I hop out of the car. Before he left her to cross alone, he gave her soda, water, chips, and Cheetos. Nothing changes. Second, Im a farmer, Vidovich says. The nut must be hurried from bin to truck to processing plant to keep it from discoloring. The city manager is in the process of coordinating a response, "said Gornick. 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. The growers would stand in front of the cull line and never stop moaning about how much of their fruit got rejected by Girazians graders. Damn, if he doesnt look even younger and more fit than the last time I saw him eight years earlier. They made a new plantation here. In the trailer next door, Lupes cousin Margarita lives with her husband, Selfo, and their three young children. Every mogul, every movie star. 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. 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. "I want to be as open-minded as I can and get all the facts I can," he insisted. I feel his gaze going past me, his voice turning oddly sentimental. He became more involved with De Anza, working with his dad, whom he describes as bigger than life.. John Vidovich from Perth, Australia talks about his experience during the Summer Diaspora Business Trip last year. Vidovich owns the property in question, and he is well known in Valley circles. I didnt know good land from bad land. No ones going to get fired for bringing home 2,500 pounds of nuts an acre. In his best Borscht Belt nasal, he takes a jab. That was the last straw for Pixley, which sued in 2013. Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code. A judge found this past March that the initiative was flawed because Vidovich used his own project description instead of the neutral description by the Cupertino city attorney. Yeah, hes got a lot of money and hes been buying up land, makes some people nervous, Page said. I kept my notes and tapes and waited for another day. The district has already paid him $40 million for an easement, or right of way, on that land and signed an agreement with him for how the project would operate. At the plant, we built our gyms, and we have stretching and walking activities. It comes out to $2,000 a month. I roll past Tulare, where every February they hold the biggest tractor show in the world, even bigger than the one in Paris. Pace farmed in the valley and partnered with Vidovich for a while. And he was able to use canals and pumping stations to then get that water in this pipeline that very secretively was connected to irrigation ditches in Lost Hills. Hes so involved, in fact, he even chairs the monthly meetings for Buena Vista Water Storage District where Sandridge owns thousands of acres. She delivers it in classic Lynda style. 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. Then I get lucky. Resnicks billions rely on his ability to master water, sun, soil, and even bees. Burglar alarms, on the other hand, offered round-the-clock vigilance without coffee breaks. Here, a crew has dug a culvert beneath the road and hiked the pipeline under the asphalt that divides one field from another. Deadly in the rush of harvest, deadly in the quiet of fog, deadly in the blur of Saturday nights when the fieldwork is done and the beer drinking becomes a second humiliation. Vidovich, he said, is just the new water baron on the block, thats all. 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. 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. Here and there a mulberry tree, its canopy pruned back, breaks up the red-smeared sky.. 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.. Exactly what groundwater would be moved? Rain for Rent, the pipes say. When it doesnt come, he finds a way to make it come. He spits tobacco juice into the empty can of Rockstar. Everyone knew where it was going. Amy Scott: Theres a stunning aerial photo in the magazine that shows these green green trees surrounded basically by dust. John Vidovich, Student Loan Corp: Profile and Biography Its California., Sure. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I reached a moment in my life where I had to give back in a meaningful way, she tells the camera. As we hop down from the van to inspect the pomegranates on the eve of harvest, Resnick motions to Bernards belly. Like many billionaires, he didnt have a decent explanation for his fortune. 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. We hope you enjoy Finding Lost Hills., The 11-minute film opens with a shot of swirling dust. When your current subscription expires later this year, you will be able to renew at losaltosonline.com/users/admin/service/purchase. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Their concern is where Vidovich is taking the groundwater. It is the ditch up the road, the one that carries no water, that is filled with old mattresses and spent appliances. Lupe says no one in her family, and none of her friends living in the trailer park or on the other side of town, drinks the water that comes out of the pipe. The farmers responded that the path of a bee wasnt something they could supervise, and they threatened to sue him back. "What I was most alarmed about was how I, and most people in the area, knew nothing of this proposal," he told The Leader. The vibration here isnt quite as vehement. Vidovich didnt have to wait long for a buyer to come calling. The colors turn brilliant in the light made spectacular by the particles of dust. 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. 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 Fifty-three percent of our employees are obese, and 12 percent of them have diabetes., The growers start to fidget. He was going to Vegas, hanging out with his own Damon Runyon characters, and making plans to get even bigger. My head keeps hitting the sunroof. The FDA sent a warning letter, and Wonderful pledged to study the chlorine levels in the bathing tanks. And, yes, that takes water. Farm bill strikes local note with developer/farmer | News And then it hits me when I reach the road to Weedpatch, where my grandfathers story in Americaa poet on his hands and knees picking potatoesbegan. The John Wick: Chapter 4 posters are rolling in one after another. This is a company that runs its resources to the max, he tells me. Those figures dont include recent land purchases hes made in the Kern Delta Water District and Fresno Irrigation District both areas Sandridge is targeting for even more land purchases because of its solid rights to the Kern and San Joaquin rivers. About five years ago, Lynda started our community development organization in Lost Hills, and the journey has been an amazing one. Your account number is your one-line street address as printed on your newspaper use normal capitalization. They rely only on rain, which concentrates the flavorful oils. This is my wife. Main Street is Highway 46, which slices through the middle of town. Nowhere to turn, I turn back around and roll down my window. But its just a cover for taking water out, Pace said. 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. He and the Resnicks had fought an ugly legal battle that tore their Cutie brand in two. The film ends with the laughter of kids playing inside the giant sunburst at the center of the soccer field. Who would have thought the two of them in cahoots? Photo courtesy of Trent Davis Bailey/The California Sunday Magazine. Making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process?. San Antonio south doesnt exist anymore. He is a small, good-looking man with a patch of black hair under his lip. Today is quincena day, twice-a-month payday, and he needs me to scram because the workers coming in to cash their checks and wire 25 percent back across the border to families in Guanajuato and Guerrero will wonder if Im with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When Resnick plants, he plants his trees wall to wall. "Even with the subsidy, I think cotton is a losing battle," he said, predicting that the commodity would increasingly come from China. accounts and the history behind a news event. To grow, Big Ag needed a bigger and more dependable supply. But thats not an issue I deal with., I dont even know what it was, to be honest with you.. They do that because they love it., A POM craze followed. The feedback were hearing is No. In fact, some of the workers think that we havent gone far enough., The workers arent around for a quick survey. Lupe excuses herself to prepare dinner. He had no papers, like so many others, just an image of what this side of the border looked like. Digging in was its own wisdom, he discovered. That breaks your agreement with those farmers. The south valleyits people and poverty, its obesity and diabetesis her newest mission. His law license is inactive, according to the California State Bar Association website. The wildfires cant be far behind. John Vidovich, Pennsylvania (7 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address My grandmother said it was his leftist politics that ate up that vineyard and the ones that followed. Sports and playground activities are prohibited at the beach, picnic areas are closed, and masks must be worn by all visitors. It goes to doctors and nurses, trainers and dietitians, who track the weight of workers, prod them to exercise, and wean them off soda and tortillas. 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. Brad Steinwede. They have no way to grasp the $50 million to $80 million a year that the Resnicks say they are spending on philanthropy. Across the field, a heavy machine is stacking whats left of the trees into giant mounds. 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. When I crossed the border and found Lost Hills, there was nothing here, he says. No whistle shouts mealtime in the modern-day company town. And so the question of sustainability is front and center here now in California. It was kind of a crutch in case I flunked, he said. No luck. He knows what I dont know. Vidovich is the owner of Sandridge Partners, LP - a farmland investment firm that has undertaken more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland. He takes a look at his watch. I try again to pin him down, but hes a man who likes to think of himself as wily. Across the street, the Soto family has built a new Mexican restaurant named Gabbys that dwarfs every other business on the street with its Spanish Mission faade. (See sidebar online.). This water basically came from a land owned by someone whos also a near billionaire a guy named John Vidovich. It was true that agriculture had been selling state project water to cities for two decades. I cross the Tulare County line heading south into Bakersfield, and there in front of me, for no eye to miss, stands the Wonderful Citrus complex with its four-story storage building designed in the shape of an almighty box of Halo mandarins.