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[P]istachio
The pistachio billionaires who guzzle more water than all of fire-ravaged Los Angeles
The wildfires engulfing Los Angeles have put an uncomfortable spotlight on two of its richest residents — Stewart and Lynda Resnick — agriculture tycoons whose farms guzzle a vital and scarce resource: water.
So far, the Resnicks' Beverly Hills mansion, and the Picasso artworks that adorn its walls, have been spared the nearby Palisades and Eaton fires, even as their celebrity neighbors' homes go up in smoke.
But they cannot so easily escape criticism for their agriculture empire, which sucks up more water than whole cities, even as LA firefighters cannot get a drop of the stuff out of the hydrants that line its streets.
Critics say these so-called 'Beverly Hills farmers,' and their ties to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other politicians, may be among the reasons that California is battling such an environmental apocalypse.
'The Resnicks are powerful and their control of so much water is ridiculous,' filmmaker Yasha Levine, co-director of the forthcoming documentary Pistachio Wars, told DailyMail.com.
'How can one family own more water than the entire city of Los Angeles, almost 4 million people, uses in one year?'
Levine said the wildfires, chronic regional droughts and other environmental problems were part of the 'larger political-technological machine that both LA and the Resnicks are plugged into.'
With their $13 billion fortune, the Resnicks are California's richest farming family, with some 185,000 acres of land and a stake in the Kern Water Bank, a nearly 20,000-acre reservoir of water surplus in the San Joaquin Valley.
The octogenarian couple's sprawling Wonderful Company business empire includes Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Wonderful Pistachios, Fiji Water, Halos mandarins, and Teleflora, the flower-delivery service.
They've reportedly donated $1.9 billion to academic institutions, climate change initiatives, cultural organizations and programs in California's Central Valley. A whole pavilion of the LA County Museum of Art bears their name.
Despite their charity work, the Resnicks are repeatedly slammed for the massive amount of water sucked up by their farms, and their ability to win over politicians and control ever more of the scarce and precious resource.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14268323/pistachio-tycoons-water-usage-los-angeles-california.html