To expand their agricultural empire, they had to find another way to tap into the flow from north to south. 1981 The Resnicks acquire Paramount Citrus Association. I never got the account, she writes in her memoir, but I sure got the business. They were married in 1973. The Resnicks, whove been anticipating the drought for decades, seem shocked that it has taken everyone else so long to wake up. Though California passed its first-ever groundwater regulations in 2014, water districts wont be required to limit pumping for at least another four years. The tunnels would completely bypass the ecologically sensitive Delta, eliminating much of the smelt-endangering pumpingand, by extension, many of the restrictions on Delta water diversions that have crimped the Resnicks supply. The Resnicks purchased and tore down three adjacent houses to make room for a 22-space parking lot and half an acre of lawn. They were both there for a school board meeting, and the superintendent had failed to show up. Less subtle was the national marketing campaign, which showed a Pom bottle with a broken noose around its neck, under the slogan Cheat death.. Few farmers are more at risk from the cutbacks than the Resnicks, whose 140 square miles of orchards use about 117 billion gallons of water a year, despite employing cutting-edge conservation technologies. It feels good to move around, one worker told me afterward. To meet robust demand from Europe and Asia, Stewart Resnick last year announced that he wanted to expand nut acreage another 40 percent by 2020. The agencies spent some $750,000 studying the issue anewonly to have researchers again conclude the 2007 restrictions on Delta pumping were warranted. . The Central Valley is in some respects the ideal place to grow fruit and nut trees, with its Mediterranean combination of cool winters and hot summers perfectly promoting flowering, fruit setting, and ripening. These last four years with this drought, nobody was looking until it affected them. Now, in a throwback to the sort of massive public-works projects built during his fathers governorship, Brown envisions a bold, silver-bullet solution to the states water crisis. Nobody cared. Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation. This means some farmers are still able to flood their fields to grow cattle feed, even as residents of towns such as Okieville and East Porterville have to truck in water and shower using buckets. In 1997 Tiger Woods successfully stopped the Franklin Mint from selling a commemorative medal of his win in the 1997 Masters Tournament. The bank held up to 488 billion gallons of water, and because it sat beneath a floodplain it could be easily recharged in wet years with rainfall and surplus water piped in from the Delta. [19][7][18] The Resnicks sold the Franklin Mint in 2006.[20]. Months later they launched Californians for Water Security, a coalition of business and labor interests that promotes the tunnels as an earthquake safety measure. Ten years later, during the states last great drought, they snatched up tens of thousands of acres of almond, pistachio, and citrus groves for bargain prices. Arax's new piece examines the methods of Boswell's de facto heir. 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NASCARs 2021 Rookie Of The Year Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing Sign Contract Extension, Dry January Does Make A Difference, Even With Martha Stewarts Tongue In-Cheek TV Spot, Attorney Stewart Feldman And Captive Manager Capstone Hit With Almost $90 Million Judgment By Their Clients, Eurythmics Dave Stewart On Sweet Dreams The Album And Song Turning 40, 2022 Billionaires: Cities With The Most Billionaires, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information. She brushes off any notion that Resnick is in the business of charity for the sake of publicity. Fisher Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Theater Studio Fisher Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Theater Studio. We drove to the Wonderful pistachio factory for lunch. [40], She is on the board of trustees and chair of the marketing and communications committee at the Aspen Institute. Source: California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS. [8], Resnick, then Lynda Sinay, began doing occasional work for the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War era. And heres a key fact to consider against this backdrop: The Resnicks arent just pumping to irrigate their fruit and nut treestheyre also in the business of farming water itself. 24-Hour Security Coverage, 24-Hour Reception, Valet Parking Service, Mall . Unless winter storms deliver enough rain, it will be their last shot before they sell out. David Rockefeller, Sr. Net worth: $2.8 billion #193 on Forbes 400. [4] Her mother, Muriel (ne Goodman), was an interior designer. Date of Birth: 1944 (79 years old) Place of Birth: Baltimore. Schedule an appointment. Pistachio sales more than doubled in just three months and steadily increased over the following year to reach $114 millionproving that, sometimes, money really does grow on trees. But the Resnicks water rights, by and large, are not senior. [50], Other local nonprofits that have benefited financially from the program include the Bakersfield Homeless Center ($77,852), the Bakersfield Ronald McDonald House ($70,633), Marley Mutts Dog Rescue ($63,586), Youth 2 Leaders ($62,400) and the Kern County chapter of the Wounded Heroes Fund ($34,310). On a perfect sunny morning, the Fellows of FRG visited the spectacular Sunset Boulevard estate of the innovative and philanthropic couple, Lynda and Stuart Resnick. The Resnicks also have chipped in another $250,000 to support Browns pet ballot measure to fund education. When she retold the story onstage at the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival, Resnick stopped short of spelling out exactly what she thought her husband was alluding to. 150 UCLA Medical Plaza According to Forbes, "The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint in 2010 that the Resnicks' POM Wonderful had used deceptive advertising when marketing the antioxidant-rich drink as being able to treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. The Koch Brothers of California. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2023 demands. Paramount is owned by West L.A.'s Roll Global, a $3 billion agribusiness conglomerate headed by Stewart and Lynda Resnick. She's been married four times. By the time she was 24, shed launched her own advertising agency, Lynda Limited, given birth to three children, and gotten divorced. In exchange, they got ownership of the Kern Water Bank, a naturally occurring underground reservoir that lies beneath 32 square miles of Kern County, which sits toward the southern end of the Central Valley. An additional pledge by the Resnicks in 2014 created both the Resnick Institute Innovation Fund, which provides support for new ideas in clean-energy and sustainability science that have the potential for rapid impact, and the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Matching Program, which provides a one-to-one match for contributions that create new endowed . In support of UC Davis' longstanding commitment to addressing today's most pressing challenges in agriculture and environmental sustainability, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation will house classrooms, research and lab spaces, as well as student career and advising assistance in a 40,000-square-foot, LEED-certified, state-of-the-art hub. YL & RW: Stewart and Lynda Resnick are donors and supporters of of some of the most powerful and influential neoconservative organizations in America, including the AIPAC spinoff WINEP (Washington . The largest local recipient of donations under the program is Wasco Union High School, which during the past twelve years has received more than $210,000 thanks to Wonderful Giving. We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. Nor would we use it.. The companys new, far-reaching health initiative also includes free exercise classes in the employee gym, a weekly on-site farmers market, and a program that pays people up to $2,700 a year to lose weight and keep it off. Her father, Jack H. Harris, worked as a film distributor during the 1950s; he is known for producing The Blob, which later became a cult favorite. [9] Resnick was designated an un-indicted co-conspirator for her role and pursued by prosecutors for two years. The commitment, part of Caltech's Break Through campaign, is the largest ever for . Farmers are the main reason that California now pumps nearly seven cubic kilometers of groundwater a year, or about as much total water as whats used by all the homes in Texas. [45], Resnick and The Wonderful Company have made significant improvements to the communities that dot California's Central Valley since 2010, especially in the city of Lost Hills, where half of the homes have at least one family member working at The Wonderful Company. Legal actions were eventually dropped.[10]. It wasnt all that long ago that Chase Briscoe was couch surfing and looking for work in racing. By then she had certainly seen the negative stories, such as the one in the Los Angeles Times that described Lost Hills jarring Third World conditions., Isaacson gently picked up his questioning where Resnick had left off: And that got you involved in the Central Valley of California, he said. Half the jobs are highly skilled jobs, said Andy Anzaldo, the general manager of grower relations. Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital have valet parking services available on Westwood Plaza. Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company, have pledged $750 million to the California Institute of Technology to support cutting-edge research into environmental sustainability. The donation from the Resnick Foundation, a charity controlled by billionaire couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, was sent to Dignity and Power Now in January 2016, said a spokesman for the Resnick . Her interviewer, former CNN chairman and author Walter Isaacson, didnt press her on the matter. These last four years with this drought, nobody was looking until it affected them. In 2014, a judge ruled that the Department of Water Resources had turned the water bank over to the farmers without properly analyzing environmental impacts. The billionaire owners of Fiji Water, Teleflora, and POM Wonderful purchased this 36-acre property in 1994 for 4,875,000. Boswell, who owned more land and controlled more water than any other person in the West for most . We have no influence politicallyI swear to you, she told me. It is the tenth anniversary of Dry January, the campaign that was imagined in England by Alcohol Change UK to get people to consume less alcohol and rethink their relationship with alcohol. They were expecting a smaller-than-normal crowd. Here are seven things your probably didn't know about her. They had two children: Jason Sinay and Jonathan Sinay. Upcoming Upcoming Select date. That is why we place such importance on our extensive community outreach programs, education and health initiatives and sustainability efforts. All Rights Reserved. Resnick's Sunset House Tour. The NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and team owner got a taste of the NHRA last year when he raced a Top Alcohol dragster and finished second in what was to be a one-off appearance. The $50 million gift will establish the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation, with $10 million of the Resnicks' gift to be directed toward annual competitive research . outside their home. Nobody has political influence in this. . 150 UCLA Medical Plaza. Compare Stewart and Lynda Resnick's Net Worth. "[62], In addition, their claims for the POM pomegranate drink have been contested. A few years later, Lynda met Stewart Resnick. Around that time, Lynda started dating Anthony Russo, who worked at a think tank with military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. Among the goals is to provide a pipeline of workers to staff its increasingly mechanized operations. In 2012 a federal judge agreed that some of the ads were misleading. They claim the Resnicks influence among politicians and liberal celebrities is quietly warping Californias water policies away from the interests of the states residents, wildlife, and even most farmers. "This gift will allow my area to move forward in both rebuilding and hiring photography faculty for teaching commitments of one to two yearsmuch longer than previously possibleproviding tremendous . Tax filings from 2008 show that Stewart Resnick and his wife Lynda are on the board of trustees of the highly influential Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, which was created as . Her father, Jack Harris, produced the cult hit The Blob and later moved the family to California. According to Forbes, Wonderful Company uses "at least 120 billion gallons [450millionm3] a year, two-thirds on nuts, enough to supply San Francisco's 852,000 residents for a decade. 1928 is the year the property was built. If you call yourself the Wonderful Company, Lynda Resnick told me, youd better damn well be wonderful, right?, Sunset House, the Resnicks 25,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion, is imposing even by Beverly Hills standards. Sunset House, as it is aptly named, is surrounded by elegant gardens created by landscape architect Rios Clementi Hale Studios and A.C. Martin. [61], At the same time as exporting almonds to Asia and other locations, they import Fiji bottled water from the South Pacific. Pistachios are now among the top 10 best-selling salty snack items in the United States, and the Resnicks Lost Hills pistachio factory is the worlds largest. DAVIS, Calif., Oct. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of California, Davis, today announced that philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, co-owners of The Wonderful Company, have pledged . Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. Stewart and Lynda Resnick are the biggest farmers in the United States. A win for fish and a win for farmers? Lost Hills Elementary School, the program's second-leading recipient, has taken in $141,000. Its not unusual for a field hand to spend 40 percent of his $1,800 monthly wage on a one-bedroom apartment. In the summer of 2014, their employees quietly began conducting polling and focus groups to figure out the best way to sell Browns plan. Stewart and Lynda Resnick Net Worth: $5 Billion. Design on the Resnick Center is expected to begin in 2022, with construction slated for completion by 2026. Since the program began in January 2015, the Wonderful workforce has shed 4,000 pounds. Ugly Angel has the latest construction shots of 9481 Sunset Boulevard, site of the under-construction compound belonging to POM Juice/Fiji Water heiresses Stewart and Lynda Resnick. But tree crops are different. Ellsberg gave these documents to The New York Times, which then published them. This land belongs to the billionaire Resnicks, Stewart, 77, and . You could effectively divert just about every single drop of water before it gets to the estuary in dry years, says Doug Obegi, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Councils water program. Along the way, Paramount acquired 100 acres of pomegranate orchards. The $50 million gift will establish the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis, designed to empower faculty and students to uncover new ways to maintain global growth while . Your email address will not be published. Something would have to change, and fast. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. In the heart of the nut boom is Lost Hills, an entirely flat town where more than half the households have at least one adult who works for the Wonderful Company. 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