john vidovich documentary

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. Thats a billion-dollar crop. Stephen Vidovich, founded De Anza Properties | Archives When Resnick plants, he plants his trees wall to wall. She tells me the water comes out of the tap yellow and foul smelling, and she doesnt trust it. 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. It makes interesting reading. Kingdom. During the drought, the Boswell Company has drilled 52 holes into the old lake bottomseven of these wells reaching a depth of 2,500 feet. Indeed, as president of the board, Vidovich has a great deal of influence in directing much of the water districts business. If I follow them south into Resnick almonds, I can see where the water is going. 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 father's death. 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. A minute later, I reconnect with the pipeline and pursue its length for a football field. One more hour and Im outta this fucking place.. Im actually not supposed to talk about it.. Every move Vidovich has made, through Hurley and other public water districts, has been about gaining control of water, they say. 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. Theres no garbage piled high and smoldering, no chickens picking at scratch. And, importantly, Angiola promised not to take the groundwater outside of Tulare or Kings counties or allow any of its landowners to do so. 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. Fifty-three percent of our employees are obese, and 12 percent of them have diabetes., The growers start to fidget. The hillocks that existed back in Yokut Indian days were flattened by a hunk of metal called the Fresno Scraper. You cant reverse diabetes, but you can control it with a blood sugar level between 6.5 and 8. Pink and white oleanders divide the highway, and every third vehicle that whooshes by is a big rig. The aqueduct brings the water, yes? Everyone knew where it was going. 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. A member of the commission, on the eve of its demise, told me, Stewart wants to be a benevolent dictator. The making of a billionaire over the next half-century was a series of dots that connected in the California sunshine. By harvests end, the Resnicks will have put their clamps on 4.4 million almond trees. What if I failed? To do that, the state requires each area to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to account for whats going in and coming out of the aquifer. One of the neighbors watched in disgust as the bulldozers tore into the hillside. It comes out like pee, says her 11-year-old daughter. 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. Stewart was the second of their four children, the only boy. You Have Found Lost Hills! 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. They knew little about the company except it was selling its keepsakes for five times the amount Teleflora was. Fallowing the farm until the footprint gets smaller and smaller. Promotional Rates were found for your code. The Wonderful Company is located in Californias Central Valley where droughts hit frequently, but that hasnt stopped the company from harvesting record crops. "We're just in the preliminary parts of planning for this," he said. The gas to and from the orchards costs him $80 a week. I dont believe we should be sending water to LA, he said. She had her own bookabout her genius as a marketergoing. John Vidovich. Hundreds of giant praying mantises standing on platforms of concrete are pulling oil from a Chevron field. Lessons? he says, sounding perplexed. The bunches of chartreuse-tipped nuts hanging from antler branches never touch the ground. A day later, I get a call from Mr. Resnick. But that still doesnt mean that most people in town can afford to eat here. Lynda built sidewalks and storm drains, the new park and community center, and repaved the roads. It sure looks heavier than last year., Bernard smiles and nods to the others. It was good for the bottom line. They went to law school together and joined the same program in the Navy reserves. 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. Amy Scott: Theres a stunning aerial photo in the magazine that shows these green green trees surrounded basically by dust. At this point, he said, he uses about 30 percent of his land for farming and 70 percent for water. Resnick, he says. He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. The believer and the skeptic do their tussle inside my head. Up and down the Central Coast, restaurants are boycotting their wines. The citrus is still handpicked but all the nuts are machine picked, and thats idled workers as well. This amounted to 14,000 acre-feet. Residential. One out of eight has diabetes. Judge Orders Boswell, Vidovich Back to Their Corners in Ditch Bank In the maroon of sundown,I follow the workers back to Lost Hills. The State Water Project that allowed western Kern County to grow into a farming behemoth has given no water or very little water over the past three years amid the worst drought in California history. Weve had our battles in the past, and I dont agree with everything hes doing. Scott: And of course that could have serious implications for these workers. If their fears come true, the Los Angeles water grab in Owens Valley would pale in comparison. No. The giant J.G. She is here and there, but I have never seen her up close. We tell the children about the fields when they are young so they dont know the fields when they are old, she says. More than a dozen family members have followed Lupe and Manuel to Lost Hills. I don't think it would ever be very comfortable if you had an embargo and were denied food.". She is the brander of the empire, the final word on their Super Bowl ads, the creator of product marketing. It took time to gain the respect of the people, and I was afraid. If I follow them north through Resnick pomegranates, I can find out where the water is coming from. But I had some good people helping me.. The dispute over the no fly zone was finally resolved by the invention of a netting that Resnick sheathes around his mandarins each spring. Shes built a grocery section in the back of the caf stocked with grapeseed oil and what she touts are Whole Foodsquality vegetables and fruits that sell at Walmart prices. Why grapeseed oil, I ask Andy Anzaldo, head of grower relations and a fitness buff, whos taken on the added duties of what might be called Wonderfuls Minister of Health. Exactly what groundwater would be moved? I try again to pin him down, but hes a man who likes to think of himself as wily. Stewart and Lynda planted 15,000 more acres and bought a juice plant. They had survived the drought. Thats how he came upon the San Joaquin. Some of them have paid $12,000 to buy their trailers and spent thousands more to fix them up. The nuts are kept there a few more daysany longer and the ants will attack themto complete their drying. 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. As we hop down from the van to inspect the pomegranates on the eve of harvest, Resnick motions to Bernards belly. Highway 46 shoots past Resnick almonds and takes you straight into town, population 1,938. The water is filtered for arsenic, boron, and other salts, and the monthly tests show no violation of state or federal standards. Thank you for reading! Right there in the big canal of the Dudley Ridge Water District. He sat behind a desk without clutter and stood up to shake my hand. Theyre baby tumbleweeds that have come home. In the distant background, under the gaze of a 10-foot-tall marble goddess, sat Stewart in a gold-skirted chair, head down. 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. Lynda spent $150,000 at an auction to buy the beaded gown and matching bolero jacket, the Elvis Dress, that Princess Diana had worn on a visit to Hong Kong. We are horrified by the lack of regard for both neighbor and nature, and we hope that the community will accept our deepest and most sincere apologies and find it in their hearts to forgive us. They pledge to donate the 380 acres to charity. Sandridge Partners, L.P. Business Data So everybody should have it, right? Wheres it coming from? Together, the Resnicks have wedded the valleys hidebound farming culture with L.A.s celebrity culture. The fog is our history. This is Twisselman. Ninety-nine is the deadliest highway in America. When he materializes onstage, he is wearing narrow black jeans, a black mock turtleneck, and a dark jacket. When they get on their high horse, you dont want to argue with them.. A dozen or so U.S.-grown crops are traded as commodities on the stock market, and the greatest subsidies go to corn, wheat, cotton, soybean and rice. 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. The 789 acre project . And when youve been as lucky as weve been, you start to think you can ride out drought, too., He did learn one lesson. Their concern is where Vidovich is taking the groundwater. She walks off the stage with Stewart. John Vidovich is scion of his family's development firm, De Anza Properties, which owns Rancho Shopping Center and is renovating Los Altos Gardens. Both men saw Hurleys involvement in numerous local districts including Angiola, Deer Creek Storm Water District, Green Valley Water District and the Tri-County Water Authority, a newly formed GSA, as more Vidovich control. 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. I pull over into the dirt of a pomegranate orchard, the ancient fruit that the Resnicks have turned into POMWonderful, the sweet purple juice inside a swell-upon-swell bottle. Hes oblivious, or so it seems. Yet he doesn't think the farm bill in its present form is going to achieve its protectionist goals. Rather, they say, theyre harvesting health and happiness around the world through our iconic consumer brands. Their crops arent crops but heart-healthy snacks and life-extending elixirs. During paid breaks, they do their 15 minutes of Zumba, take a walk along a designated path, and munch on the free fruits and veggies put out for them. John Vidovich is VP/Executive Director:Sales at Student Loan Corp. See John Vidovich's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. Vidovoch's New Kings County Water Pipeline Triggers Alarm Bells - GV Wire More often than not, it is hauling away some piece of the valleys bounty. He could collect the rents while he slept. Then the drug cartels took over the countryside and planted poppies. Keep it Courteous. 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. Stephen Vidovich died in 2007, at the age of 81, driving a tractor near one of his remaining vineyards. Vicente Fernndez, the king of Ranchera music, is crooning to no one, but it wont be this way in 30 minutes, Hussein tells me. The winter goes down as one of the wettest in recorded history. I call the manager of the Lost Hills Water District. In his best Borscht Belt nasal, he takes a jab. Theres a mythology out there that Angiola is stealing water, he said. That company led to another company, and he soon owned half the commercial alarm accounts in Los Angeles. I stick to the left lane and try to stay ahead of the pack. Vidovich isnt the only pumper in that area, his supporters note. Chance of rain 100%. How come?, We dont need it anymore, he whispers., Back at the plant, Lynda is meeting with Wonderful doctors, nurses, and farmworkers. The grass is a color green on the verge of blue, and the cutouts for trees are razor etched. The water sent to Kern County1.4 million acre-feet a yearhas doubled the cropland. Where the pipes butt up against Twisselman Road, a more clever bit of engineering is required. On the south end stands the Wonderful Community Center, where residents are urged to attend thrice-weekly Zumba and core-training sessions, healthy cooking classes, and weekend cultural outings featuring the likes of Americas Premier Latino Dance Company. Hes using it to irrigate his almonds and pistachios in Lost Hills. This water basically came from a land owned by someone whos also a near billionaire a guy named John Vidovich. He needs nearly 1,000 acre-feet a day for 165 daysthe length of nut-growing seasonto hang a good crop across his acres in western Kern. I meet up with the Wonderful field man who first tipped me off to the pipeline. Join us for a free, virtual event for International Women's Day on March 8! That was eight or nine years ago. The rain starts to fall, big, fat, slashing drops that feel like electricity on my open palm. To top it off, the greedy SOB (farmers rarely uttered Vidovichs name) intended to keep his 7,000 acres of nut trees in Dudley Ridge. The south valleyits people and poverty, its obesity and diabetesis her newest mission. 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. Groundwater accountability sparks clash of Central Valley ag titans Executive Team Culture Ratings from Discover Employees TOP 15% Discover's Executive Team scores in the Top 15% of similar sized companies on Comparably See Detailed Executive Team Ratings 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. He certainly looks the part in his well-worn jeans and checkered shirts. What if he dropped his lawsuit and the two of them worked together to solve their water problems? Through the haze I can see the knoll of the aqueduct come closer. He accused Resnick in 2008 of using various shell companies to monopolize control of the Kern Water Bank. My business approach right now is to acquire as much water as I can to be diversified in water. The aqueduct was built with tax money, yes? This water basically came from a land owned by someone who's also a near billionaire a guy named John Vidovich. When I crossed the border and found Lost Hills, there was nothing here, he says. But that doesnt make people buy a second bottle. Look it, Im from Beverly Hills. You get exempted from the companys wellness program? Bernard has actually lost a few pounds. So the state couldnt deliver, in one year couldnt deliver any of it. My grandfather, a survivor of the Armenian genocide, traveled 7,000 miles by ship and train in 1920 to find out if his uncles exhortationThe grapes here are the size of jade eggswas true. At age 81, hes gotten so big, he doesnt know how big. I get out of the car and walk down an embankment. Shell check in every so often to see how business is going. He spends much of his off hours fixing it up. He did this first in the name of wheat and then beef, milk, raisins, cotton, and nuts. They made a new plantation here. 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. Its the beginning of September 2016, and battalions of heavy machinery dispatched from the Wonderful equipment yards pound the ground and rattle the trees. Kings and Tulare farmers and water managers want to know. 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. He doesnt wave me off or give chase. More than one ballad was about the valley, so he came to Fresno. A meat store, an auto repair, a pool hall, and an arcade pass for a commercial strip. To grow, Big Ag needed a bigger and more dependable supply. When your current subscription expires later this year, you will be able to renew at losaltosonline.com/users/admin/service/purchase. 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. By the time they returned to Beverly Hills, he had lost interest in a book about his life, at least one that I might write. In a valley of dead rivers, each one killed on behalf of agriculture, the aqueduct was the one river still alive. 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. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. 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. For a silent minute, we dig into our bowls. 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. None of this is my idea. When the Depression struck, his parents migrated to Middlebush, New Jersey, where they bought a few trucks and peddled coffee and pots and pans. Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. Inside, a trainer watches over a line of treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bikes. With that insight, he sold the company for $2.5 million and went into the security guard business. By the decree of Lynda, who once contemplated a bowl of those juicy little seedless mandarins and on the spot named them Cuties, this is now the land of Wonderful. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Days Inn or Motel 6. 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. Vidovich has more than one reason to be evasive. He used to work for the Resnicks before Stewart put him in charge of the district. 650) 397-5213 with any questions or to learn more. 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. The big-rig drivers are cranky two ways, and the farmworkers in their last-leg vans are half-asleep. The continuous rattle feeds the nuts into a series of bins on the backside of the tractor. Since international sanctions were lifted five years earlier, Iran has been crowding the market with its more buttery-tasting pistachios. Among the graduating class are kids headed to Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Dartmouth, and the state and community college systems. He is also known for his water deals. This is where the pistachios, 400 truckloads a day, 50 days of harvest, come to be weighed, washed, peeled, dried, gassed, sorted, salted, roasted, packaged, and shipped out to the world. Kings Officials Unhappy About Water Proposal, Local Water Guys Eyeing Kings River Flood Water. His oldest son is retired in Seattle. Thirty-five percent of our pre-diabetic population has gone into the healthy range, she tells the team. It moves in a wave from trunk to limb to nut and back down to earth. But she cannot remember the last time she or Manuel or their children drank it. On the shallow bottom, the women fished mussels and clams with their toes. As in most significant projects, there will be public hearings to review the proposed project's impacts. Theres no waiting around. Look, I have no guilt. But the appellate court still found Vidovich liable and he could still have to pay out a major amount. He guides me to the caf, and we grab our lunches from the buffet. 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. Yes, critics agree, but Boswell uses that water to irrigate in the district. The Southwest Kings GSA is chaired by John Vidovich, who runs Sandridge Partners, which owns hundreds of thousands throughout the San Joaquin Valley. The independent growers and processors, no surprise, regarded him as a bully eager to employ teams of lawyers and tens of millions of dollars to force his agenda. Somehow, it made its way to Lynda. Whether those pipes end on Vidovich lands or Resnicks is hard to know. The son, 5 foot 6 and thin, with closely cropped blond hair and blue eyes that fix on you, isnt concerned about ingratiating himself. The Resnick story certainly deserved a book, but did he really want me to be the one to write it? Neves also added that there would undoubtedly be an effort to explore more reasonable sites for the facility, away from educational and city populations. Vidovich didnt have to wait long for a buyer to come calling. Lupe and Manuel, like many of the residents, grew up next to each other in a pueblo called San Antonio deep in the state of Guerrero, a mountainous region of dramatic beauty. Not the people. 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. 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. It specifically set aside $2.7 billion for water storage projects. To provide context for the size of his subsidy, Vidovich estimated that the current California drought, which has led him to irrigate an additional 24,000 acres, will cost his business tens of millions of dollars this year, while the subsidy brought in $1 million. The more water he got, the more crops he planted, and the more crops he planted, the more water he needed to plant more crops, and on and on. Then some of the money we save goes to pay the coyote. The wildfires cant be far behind. Now theres something here. You can plant only so many acres on ground that has no groundwater. There she stood in the foreground of the photo that accompanied a New Yorker profile titled Pomegranate Princess. She was wearing a black pantsuit with open-toed silver pumps and a single piece of jewelry around her neck. This was how a billionaire who needed more water did politics. 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. He indicated that a proposal was currently being drafted for the council's Tuesday night approval. Died on 26 Oct 2005. Low 44F. This last-ditch water in Lost Hills wont make everything right. His first wife, the mother of his two sons and daughter, told him she was quite happy living in their $30,000 condo in Culver City. Vidovich John - De Anza Properties is located at: 960 N San Antonio Rd, Los Altos, California 94022. It was the early 1900s, and his grandfather and grandmother decided to secure passage to America. He went out and bought an alarm company. Selling the farm to migrant families has required Lynda to rebrand agriculture. Documentary film. But he wasnt looking for the monotony of steady. Do you know what I am? Even if I were to move water and sell it, it would be to farming operations.. Theres a mountain range to my left and a mountain range to my right and in between a plain flatter than Kansas where crop and sky meet. It was a curious statement but true. I pity the outsider trying to make sense of it. Ever since I was a kid, I have felt its pulla gravitational presence on the land and in my own story. Before he died at age 86, J.G. 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. Like a lot of empires, it comes to an end., So what about you? I ask. Special Report: Small Farmers Struggle as Ag Titans Boswell, Vidovich It was true that agriculture had been selling state project water to cities for two decades. Past Delano and the first vineyards that Cesar Chavez marched against. The wall of Pacifico and 16-ounce cans of Bud is rebuilt daily. 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. But thats not an issue I deal with., I dont even know what it was, to be honest with you.. In fact, the piece is called A kingdom from dust. Its a pretty dry place right? Posted on August 6, 2018 Bakersfield Californian. I feel his gaze going past me, his voice turning oddly sentimental. Phone Number: (724) 495-**** John T Vidovich, age 84 View Full Report Address:***** Butternut Ridge Rd, Elyria, OH. He isnt farming dirt. The room smells of Vicks VapoRub. Vidovich has long been at odds with. Each tree produces 22 pounds of nuts. But theres no denying his desperation. None of his three children had the slightest interest in taking over the company. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. A cross of Jesus hangs from the bedpost. Hurley, who also serves as general manager of Green Valley, said that basin, which is separate from the Tulare Lake basin, is actually in balance.