The wildfires engulfing Los Angeles have put an uncomfortable spotlight on two of its wealthiest residents — Stewart and Lynda Resnick — agricultural magnates whose farms are consuming a vital and scarce resource: water.
So far, the Resnicks’ Beverly Hills mansion and the Picasso artworks that adorn its walls have been spared from the nearby Palisades and Eaton fires, even as their famous neighbors’ homes go up in smoke.
But they can’t so easily escape criticism of their agricultural empire, which sucks up more water than entire cities, even as LA firefighters can’t get a drop of the stuff out of the hydrants lining the streets.
Critics say these so-called “Beverly Hills farmers” and their ties to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other politicians may be one reason California is facing such an environmental apocalypse.
“The Resnicks are powerful and their control over so much water is ridiculous,” says filmmaker Yasha Levine, co-director of the upcoming documentary Pistachio Warstold DailyMail.com.
“How can one family own more water than the entire city of Los Angeles, almost four 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 wealthiest farming family, with about 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.
Stewart and Lynda Resnice, 87 and 81 respectively, are worth $13 billion after controlling California’s farmland and water resources. Pictured here in their art-decorated Beverly Hills mansion
The LA couple’s farming activities and water use come under scrutiny as the city is torn apart by apocalyptic wildfires
The octogenarian couple’s sprawling Wonderful Company business empire includes Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Wonderful Pistachios, Fiji water, Halos tangerines and Teleflora, the flower delivery service.
They have reportedly donated $1.9 billion to academic institutions, climate change initiatives, cultural organizations and programs in California’s Central Valley. An entire pavilion of the LA County Museum of Art bears their name.
Despite their charity work, the Resnicks have been repeatedly criticized for the enormous amount of water sucked up by their farms, and their ability to win over politicians and control more and more of the scarce and precious resource.
A 2016 study by Mother Jones found that in some years the Resnicks’ farms used more water than the residents of Los Angeles and the entire San Francisco Bay Area used combined.
That report alleged that their business was built by controlling the water supply, cleverly maneuvering the backroom politics of California’s byzantine water regulations, and befriending the politicians who run the Golden State.
These include six-figure donations over the years to state governors from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Jerry Brown. In 2021, they invested $250,000 in a campaign to prevent Newsom from being removed from office.
In the 1990s, the Resnicks reportedly bought tens of thousands of acres of almond, pistachio and citrus orchards at bargain prices in and around Kern County, in the San Joaquin Valley.
At the time, California was using taxpayer dollars to build new water infrastructure to divert rivers and store water to supply farms and cities in drought-prone areas during seasons when rain did not fall.
The Resnicks have secured long-term contracts, including a majority stake in the Kern Water Bank, a 20-square-mile recharge basin that stores up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water, according to Forbes. Sometimes the bank sells water back to the state.
Years of lawsuits have failed to rescind the water agreements that benefit them, and the Resnicks appear to have enough support among state politicians to weather criticism of their farming practices.
The fires have spotlighted ties between the Resnicks and California Gov. Gavin Newsom
The Resnicks own more than 185,000 acres of farmland in California, including almond orchards like the one in this photo by Firebaugh
The Resnicks have faced years of criticism over the vast amounts of water used to irrigate their crops, such as this irrigation system for almond orchards.
Stewart and Lynda Resnick attend the annual gala at one of the museums they fund
Last year, Newsom praised the Resnicks for making a smart deal at an opportune time.
“These are the rules of the road and the rules that we put in place, and they’re parroting them,” Newsom told The New York Times.
“If we’re going to point fingers, as policymakers we also need to think about the system we’ve created.”
Spokespeople for the Wonderful Company have defended the Resnicks in the past against accusations that they guzzle water and make it more difficult and expensive for others to access the supplies they need.
In 2021, a spokesperson told Forbes that “we do not believe we have enough purchasing power to influence water prices.”
But the company did not respond to DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
Like the Resnicks themselves, many of the company’s employees live or work in LA, and their lives are turned upside down by the many fires that are tearing apart the city.
By Friday morning, the wildfires had killed at least 10 people and devoured nearly 10,000 structures, while the dry desert winds that fanned their destructive flames showed some signs of abating.
The Palisades Fire between Santa Monica and Malibu on the city’s west flank and the Eaton Fire to the east near Pasadena are the most destructive in LA history. They consume 53 square kilometers and burn down entire neighborhoods.
The fires were made possible by exceptionally dry conditions and prolonged drought in Southern California.
Firefighters battling the blazes are repeatedly hampered by low water pressure and hydrants that have gone dry, exposing vulnerabilities in water supply systems that are not built for wildfires on this scale.
This has raised troubling questions about the management of California’s water resources and the influence of the Resnicks and other billionaire farmers embroiled in state politics.
The couple’s Wonderful Pistachios are known for the catchy ‘Get Crackin’ ad campaign
The couple acquired a majority stake in the Kern Water Bank, one of California’s most important water storage resources
The Resnicks are major philanthropists and have their names on the redesigned Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California
Lauren Steiner, a activist and YouTubercalls the Resnicks “the Koch Bros.” of California’s water” and has held rallies outside their 25,000-square-foot mansion to protest their growing control of state resources.
“I fear that neoliberal Newsom, who needs their campaign contributions to run for president, will not challenge their domination and control of California’s water,” Steiner told DailyMail.com.
For Levine, the fires show how the “terraforming aqueduct system” California built over the past century gave rise to the disaster that unfolded in America’s second-largest city.
“Everyone who lives in LA – from the celebrities to the TikTok influencers to the pistachio oligarchs to their husbands who work in the kitchen – is tied to it,” Levine told DailyMail.com.
“They can live in LA because this terraforming aqueduct system exists. Without the water it supplies, the city would still be a sleepy town, not the sprawling metropolis it is today.”