather came from Guadalajara in the 1950s as part of the bracero farmworker program. Her husband, Manuel, will awaken in 30 minutes to prepare for his night shift. (Vidovich said he didnt think Sandridge had hit 100,000 acres, total, yet.). What happens to them if Wonderful downsizes? Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Lynda assisted her with the design and color scheme but otherwise has remained hands-off. 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. His dad had sold the bar and was adrift. "What I was most alarmed about was how I, and most people in the area, knew nothing of this proposal," he told The Leader. Back then, the Los Angeles Times had a bureau in the middle of California. I'm not sure that it (location) being one of the busiest places in Kings County is the right place for that. They arrive in Chevy trucks and Dodge vans and spill out in groups of four or five under the sweat-stained hats of the 49ers, Penn State, and the Yankees. The bells in the churches pealed, and out came the villagers with their scythes and axes, believing they had found the reason for their poverty. Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code. However, Vidovich has been somewhat of a welcome presence to some in Kings County. He did this first in the name of wheat and then beef, milk, raisins, cotton, and nuts. The 5.3 acres are so flawless and at odds with the town that the whole thing feels like a movie set. You cant be exporting groundwater from one basin to another., Whatever water hes taking, its too little, too late.. John Vidovich serves as the Vice President, Business Development of Discover. No longer does it have to be a career that brings Mexicans to their hands and knees. What can I say? 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. 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. Even if I were to move water and sell it, it would be to farming operations.. The pizza dough is cauliflower, too. tupperware garlic keeper g2c advantages and disadvantages. Thats our goal. His frat brother got bored, as rich boys do, and Resnick bought out his half interest for $300. "There are a lot of good places for it (feedlot). Photo courtesy of Trent Davis Bailey/The California Sunday Magazine. Hes dressed Italian chin to footLoro Piana jeans and Hogan tennis shoes. The project would consist of a small reservoir, more like short-term storage cells, along the California Aqueduct just north of Kettleman City where floodwater off the south fork of the Kings River would be captured. A member of the commission, on the eve of its demise, told me, Stewart wants to be a benevolent dictator. Hes trying to play dumb, but I can see the sliest of grins peeking out from his mustache and goatee. 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. Stewart and Lynda created a new brand, the Halo, from the same variety of mandarin. Wages that used to go to workers stay in the pocket of the nut growers. The water will be stripped from the land and sold to developers of new towns both here and over the mountain. The wildfires cant be far behind. 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. They issued a commemorative medal of Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Masters that offended the golfer. 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 . He had no papers, like so many others, just an image of what this side of the border looked like. I doubt the Resnicks have any idea of the fester that eats at this place, the shame piled on shame. They dumped their stolen car into the canals black waters and got away with murder for the next 32 years. It was kind of a crutch in case I flunked, he said. They were farmers back in San Antonio, growing lettuce, cilantro, and radishes on a small plot of land. Giant pincers manned by a single worker grab the tree by the throat and start shaking. But he wasnt looking for the monotony of steady. Six hundred and forty acres dont look like 640 acresa square mileuntil they start ripping out the trees. Water that has shipped you know hundreds of miles from the north of California where there are these abundant rivers. He lives down the road in Wasco, the Rose Capital of America, though the roses, too, have turned to nuts. The dispute over the no fly zone was finally resolved by the invention of a netting that Resnick sheathes around his mandarins each spring. Month after month, she made ends meet on a $1,600 budget. On the way out of the market, Pablo buys a case of Pacifico. He started buying consistently in Kern, Kings and Tulare counties throughout the early and mid-2000s and continues to add properties sometimes at a blistering pace. Everything but the turkey had come from his orchards. It got to a point where the only way we could get an approval was to go to the voters, he told the Silicon Valley Business Journal hours after filing the initiative paperwork in April 2016. Arax: So because there is no groundwater out in Lost Hills, they came up with this idea of pumping groundwater from 40, 50 miles away. His trees were drinking from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, from rivers and irrigation canals and the water bank. Theyre droughts best buddies.. In his best Borscht Belt nasal, he takes a jab. 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 white flowers have set into buds, and the buds have become baby almonds covered in fuzz. When you first meet John Vidovich, everything from his ball cap to his dirty boots tells you hes a farmer. The GSAs are supposed to set pumping limits to stop overdraft. When all three phases are finished, 1,800 students will be attending the high school, middle school, elementary, and preschool. Be Proactive. 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. Past Oildale and the boxcar where Merle Haggard grew up. It would involve a public permitting process and be very difficult, not to mention expensive, both men said. 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. In fact, the piece is called A kingdom from dust. Its a pretty dry place right? Theyre baby tumbleweeds that have come home. The farmer moved the rain. 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. Share with Us. A year into his studies, an uncle called from California. 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. "In talking to the planning department, I found out that the initial step is to notify essential agencies in the area for comments. At the plant, we built our gyms, and we have stretching and walking activities. Through the haze I can see the knoll of the aqueduct come closer. He needs every drop he can get., Dont you know? Its gone, I say. His operation is extensive and very smart.. Each tree produces 22 pounds of nuts. A minute later, I reconnect with the pipeline and pursue its length for a football field. One man drives and shakes the tree while the other man makes sure the clusters fall into the butterfly opening of the receiver. I notice she keeps the water running for a long time. The crops we grow can only be grown in a few places in the world. Subscribers keep our independent community news in business. accounts and the history behind a news event. But he got too big. Died on 26 Oct 2005. Mostly, though, they cant wait for the avalanche of nuts to end. tupperware garlic keeper how many kids does jim harbaugh have "I am a farmer and a big farmer," Vidovich said. He sat behind a desk without clutter and stood up to shake my hand. The water is filtered for arsenic, boron, and other salts, and the monthly tests show no violation of state or federal standards. 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. Hes got another meeting to attend. By: jdubble07. Its loaded, Bernard says. Since the middle of the drought, the price of almonds has dropped almost by half. 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. Mr. Vidovich was a descendant of one of the pioneer farm families that settled here from Croatia . Four tribes of Yokut lived along its shores. It was the same distance that allows them to control more land and water130 billion gallons a yearthan any other man and woman in California and still believe it isnt enough. Now, hes involved in a project that could set him up as a water marketer on an extreme scale. This is the west end of Lost Hills, the extraction end. The Sureos gang has tagged the front entrance but otherwise has left the inside unmarked. Vidovich went on a shopping spree. No one is out and about. 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. They thwack back. The 789 acre project . Lupe and I walk to the far side of the trailer park to find Gustavo. 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. He doesnt feign surprise when I tell him about the pipeline, but he dismisses it as a private matter between private parties. My father, born in a vineyard outside Fresno, was a raisin grower before he became a bar owner. 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. We are creating foods. Nothing keeps prices high like a monopoly. He wonders what agriculture will look like in western Kern in ten years. The Iranians dont irrigate their trees. Nothing changes. Thanks to Wonderfuls $15 million Get Crackin campaignthe largest media buy in the history of snack nutspistachios now rank among the top ten bestselling salty snack items in the U.S. We are no longer processing nuts, he says. Some of them have paid $12,000 to buy their trailers and spent thousands more to fix them up. Vidovich owns the property in question, and he is well known in Valley circles. When Lynda learned that half the students receiving thousands of dollars in company scholarships were dropping out of school, she wasnt deterred. Stewart refers to the occasional trek between Lost Hills and Beverly Hillsroughly 140 milesas a carpetbaggers distance. It seems even longer, he says, if you add in the psychological distance of being an East Coast Jew in a California farm belt where Jews are few and far between. To find its flow, Id have to go looking in a thousand irrigation ditches in the fields beyond. I park the car and walk in the direction of a scattering of buildings slapped together with stucco and corrugated tin. Amy Scott: Theres a stunning aerial photo in the magazine that shows these green green trees surrounded basically by dust.

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