For decades taxpayers have provided subsidized water to California farmers at rates far below fair market value. When the amount of cheap water delivered to farmers was reduced during the severe drought of the early '90s to protect two species of endangered fish, a group of San Joaquin Valley water districts representing some of the nation's biggest farming operations sued the government for "taking" what they claimed was their private property.
But an Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigation of state and federal data found that from 1995 to 2003, those same farms received a total of $248 million in federal farm subsidies. And since 2001, the water district representing nearly all of those farms made almost $40 million in profit by selling subsidized water back to the taxpayers at market rates.
Which of the following was the Bush Administration's response to the lawsuit?
(a) The farmers didn't own the water in the first place — it belongs to the public.
(b) Why do rich farmers who already get big taxpayer subsidies deserve even more?
(c) OK, here's another $17 million.
On Dec. 21, 2004, the Administration announced it would settle the lawsuit by paying the water districts $16.7 million for "taking" the water. It was not only a tidy Christmas bonus for a group of farmers that includes the world's biggest cotton grower and a Beverly Hills mail-order tycoon who owns the largest farm operation in the country. The decision, over the objections of California officials from both parties and the Administration's own fisheries management agency, also represented a radical extension of the right-wing "Wise Use" ideology that regards environmental protections as unconstitutional infringements on property rights.
The Tulare Lake case, as it is known, marks the first time that restrictions imposed under the federal Endangered Species Act have been interpreted as a government taking of private property without "just compensation," which is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment. It opens the floodgates for lawsuits involving much larger claims: A similar case seeking $100 million in compensation for farmers in Northern California and Oregon will be heard in federal court Feb. 14, 2005. It also threatens California's ability to balance fairly the competing needs of agriculture, cities and the environment for increasingly scarce and expensive water.
Applying the takings doctrine to the Tulare Lake case requires the suspension of reality, because the water districts sued for the loss of "property" that exists only on paper — cut-rate contracts to buy an unspecified amount of water that fluctuates from year to year, depending on how much is available. The case exposes the political hypocrisy of farmers who rail against environmental protections but are happy to accept government subsidies and government-approved water trading schemes allowing them to profit from selling a public resource they don't own. Finally, it is more evidence that crop and water subsidies, intended to help small family farmers, have become inequitable corporate welfare programs for big agribusinesses.
Under state law, water districts don't have to make public the names of farms they serve. EWG used mapping software and state pesticide use data to identify farms in the districts that sued, and matched the names against our Farm Subsidies Database, which lists recipients of federal crop subsidies from 1995 to 2003. We also accessed publicly available state data on the profits the water districts made from 2001 to 2004, under trading schemes that allow them to sell water they don't use back to the state for fish and wildlife restoration.
The farmers' take from the taxpayers dwarfs the Tulare Lake settlement. Of the farms sharing in the settlement, the top 20 alone took in $121 million in crop subsidies from 1995 to 2003. One company, cotton giant J. G. Boswell Co., got $24 million in federal farm subsidies. The sheer size of these farmers' reliance on subsidies raises loudly the question of who is really doing the taking — the government, which cut water deliveries to protect public resources, or the farmers, who believe they're entitled to crop payments and cheap water?
Boswell, the world's largest cotton producer with about 150,000 acres in the Tulare Lake Basin Water District and 18,000 acres in three other districts, is an extreme example that shows how far the federal farm subsidy system goes to benefit growers of a few favored commodities. Not only did Boswell receive $17.3 million in crop subsidies from 1995 to 2003, but another $6.6 million under a subsidy called Step 2.
Step 2 gives money to companies that, like Boswell, process cotton for export, to help them buy U.S.-grown cotton. This incentive is necessary because American cotton is much more expensive than cotton grown elsewhere around the world. Why? Because of the crop subsidies provided to American cotton farmers, which artificially push the price of U.S. cotton above world market levels.
Boswell's home town of Corcoran, Kings County, is the state's epicenter of rich farms that get huge farm subsidies. Of the 20 Tulare Lake settlement recipients who got the most in crop subsidies, eight are in Corcoran or neighboring Stratford. Collectively they received more than $62.8 million in federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2003.
TABLE: Top 20 Subsidy Recipients
Farm/Farmer Name | City/State | Total Farm Subsidies Received (1995-2003) |
---|---|---|
1: J G Boswell Company | Corcoran, CA | $23,919,679 |
2: Dublin Farms | Corcoran, CA | $11,913,936 |
3: Hansen Ranches | Corcoran, CA | $8,616,787 |
4: C.J. Ritchie Farms | Visalia, CA | $8,225,657 |
5: Buttonwillow Land & Cattle Company | Buttonwillow, CA | $8,135,045 |
6: Starrh & Starrh Cotton Growers | Shafter, CA | $7,991,530 |
7: Westfarmers | Visalia, CA | $6,670,547 |
8: Gilkey 5 | Corcoran, CA | $5,588,236 |
9: Chicca Twin | Buttonwillow, CA | $4,897,759 |
10: Wheeler Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $3,972,321 |
11: Torigiani Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,501,218 |
12: The Phoenix Farming Company | Corcoran, CA | $3,441,472 |
13: Four B'S Farms | Corcoran, CA | $3,432,123 |
14: Gilkey Enterprises | Corcoran, CA | $3,121,774 |
15: Harry Banducci & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $3,107,042 |
16: Houchin Brothers | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,074,525 |
17: Fred Palla Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,928,370 |
18: Newton Farms | Stratford, CA | $2,789,606 |
19: Cauzza Brothers | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,735,111 |
20: Toretta Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,722,339 |
Total subsidies for top 20 recipients | $120,785,076 |
Source: [34]
The big Corcoran cotton farms are in the Tulare Lake Basin Water District, which resold no excess water for profit from 2001 to 2004. That prize went to the other main plaintiff in the case, the Kern County Water Agency (KCWA), which serves a consortium of 14 smaller water districts around Bakersfield. Of the 20 settlement recipients receiving the most crop subsidies, the dozen served by the Agency received a total of more than $57.9 million from 1995 to 2003. State records show that in those years KCWA also made $36.8 million in profit from reselling subsidized water back to the state for efforts to restore fish and wildlife habitat in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.
Kern County Water Agency has made $38.6 million selling water to the Environmental Water Account
Year | Acre-feet sold | Profit from sales |
---|---|---|
2001 | 20,000 | $6,317,200 |
2002 | 97,400 | $12,399,494 |
2003 | 125,000 | $14,482,500 |
2004 | 35,000 | $5,418,700 |
Total: | 277,400 | $38,617,894 |
Source: [38]
A closer look at the KCWA reveals even more layers of schemes and sweetheart deals that let rich farmers sharing in the settlement feed at the public trough.
The KCWA and three of the water districts it serves own part of a huge underground storage facility called the Kern Water Bank. Most of the remaining interest belongs to the Westside Mutual Water Co. a paper company owned by its only customer, Paramount Farming Co., which with its sibling Paramount Citrus comprises the largest farm operation in the country. Paramount is owned by Stewart Resnick, one of the richest people in Los Angeles and owner of the Franklin Mint.
From 1995 to 2003, Paramount received $576,000 in federal crop subsidies. Paramount has acreage in both the State Water Project and the federal government's much larger Central Valley Project (CVP). EWG's December 2004 investigation of the CVP estimated that in 2002 alone, Paramount received federal water subsidies worth more than $1.5 million at the market rate for new agricultural water supplies.
Paramount created Westside to resell part of its SWP contractual allotment — excess water that exists only on paper — to developers who want to turn farmland into planned communities called Tejon Ranch and Newhall Ranch. A top Tejon Ranch executive is a director of the Kern Water Bank, and Newhall's farm operations are served by one of the water districts that owns the bank. From 1995 to 2003, Tejon and Newhall together got more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies.
The complexity of the corporate connections, subsidy systems and trading schemes make it impossible to say just who is getting how much from the Bush Administration takings settlement. But it is clear that it is far from being just compensation for hard-working farmers whose survival depends on secure water supplies. It is another corporate welfare program for rich agribusinesses who take all they can from the taxpayers and never get enough.
Who Owns The Water
First authorized in 1960, California's State Water Project (SWP) is now the largest state-built agricultural water delivery project in the country, with 660 miles of aqueducts and pipelines carrying water to 23 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland annually. [1] On average, the Project carries about 2.2 million acre-feet of water each year to 29 long-term contractors, mostly located in Southern California. But as rainfall varies widely from year to year, so do SWP water supplies. Some years the SWP may carry almost twice as much water, while in other years only half as much will flow down the Project's canals. [2]
Municipal water agencies and farmers have long been forced to adjust to these whims of nature. But as California's population continues to grow while its water supplies remain finite, the battles over this increasingly scarce resource have intensified. At the center of this conflict lies the issue of how the state can balance the needs of agriculture, municipalities, and California's fish and wildlife — all of which depend on a steady flow of water for survival. Now, an opinion by the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., and the acceptance of that opinion by the Bush Administration threatens to take away the state's power to distribute water as it sees fit. Even more ominously, the settlement undermines a basic tenet of California water law: Water is a public good that belongs to the people.
The case, Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District v. United States, involves a set of powerful water districts in California's San Joaquin Valley that sued the federal government after the State Water Project cut their contracted water deliveries during the severe drought of the early 1990s. [3] The two primary plaintiffs in the case, Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and Kern County Water Agency, claim that their water supplies were reduced by a total of 58,820 and 319,420 acre-feet, respectively, during the period 1992 through 1994. (An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre to a depth of one foot.) The issue was not simply that the water districts were given less water than promised in their contract — the contracts do not guarantee delivery of any specific amount of water. The issue was why the state Department of Water Resources (DWR), the agency that manages the SWP, made the cutbacks: to protect two endangered fish species.
Under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), government agencies must ensure that their actions are "not likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of any endangered or threatened species listed under the Act. [4] Beginning in 1992, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued several opinions concluding that the operations of the SWP were threatening the survival of two endangered fish species, Delta smelt and Chinook salmon. [5, 50, 51] The agencies identified a number of major stressors to the fish, including altered water temperature, impaired passage, and decreased spawning and rearing habitat. Since all of these problems stemmed primarily from inadequate stream flows, it was clear that DWR needed to leave more water in the Delta to meet its statutory requirements and protect the endangered fish populations. This meant less water available to irrigate crops.
Several SWP water contractors, representing about 240 farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, cried foul. †1 The farmers claimed that they had a property right to the water, that the federal government had "taken" this property, and they were therefore owed compensation. Their arguments were made under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the government from taking private property without "just compensation". In April 2001, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge John P. Wiese ruled in the farmers' favor, marking the first time that a court has said that restrictions imposed under the Endangered Species Act amounted to a Fifth Amendment taking of private property. [6]
The Tulare case involved a challenge to a regulatory action, but the Court broke from federal and state precedent, treating the claim as a physical taking. The Fifth Amendment takings doctrine says that the government must pay for certain limitations or impositions on private property. Takings cases are generally categorized in one of two ways: a physical taking of private property, or a regulatory taking. A physical taking involves a permanent physical occupation or acquisition of real property, and must be compensated in all circumstances. [7] A regulatory taking involves a government action that restricts an owner's use of private property, and is only compensable in certain circumstances. [8] The Tulare court's finding that the Endangered Species Act regulation constituted a physical taking contradicts the Supreme Court's holding that a physical taking does not occur when the government regulates the use of property:
The longstanding distinction between acquisitions of property for the public use, on the one hand, and regulations prohibiting private uses, on the other, makes it inappropriate to treat cases involving physical takings as controlling precedents for the evaluation of a claim that there has been a 'regulatory taking,' and vice versa.[8]
Other federal courts have applied this concept specifically in the context of wildlife regulations. [49] California has followed this precedent, finding that wildlife regulations that curtail use are not constitutional takings: "The federal and state governments may regulate and protect rare species on private lands without, ipso facto, triggering a constitutional taking of private property." [9] Overall, says Georgetown University water law expert John Echeverria, "[t]akings claims based on protecting endangered species have failed with a striking consistency." [48]
The Tulare ruling was troubling for a number of reasons. First, all state and federal water contracts contain language protecting the state and federal governments from liability for "any damage, direct or indirect, arising from shortages in the amount of water to be made available for delivery . . . caused by drought . . . or any other cause beyond its control." [10] Clearly, this includes the need to protect a highly threatened fishery from devastation during a severe drought. This was exactly the reasoning a federal appeals court used in 1995 when it denied a similar claim involving the same two endangered fish species. †2 [11] Judge Wiese decided that although the state was immune from liability because it was party to the contracts, the federal government was not immune because it did not have a contractual relationship.
Another troubling aspect of Judge Wiese's decision was his conclusion that the contracts conferred to the districts "a right to the exclusive use of prescribed quantities of water." The fact is that the SWP and the water districts it serves have signed contracts for more water than is available. Collectively, the existing SWP water supply contracts allocate "entitlements" of more than 4 million acre-feet (maf) of water each year. But almost half of this is "paper water," as a state appeals court said in a 2000 ruling:
The SWP cannot deliver 4.23 maf of water annually. The entitlements represent nothing more than hopes, expectations, water futures or . . . 'paper water.' Actual, reliable water supply from the SWP is more in the vicinity of 2 to 2.5 maf of water annually. . . . Paper water always was an illusion. "Entitlements" is a misnomer, for contractors surely cannot be entitled to water nature refuses to provide . . . Paper water represents the unfulfilled dreams of those who . . . created the expectation that 4.23 maf of water could be delivered by a SWP built to capacity. [12]
The bottom line is that much of the SWP water that districts are "entitled" to by contract is only wishful thinking. Streams and rivers across California would have to go totally dry, and then some, before this much water could be delivered to SWP farmers in all but the wettest of years. Even if all of the contracted water actually existed, the most confounding part of Judge Wiese's ruling is his failure or refusal to realize that under the state Constitution, the water districts and their members could not own it.
Water is a communal resource with an overriding public value. The state claims ownership of all water within its borders on behalf of the people of California. †3 If you own a piece of land you can legally prevent people from entering it. But if the land borders a river, you can't stop people from swimming or traveling down the river. If you have oceanfront property, your property rights stop at the high water line. Below that line, anyone can walk on "your" beach or swim in "your" ocean.
In California, therefore, the water in a river or stream cannot be privately owned. It is held in trust for the common good under the centuries-old "public trust doctrine." In 1983, the California Supreme Court said "the core of the public trust doctrine is the state's authority as sovereign to exercise a continuous supervision and control over the navigable waters of the state and the lands underlying these waters." [13] The Court said the public trust doctrine obligated state agencies and courts to "consider the effect of . . . [water] diversions upon interests protected by the public trust." [14]
"Water rights" do not confer ownership, but the legal right to use a quantity of water. As a California appeals court said in 1986: "Unlike real property rights . . . water rights are limited and uncertain." [15] Under the state Constitution it is illegal to "waste" water, to put it to an "unreasonable use," or employ an "unreasonable method of diversion of water." [16] What is considered reasonable depends on the circumstances. In 1935, the state Supreme Court said:
What is a beneficial use, of course, depends upon the facts and circumstances of each case. What may be a reasonable beneficial use, where water is present in excess of all needs, would not be a reasonable beneficial use in an area of great scarcity and great need. What is a beneficial use at one time may, because of changed conditions, becomes a waste of water at a later time. [17]
When the State Water Project was approved in 1960, the rights to all water it would carry were explicitly given to the Department of Water Resources. [18] Although the Tulare and Kern water districts asserted that they had a property right to the water specified in their contracts, the fact is that they only had a contractual arrangement for the delivery of some amount of this publicly held, public resource. In the Tulare Lake case, Judge Wiese ignored this fact and ruled that any limitations imposed on the districts' use of the resource must be compensated. He awarded the farmers $23 million in compensation. [19]
With that much money at stake plus the dangerous precedent the ruling sets, you'd think the federal government would appeal the decision to a higher court. But in late 2004, word spread that the Bush Administration planned to settle the case. California officials from both parties urged the White House not to make that mistake.
The state Water Resources Control Board, representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, sent a letter to Bush Administration officials stating that if allowed to stand, the Tulare Lake decision "could fundamentally change the way that water resources are managed in California, to the serious detriment of California taxpayers and resources users." [20] Senator Diane Feinstein sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, stating that the ruling was a "mistake that will establish a precedent that could require the public to pay tens of millions of dollars to water users in many cases where even a small portion of their anticipated deliveries are needed to protect endangered salmon or other fish." [21] California Attorney General Bill Lockyer also urged the government not to settle, and several officials urged Bush to transfer the case to the California Supreme Court. [22]
Earlier, the Bush Administration's own water-law experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), which is responsible for protecting endangered salmon runs, also objected. A March 2004 letter from NOAA's general counsel to the Justice Department, obtained by EWG, said Wiese's ruling was already making it more difficult to enforce the Endangered Species Act. The letter said the lawyers for the water districts, who were also handling other water "takings" cases, were already arguing that the Tulare ruling "now require[s] the United States to compensate federal permit applicants up front for any claimed interests in water or land" affected by enforcement of the Act. They said the failure to appeal Wiese's ruling "immeasurably increased" the likelihood that the other lawsuits would succeed. [23]
Nevertheless, five days before Christmas, the Bush Administration settled with the farmers for $16.7 million. Although the Administration said explicitly that the settlement was not meant to set a precedent, if the reasoning behind Judge Wiese's ruling is accepted by future courts, California's ability to protect its streams, rivers and fisheries will be seriously undermined. That is the clear intent of the real driving force behind the lawsuit: the Washington, D.C. law firm of Marzulla and Marzulla, who represented the water districts.
Roger and Nancie Marzulla are husband and wife, long-time "Wise Use" advocates who have made careers fighting environmental protections. Both worked in the Reagan Justice Department: Roger as assistant attorney general in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Nancie as a special assistant and litigator in the Civil Rights Division. Roger Marzulla was the chief architect of an executive order signed by President Reagan in 1988 that sought to expand the definition of "takings" by federal agencies. [24, 25] Both were also attorneys with the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a far-right wing group founded by beer baron Joseph Coors and the group's first president, James Watt, Reagan's notoriously anti-environmental Interior secretary. Roger Marzulla succeeded Watt as the second president of Mountain States, while Nancie worked as one of the group's attorneys on takings and other cases.
In 1991, the Marzullas founded Defenders of Property Rights, for which Nancie still serves as president and chief counsel, and Roger as board chairman. Defenders promotes takings laws as a strategy to make laws and regulations protecting the environment prohibitively expensive by requiring payments to private landowners whose property is affected by them [26]. Interior Secretary Gale Norton was legal advisor to Defenders of Property Rights until she was picked to join President Bush's cabinet. (Norton also started out at Mountain States, and her career has frequently been intertwined with the Marzullas.)
In 1998, the Marzullas opened their Washington practice, specializing in property rights and takings cases. In 2001, Marzulla & Marzulla filed a $1 billion takings lawsuit — since reduced to $100 million — against the government in the Court of Federal Claims on behalf of farmers and irrigation districts in the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and Northern California. The suit challenges the Bureau of Reclamation's 2001 restrictions on the release of irrigation water from Klamath Lake — referred to as water banking — to maintain lake levels for the protection of endangered sucker fish and threatened Coho salmon. [25, 27, 28]
In November 2003, while representing the Klamath Basin irrigation districts and irrigators at a public meeting, Roger Marzulla compared the Bureau of Reclamation's tactics to those of Adolf Hitler in persuading the Allies to allow him to invade Czechoslovakia. Asked if it was legal for the Bureau to tell farmers they must give up some of their allotted water, or face getting none at all, Marzulla replied: "I think [the] water bank is a desperate effort by [the Bureau] compared [sic] to Hitler. . . . If you take Czechoslovakia, and say if we give you this, will you go along with it?" [29]
The next hearing in the Klamath case before the Federal Claims Court is scheduled for Feb. 14, 2005. [30] In March, a hearing is scheduled in a $500 million takings lawsuit filed by the Marzullas on behalf of the City of Stockton, San Joaquin County and the Stockton East Water District over the federal government's alleged failure to deliver water from New Melones Reservoir. [31] And the Marzullas are preparing another takings lawsuit, seeking millions in compensation for farmers whose water deliveries were reduced to protect steelhead salmon. [32, 33] In these cases, the Marzullas stand to earn millions of dollars in attorneys' fees from their takings suits. For the Tulare Lake case, the couple took about $2 million from the settlement for their efforts.
Footnotes
†1 — Press reports indicated the water districts represented about 240 farmers. From examining the state pesticide use database, it is clear that many of these farmers operate more than one farm. EWG's figure for the total number of farms served by the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and the Kern County Water Agency is 339 farms. We excluded those farms that had less than 50 acres in either water district.
†2 — The federal water service contract in question in the O'Neil case provides that the government shall not be held liable for "any damage, direct or indirect, arising from a shortage on account of errors in operation, drought, or any other causes."
†3 — See Civil Code 1410, which dates back to 1911.
Federal Farm Subsidies
According to EWG's Farm Subsidies Database, which lists all recipients of all Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity price supports and other farm aid programs, from 1995 to 2003 taxpayers paid out more than $131 billion to U.S. farmers. That's enough to buy outright one-quarter of all the farms in the 302 leading agricultural counties— land, barns, farmhouses and all. Despite the popular myth that these cash payments go to help struggling family farms, EWG's analyses have shown repeatedly that the great majority of the taxpayers' money actually ends up in the pockets of large agribusiness. [34]
Far fewer farms in California receive these subsidies than in other states — in 2002, one-third of all U.S. farms got some sort of USDA payment, while only 9 percent of California farms did. This discrepancy is largely because most California farmers grow the 'wrong' things: Most subsidies are given to only a handful of staple crops, such as corn and soybeans, which are not grown extensively in California. The farmers served by the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and the Kern County Water Agency, however, are another story.
Although water districts by law don't have to make public their records, EWG extracted the names and addresses of the farms in these two districts from state pesticide use data. We then matched them with the names and addresses of farms that got cash payments from the USDA. We found that most of the farmers who sued the federal government over minor restrictions on water deliveries have already been getting a huge windfall in federal crop subsidies. From 1995 to 2003, 57 percent of the 339 farms served by the Tulare Lake and Kern County water agencies got some sort of subsidy check, with the total reaching a staggering $248,196,636.
The average payment to those California farms in that period was more than 29 times higher than the national average: $1,279,364 vs. $43,134 per farm. Subsidy checks to California farms tend to be higher than the national average (although fewer California farms receive subsidies), because California farms are bigger. But even when you consider the average payment California farms received, it is striking how much more the farmers in the Tulare and Kern County water agencies are getting.
The 194 farmers in these two water districts are less than half of 1 percent of the total number of California farms receiving crop subsidies, but collectively they received 5 percent of the total USDA payments to farms in the state. The average payment going to the Tulare Lake and Kern County farmers from 1995 and 2003 was almost 12 times higher than the average payment to farms in the rest of the state: $1,279,364 vs. $110,386. The bottom line is that the Tulare Lake and Kern County farmers were already taking much more from the taxpayers than most farmers in California — but the Bush Administration decided they were entitled to another $16.7 million.
Nor were most of these payments going to help struggling family farmers stay on the land. The top subsidy recipient was J.G. Boswell Co. of Corcoran, in Kings County. Boswell is the world's largest cotton grower, a dominant position that $23.9 million in USDA payments between 1995 and 2003 must help in maintaining. Boswell is an extreme example of how far federal farm programs go to help growers of select commodities: Not only did Boswell receive $17.3 million in crop subsidies, but got another $6.6 million under a subsidy called Step 2.
The Step 2 program gives money to U.S. companies that mill cotton into thread and cloth for export, to help them buy U.S.-grown cotton. This financial incentive is necessary because American cotton is much more expensive than cotton grown elsewhere around the world. Why? Because of the crop subsidies provided to American cotton farmers, which artificially push the price of U.S. cotton above world market levels. As both a cotton grower and a miller, Boswell's farm operation can use its crop subsidies to ensure it makes a profit from growing cotton. Then its milling operation can tap the Step 2 program to lower its cost to buy more raw cotton for milling and export.
TABLE: Top 20 Subsidy Recipients
Farm/Farmer Name | City/State | Total Farm Subsidies Received (1995-2003) |
---|---|---|
1: J G Boswell Company | Corcoran, CA | $23,919,679 |
2: Dublin Farms | Corcoran, CA | $11,913,936 |
3: Hansen Ranches | Corcoran, CA | $8,616,787 |
4: C.J. Ritchie Farms | Visalia, CA | $8,225,657 |
5: Buttonwillow Land & Cattle Company | Buttonwillow, CA | $8,135,045 |
6: Starrh & Starrh Cotton Growers | Shafter, CA | $7,991,530 |
7: Westfarmers | Visalia, CA | $6,670,547 |
8: Gilkey 5 | Corcoran, CA | $5,588,236 |
9: Chicca Twin | Buttonwillow, CA | $4,897,759 |
10: Wheeler Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $3,972,321 |
11: Torigiani Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,501,218 |
12: The Phoenix Farming Company | Corcoran, CA | $3,441,472 |
13: Four B'S Farms | Corcoran, CA | $3,432,123 |
14: Gilkey Enterprises | Corcoran, CA | $3,121,774 |
15: Harry Banducci & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $3,107,042 |
16: Houchin Brothers | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,074,525 |
17: Fred Palla Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,928,370 |
18: Newton Farms | Stratford, CA | $2,789,606 |
19: Cauzza Brothers | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,735,111 |
20: Toretta Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,722,339 |
Total subsidies for top 20 recipients | $120,785,076 |
Source: [34]
The next largest crop subsidy recipient among the farms that sued is Dublin Farms, also of Corcoran. Dublin Farms planted more than 9,000 acres of cotton and wheat in 2002 and got almost $12 million in USDA cash payments from 1995 to 2003. Corcoran, a dusty town of about 15,000, is the Beverly Hills of California farms that get crop subsidies: Other local members of the multimillion-dollar subsidy club are Hansen Ranches ($8.6 million), Gilkey 5 Farms ($5.6 million), Phoenix Farming Co. ($3.4 million), Four Bs Farms ($3.4 million) and Gilkey Enterprises ($3.1 million; exact connection to Gilkey 5 unknown). Each of these farms will share in the Tulare Lake settlement.
Farms in the water districts served by the Kern County Water Agency don't get individual USDA checks quite as large as their Tulare Lake neighbors, but they make it up in numbers. Led by C.J. Ritchie of Lost Hills and the Buttonwillow Land & Cattle Co., each with more than $8 million in crop subsidies from 1995 to 2003, no less than 58 KCWA farms got USDA payments of at least $1 million each.
Overall, 67 farms in the Tulare Lake and Kern County districts — more than one third — received checks totaling more than $1 million during this period. More than 100 farms got payments worth at least $500,000 — roughly $55,500 a year, more than the median household income in California in 2003 ($49,300), and 50 percent more than the median income in Tulare County ($36,343). [35]
Our database of farms sharing the settlement lists 145 farms which received no crop subsidies, but the number is almost certainly lower. We found many instances of names in the Farm Subsidy Database that appeared to match names of the farms we extracted from state pesticide use reports. But if we could not be certain that the farms were identical, we did not include those subsidies in our analysis.
Reselling Subsidized Water
Once the home of a vibrant fishery, today the watershed of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers is one of the most artificially controlled hydrological systems in the world: Both rivers have been dammed, as have all but one of their major tributaries. [36] The water from these vast river drainages eventually flows into the West Coast's largest estuarine ecosystem — the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, which has also been extensively altered by human activity.
In the Delta, two massive pumping facilities extract water and funnel it into the largest federally-run water delivery system in the country and the largest state-run delivery system: the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP), respectively. At certain times of the year when the SWP and the CVP are exporting high levels of water from the Delta, the San Joaquin River actually reverses its flow between its confluence with the Sacramento River and the pumps. The river actually flows upstream. As if these extreme disruptions of the natural fish and wildlife habitat weren't enough, the pumps themselves kill millions of fish each year. [36]
By the early 1980s, federal scientists realized that fish populations in the Delta and throughout the watershed were crashing — in large part because of the export of millions of acre-feet of water to the SWP and CVP. From 1987 to 1992, a severer drought exacerbated this already dire situation and ultimately forced the California Department of Water Resources to limit its agricultural water deliveries. It was also clear that a much more ambitious plan was needed to restore ecosystem health in the Bay and Delta. A joint state-federal agency known as CALFED was created to develop and implement this plan, which included a controversial program known as the Environmental Water Account (EWA).
The EWA, which has been in operation since 2000, is like a virtual water district where the customers are fish. EWA buys water from willing sellers within the CVP and SWP at market rates to use for environmental purposes, such as improving water quality in a particular section of river or helping to restore threatened fish species such as salmon and smelt. The idea was to provide a mechanism to protect fish without affecting agricultural water supplies. It was also hoped that the prospect of reselling their unused water would encourage conservation by farmers. The success of the EWA in accomplishing this goal is debatable: The program has been hampered by a limited budget and inadequate water supply. [37] One thing is clear: The EWA is a highly effective mechanism for water districts that get cheap irrigation water to make a bundle off of taxpayers.
As the EWA is a publicly funded entity, the government is essentially selling SWP and CVP water to farmers at very low prices, then buying it back later at much higher rates to replace water that never left the river in the first place. Since the EWA has been in operation, it has purchased water from 16 different water agencies. But one has profited far more than any other: the Kern County Water Agency. KCWA is the largest agricultural water contractor in the SWP. It serves 14 different water districts †1 within the San Joaquin Valley and receives, on average, 84 percent of the irrigation water delivered by the SWP each year. [38]
Between 2001 and 2004, KCWA paid an average of $63.40 per acre-foot †2 (af) for its SWP water. [38-42] This amounts to a subsidy of at least $100 an acre-foot, given that the California Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation recently estimated that if a new dam were built on the upper San Joaquin River, the irrigation water it would deliver would cost a minimum of $170.42 per af †3. [43] But the KCWA is getting an even better deal: It is allowed to sell part of its water back to the taxpayers via the EWA at rates as much as 7 times higher than what it paid.
From 2001-2004, KCWA sold 277,400 af of water to the EWA at an average price of $198 per af, for a total of $54.9 million. The Agency's profit was $38.6 million — an average of $9.6 million per year. [38-42] Overall, KCWA has received more than one-third of the total expenditures by the EWA, and by far more money of any other individual water agency. [38] KCWA has perfected a scam in which taxpayers subsidize its below-market purchase of a public resource (water), then must pay much more to buy the water back in an attempt to restore another public resource (fish). Perhaps the most outrageous part of the scheme is that the Bay-Delta needs restoration largely because of the diversion of subsidized agricultural water and the runoff of pesticides and other toxic agricultural chemicals.
Besides resales to the EWA, from 1995 to 2004 the Kern County Water Agency sold another 456,092 acre-feet of water to other water districts, and the Tulare Lake Basin district sold 76,941 acre-feet to other districts. Prices and profits for those sales are details hidden from the public by state law, so it is impossible to know how much profit these water agencies made on such transactions. [44] In 2002, The Sacramento Bee estimated that just three water districts that are part of KCWA in recent years had made more than $128 million from sales to municipalities. [45]
But in Kern County there is potentially even more profit to be made from reselling subsidized water — even if that water exists only on paper.
According to a 2003 investigation by the taxpayer watchdog group Public Citizen, the KCWA and three of the water districts it serves own 42 percent of the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground storage facility that can store about 1 million acre-feet of water. [46] The state spent $74 million to develop the water bank, then in 1994 turned it over to the KCWA after secret meetings produced the so-called Monterey Agreement. This was a pact between the state, big farmers and developers based on the hope that someday, by building new dams and reservoirs, the State Water Project will be able to deliver all of the 4.2 million acre-feet specified in its contracts. As noted previously, half of the amount contracted for currently exists only on paper.
Another 48 percent of the water bank is owned by the Westside Mutual Water Co., a paper entity owned, operated and housed in the Bakersfield offices of its only customer, Paramount Farming Co. According to the California Farm Bureau, Paramount Farming and its corporate siblings, Paramount Citrus and Paramount Farming, Inc., comprise the largest farm company in the United States. [46] From 1995 to 2003, Paramount received $576,000 in USDA crop subsidies.
Paramount is part of Roll International Corp., a holding company privately owned by Stewart Resnick of Beverly Hills, one of the richest people in Los Angeles with an estimated net worth of $740 million. [47] Through Roll International, Resnick also owns the Franklin Mint, mail-order marketers of kitschy commemorative memorabilia, and Teleflora, a national floral delivery service.
Public Citizen documented that Westside MWC was created by Paramount Farming in hopes of reselling some of its non-existent SWP allocation to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. (Fans of the film Chinatown need no reminder of the LA water department's dark history of water grabs.) However, the labyrinthian connections of corporate interests with ties to the Kern County Water Bank point to other potential customers: Developers who want to turn former and current farmland between Bakersfield and Los Angeles into sprawling new towns called Tejon Ranch and Newhall Ranch.
Dennis Mullins, vice president and general counsel of Tejon Ranch, is on the board of directors both of the Kern County Water Bank and two of the water districts that own it — districts that will share in the Tulare Lake settlement. Another of the water districts that will receive part of the settlement and is a part-owner of the water bank already delivers water to Newhall Land & Farming, developers of Newhall Ranch. And Public Citizen uncovered a water sales contract between Newhall and a company owned by Paramount's corporate parent, Roll International. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to guess that an ultimate goal of the water districts that control the water bank is to turn paper water from the SWP into real water they can sell to developers at a profit.
Until then, they have their share of $16.7 million to see them through.
Footnotes
†1 — Berrenda Mesa Water District, Lost Hills Water District, Belridge Water Storage District, Semitropic Water Storage District, Cawelo Water District, Kern County Water Improvement District #4, Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District, Buena Vista Water Storage District, Kern Delta Water District, Henry Miller Water District, West Kern Water District, Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District, Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District, and Tejon-Castaic Water District.
†2 — An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land one foot deep, or 325,851 gallons.
†3 — This is a highly conservative cost estimate because it does not include the costs for road construction, relocations of existing facilities, environmental mitigation, land acquisition, reservoir cleaning, or interest.
Full List of Subsidy Recipients
Farms that will share in the "takings" settlement receive millions of dollars in federal farm subsidies.
Farm/Farmer | City/State | Total Farm Subsidy Payments 1995-2003 |
---|---|---|
J G Boswell Co. | Corcoran, CA | $23,919,679 |
Dublin Farms | Corcoran, CA | $11,913,936 |
Hansen Ranches | Corcoran, CA | $8,616,787 |
C.J. Ritchie Farms | Lost Hills, CA | $8,225,657 |
Buttonwillow Land & Cattle Co. | Buttonwillow, CA | $8,135,045 |
>Starrh & Starrh Cotton Growers | Shafter, CA | $7,991,530 |
Westfarmers | Visalia, CA | $6,670,547 |
Gilkey 5 | Corcoran, CA | $5,588,236 |
Chicca Twin | Buttonwillow, CA | $4,897,759 |
>Wheeler Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $3,972,321 |
Torigiani Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,501,218 |
Phoenix Farming Co., The | Corcoran, CA | $3,441,472 |
Four B's Farms | Corcoran, CA | $3,432,123 |
>Gilkey Enterprises | Corcoran, CA | $3,121,774 |
Harry Banducci & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $3,107,042 |
Houchin Brothers | Buttonwillow, CA | $3,074,525 |
Fred Palla Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,928,370 |
Newton Farms | Stratford, CA | $2,789,606 |
Cauzza Bros. | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,735,111 |
Toretta Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,722,339 |
>Palla Rosa Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $2,618,773 |
Cerro Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $2,579,032 |
Gardiner Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $2,437,694 |
John Crump | Bakersfield, CA | $2,419,064 |
Carmel Partners | Wasco, CA | $2,415,896 |
Parsons Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,378,740 |
Joe Fanucchi & Sons - South | Arvin, CA | $2,373,069 |
Roy & George Fanucchi | Shafter, CA | $2,239,553 |
Belluomini Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,132,648 |
John Romanini & Sons | Buttonwillow, CA | $2,099,618 |
Westlake Farms,inc. | Stratford, CA | $2,087,842 |
Triple B Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $2,038,721 |
K. Barnard & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $2,036,862 |
R & G Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $2,024,910 |
Bidart Brothers | Bakersfield, CA | $1,969,727 |
Elk Grove Ranch | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,949,892 |
Mario Buoni & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $1,916,568 |
Destefani Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,890,467 |
Pierucci Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,862,257 |
Four D Farming | Bakersfield, CA | $1,746,082 |
Kosareff Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,729,592 |
Banducci & Son | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,701,794 |
Costerisan Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,699,019 |
Greenlee Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,661,342 |
Franceschi & Son Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,654,879 |
Mckittrick Ranches | Bakersfield, CA | $1,643,347 |
J. D. & K. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,586,447 |
M & M Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,555,196 |
Houchin Ranch 7 | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,404,873 |
R & B Farms | Shafter, CA | $1,390,184 |
Vandborg Farms | Lamont, CA | $1,371,686 |
Stenderup Ag Partners | Bakersfield, CA | $1,365,299 |
Bel-An Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,352,067 |
Don Schulte Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,346,920 |
J. S. A. Company | Bakersfield, CA | $1,309,070 |
S & S Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,281,286 |
K. M. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,223,326 |
Aldo Antongiovanni & Son | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,207,421 |
Rodney Palla Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,158,711 |
Julian Pierucci & Son | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,152,363 |
Tillema Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,140,038 |
Walter Delfino | Buttonwillow, CA | $1,133,066 |
Kootstra Dairy Farm | Bakersfield, CA | $1,132,834 |
Palla Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,107,257 |
D J Farms | Taft, CA | $1,064,193 |
SRB Farms | Lost Hills, CA | $1,059,308 |
Bryan Bone Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $1,009,524 |
E.w. Suorez Farms, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $985,490 |
A. J. Torrigiani & Sons | Buttonwillow, CA | $962,685 |
George Borba & Son Dairy | Chino, CA | $956,241 |
Joseph A. Eyraud & Sons, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $946,319 |
Ralph And Greg Palla | Bakersfield, CA | $939,599 |
Maple Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $938,451 |
Don Valpredo Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $928,341 |
Kophamer & Kophamer | Bakersfield, CA | $925,571 |
H 3 Ranch | Buttonwillow, CA | $912,029 |
Progresive Associates Group | Bakersfield, CA | $892,055 |
Bloemhof Katoen Boerderij | Wasco, CA | $880,413 |
Baggiani & Isola | Buttonwillow, CA | $809,892 |
A.J.B. Ranch | Bakersfield, CA | $760,804 |
H. V. Farms, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $744,742 |
G. and M. Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $744,448 |
David Torgiani Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $717,088 |
Frank & Daniel Fugitt | Bakersfield, CA | $711,737 |
Tri-fanucchi Farms, Inc. | Arvin, CA | $708,932 |
Parker Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $697,886 |
Albert & Lilly Ghilarducci Frm | Buttonwillow, CA | $666,461 |
R. M. Mettler (Metco) | Bakersfield, CA | $666,037 |
Arthur Ghilarducci | Buttonwillow, CA | $657,120 |
J & W Farming | Bakersfield, CA | $656,033 |
Wilgenburg Dairy Farm | Bakersfield, CA | $648,230 |
John A. Miller Farms | Wasco, CA | $635,211 |
Shaen Magan Family Trust | Bass Lake, CA | $632,237 |
Roy & Jelsey Romanini Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $631,052 |
Rudy Angone | Bakersfield, CA | $626,223 |
Giannelli Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $617,458 |
Suburu Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $600,950 |
V & C Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $596,186 |
Mettler Ag/David Mettler | Bakersfield, CA | $590,745 |
Tejon Ranch/Laval Farms | Lebec, CA | $589,180 |
A. Cattani & Son | Bakersfield, CA | $581,051 |
Paramount Farming Co.-Eastside | Bakersfield, CA | $576,597 |
Val-Ridge Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $571,428 |
4-B Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $548,543 |
E. H. A. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $541,570 |
R & M Jelmini Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $541,567 |
Howard Frick Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $534,920 |
MNA Trust | Bakersfield, CA | $532,446 |
Riverbend Dairy #2 | Tulare, CA | $525,654 |
V.B. Zaninovich & Sons, Inc. | Richgrove, CA | $503,529 |
Costamagna Bros | Bakersfield, CA | $493,987 |
Thomson Land Company | Bakersfield, CA | $493,338 |
Opal Fry & Son | Bakersfield,, CA | $486,395 |
Bonanza Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $450,528 |
Tut Bros. Farms | Watsonville, CA | $440,501 |
Sierra Victor Ranch Company | Delano, CA | $439,525 |
Community Recycling | Lamont, CA | $433,937 |
Bloemhof Ag Ent | Wasco, CA | $430,593 |
Wm. Bolthouse, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $429,176 |
Jarrard Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $423,897 |
Nikkel Bros. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $418,157 |
R & K Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $412,156 |
Gino Buoni | Bakersfield, CA | $411,552 |
Fanucchi Enterprises | Arvin, CA | $390,274 |
Munger Investments | Delano, CA | $389,504 |
Munger Farms | Delano, CA | $389,504 |
Richard Clasen | Bakersfield, CA | $386,584 |
H. Spitzer & Sons Inc. | Lamont, CA | $381,161 |
Jimmie Icardo Farms, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $373,932 |
Del Papa Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $370,950 |
Cappello Farms, Inc./Oak Flat | Bakersfield, CA | $346,223 |
Feed Resources LLC | Bakersfield, CA | $327,988 |
Mitchell Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $324,321 |
Carlos Gomez | Bakersfield, CA | $320,333 |
Sam Andrews Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $309,541 |
Corotto Co., Inc. | Edison, CA | $304,453 |
Tehachapi Vineyards | Ceres, CA | $300,646 |
Richline Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $265,268 |
Kingsburg Citrus Ranch | Mcfarland, CA | $253,253 |
Royal Farms | Fresno, CA | $244,996 |
Sunview Vineyards Of CA., Inc. | Mcfarland, CA | $236,025 |
Wheeler Ridge Farming Co. | Rancho Cucamonga, CA | $233,187 |
Walker Fry Ranch | Bakersfield, CA | $233,063 |
Trinity Farms, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $232,710 |
M.A.D. Farms | ?, CA | $221,527 |
Dosanjh Bros. Farm | Bakersfield, CA | $212,655 |
Sandhill Farms | Arvin, CA | $205,090 |
Bhogal Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $199,152 |
Ray-lee Company | Bakersfield, CA | $198,577 |
Poso Creek Ranch | Delano, CA | $197,440 |
Gar Mcleod & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $187,540 |
Banducci Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $186,025 |
Norman Shepherd | Buttonwillow, CA | $179,067 |
Bapu Farming Co. LLC | Madera, CA | $174,583 |
Paul Coombs & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $169,611 |
7 K Ranch | Bakersfield, CA | $165,950 |
Joel Suburu | Bakersfield, CA | $165,409 |
San Raphael Fruits, Corp. | Rolling Hills Estate, CA | $157,229 |
Agriswiss, Inc. | Mcfarland, CA | $135,840 |
M & E Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $134,303 |
M. J . B. Farms | Delano, CA | $125,758 |
Kirschenmann Farms | Lamont, CA | $123,776 |
Harold Fleishauer & Son | Bakersfield, CA | $119,064 |
Baroncini Bros. | Bakersfield, CA | $117,089 |
John S. Antongiovanni Jr. | Bakersfield, CA | $111,133 |
Larsons Dairyland | Bakersfield, CA | $109,817 |
I & I Farms Inc., Frank Icardo | Lamont, CA | $107,882 |
Jack Schweikart | Bakersfield, CA | $105,582 |
Mc Carthy Family Farms | Corcoran, CA | $99,986 |
Affentranger & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $99,902 |
Anthony Vineyards | Bakersfield, CA | $79,563 |
California Pistachio | Bakersfield, CA | $78,269 |
Roden Farms | Shandon, CA | $76,700 |
Frank Garone, Jr. | Bakersfield, CA | $75,384 |
Miersma Family Dairy | Chino, CA | $75,278 |
Rich Mar Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $73,116 |
Andrewsag Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $73,072 |
Norman Etchison | Bakersfield, CA | $54,752 |
Golden State Vinters, Inc. | Fresno, CA | $46,106 |
Cal Farm Invest | Bakersfield, CA | $45,065 |
Mark Johnson | Bakersfield, CA | $43,586 |
Amaretto Orchards c/o Ag Wise | Bakersfield, CA | $36,318 |
J.F. & S. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $35,408 |
Tom Sandrini | Bakersfield, CA | $33,453 |
7th Standard Ranch | Shafter, CA | $30,601 |
King-pak Farms | Lamont, CA | $19,981 |
Michael Hat | Manteca, CA | $15,232 |
Louis Riccomini & Sons | Bakersfield, CA | $11,088 |
Kundert Brothers Farms | Edison, CA | $10,821 |
Andrew Brancato | Bakersfield, CA | $8,206 |
Holmes Ag. Management | Fresno, CA | $5,152 |
Sunset Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $3,299 |
Bloemhof Land & Farming | Wasco, CA | $1,568 |
Primex | Fresno, CA | $288 |
Singh, Jagtar | Fresno, CA | $0 |
John J. Kovacevich & Sons | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Yaksitch Farms | Lamont, CA | $0 |
Kindig Bros. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Grimmway Enterprises | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Thomas Miles | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Giumarra Vineyards | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Stephen Pavich & Sons | Lindsay, CA | $0 |
Rancho Alexander | Mcfarland, CA | $0 |
Key Farm | Arvin, CA | $0 |
G & G Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Kern Ridge Growers | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Vignolo-Delmart Farms | Shafter, CA | $0 |
Bushnell Farm | Buttonwillow, CA | $0 |
Richard Enns | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Lester E. Stout | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Hankins Farms, Inc. | Wasco, CA | $0 |
7th Standard Ranch Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Malibu Vineyards | Delano, CA | $0 |
Blackwell Land Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Badger Farming | Exeter, CA | $0 |
Nalbandian | Lamont, CA | $0 |
Old River Sod | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Romero Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Western Ag Specialists | Sanger, CA | $0 |
Paramount Citrus | Delano, CA | $0 |
Foxtail Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Hall Farming | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Hein Ranch Company | Visalia, CA | $0 |
Poochigian Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
James Tazioli | Buttonwillow, CA | $0 |
Don And Alfred Palla | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Aldo Angone Farming | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Don Laux Farm Management | Porterville, CA | $0 |
Agro Farming | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Doug Kaiser Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Norman Efird Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Blair Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $0 |
Lloyd Unruh Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Smith & Sons/Smith & Smith | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Fred Starrh Farms | Shafter, CA | $0 |
Desert Ranch | Wasco, CA | $0 |
Hay Brothers | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Pioneer Nursery | Visalia, CA | $0 |
Universal Farming #105 | Redondo Beach, CA | $0 |
C.S. Sidhu Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Famoso Vineyards | Delano, CA | $0 |
Rainbow Ranches, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Dennis & Peter Frick, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Ugo Antongiovanni Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Dole Fresh Fruit Co. - Rch Lma | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
D. M. Camp | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Dushmesh Farms, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Jack Reed Farming | Edison, CA | $0 |
Ag. Management Associates, Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Superior Sod | Tehachapi, CA | $0 |
A & P Ranch | Lost Hills, CA | $0 |
Robert S. Andrews | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Paramount Farming W Valley/DR | Lost Hills, CA | $0 |
Sunworld Inc.DBA Superior Farm | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Sun Pacific Farming Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Eduardo Garcia Farm | Earlimart, CA | $0 |
Stan Voth Farms | Wasco, CA | $0 |
Rancho Esteli | Visalia, CA | $0 |
Shafter Ranch | Lathrop, CA | $0 |
Carreon Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Tony Guerrero | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Lederhos Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
B J Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Jim Hronis & Sons-Grapes Only | Delano, CA | $0 |
South Valley Farms | Wasco, CA | $0 |
D'Best Produce Co. Llc | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Sherwood 209- Sun Valley Assoc | Visalia, CA | $0 |
Delano Farms Company | Delano, CA | $0 |
H. P. Anderson and Son | Tulare, CA | $0 |
Webster Pistachios | Kettleman City, CA | $0 |
Garry Richardson Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Double G Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $0 |
I.N.A. Farm Corp. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Gless Ranch, Inc. | Riverside, CA | $0 |
Kirk Elholm Farms | Wasco, CA | $0 |
Uni-CA | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Slaydeco | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
South West 320 Fruit Co. | Visalia, CA | $0 |
G. T. S. Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Agtoprof, Inc. | Shafter, CA | $0 |
Farmland Management Service | Delano, CA | $0 |
Chaparral, Inc. | Fresno, CA | $0 |
RWB Ranch & Tejon | Lindsay, CA | $0 |
J. H. Farms | Escondido, CA | $0 |
Triple Y | Delano, CA | $0 |
Kern Oil & Refining Co. | Delano, CA | $0 |
Four Star Fruit, Inc. | Delano, CA | $0 |
Ballantine Produce Co., Inc | Sanger, CA | $0 |
Gorgin Farms | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Lucas Brothers | Visalia, CA | $0 |
Grimmway Organics | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Doaba Farming Co., Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Elex Farms, Inc. | Fresno, CA | $0 |
John Allen Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Kenny Mc Clanahan Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Redbank-Malaga/Minda Corp | Lindsay, CA | $0 |
Dewar Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Maricopa Slope Ranch | Delano, CA | $0 |
Southlake Ranch | Delano, CA | $0 |
Paramount Farms-Belridge Ranch | Mckittrick, CA | $0 |
Bel Lehr Organics | Edison, CA | $0 |
Betty Magan | Bass Lake, CA | $0 |
Islam Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Mid State Lab Test Farm | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Ron Fanucchi Farming | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Twinland | Wasco, CA | $0 |
Del Monte Fresh Produce | Sanger, CA | $0 |
Sunshine Farms | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Willow Ridge Ranch | Shafter, CA | $0 |
S And H Farms | Gonzales, CA | $0 |
Maricopa | Ceres, CA | $0 |
Don Cox | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Old West Farming DBA Sunmet 51 | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Maricopa Nursery Corp. | Manhattan Beach, CA | $0 |
Castillo Farms | Los Angeles, CA | $0 |
Sun Pacific Farming - Maricopa | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Castle Rock Farming & Transprt | Delano, CA | $0 |
Sun Pacific Farming-mcfarland | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Raaviz Farms | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Norag Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Klein Management Inc. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Alborz Farms, LLC | Fresno, CA | $0 |
Cal-Organic Vegetable Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Greenwood Farms | Buttonwillow, CA | $0 |
Dynamic Farms | Scotts Bluff, NE | $0 |
Bidart Farms | Chino, CA | $0 |
Etchegaray Farms | Earlimart, CA | $0 |
Loma Ranch | Los Angeles, CA | $0 |
FMP Vineyards Llc | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Jack S. Thomson Farming Co. | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Covenant Farms | Bakersfield, CA | $0 |
Hill Maricopa Ranch | Arvin, CA | $0 |
Ben Lapadula | Bass Lake, CA | $0 |
Paragon Seed Inc. | Salinas, CA | $0 |
Tulare Lake Farming Co. | Corcoran, CA | $0 |
Hure Brothers | Delano, CA | $0 |
Giannetto Citrus | Terra Bella, CA | $0 |
Superior Almonds | Porterville, CA | $0 |
Sun Pacific Farming (tomato) | Exeter, CA | $0 |
Acknowledgements
Principal author: Renee Sharp
Editor: Bill Walker
Additional research: Arianne Callender, Simona Carini, Brendan DeMelle, Sonya Lunder
Site design and graphics: T.C. Greenleaf
Database and GIS mapping: Chris Campbell, Sean Gray
Advice and editorial review: Hal Candee, Steve Davies, John Echeverria, John Gibler, John Leshy, David Owen, Joseph Sax
This investigation was made possible by the generous support of George Miller of San Francisco. Opinions expressed are those of the author and editor, who are responsible for any errors.