By some measures, Stewart Resnick is the biggest farmer in California. His empire of almonds, pomegranates, pistachios and citrus covers over 120,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley. Known today as The Wonderful Company, Resnick and his wife Lynda have grown their multi-billion dollar fortune on products like POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and Wonderful Halos mandarin oranges. And despite California’s drought, in recent years they’ve kept growing, thanks to shrewd management of their most precious resource – water. Now in a new piece for the California Sunday Magazine, journalist Mark Arax digs deep into the story of the Resnicks, their fortune, philanthropy, and their control of water in California’s agricultural heartland. It’s a preview of his upcoming book on water in the Golden State, and offers a rare inside look at the “Wonderful” empire. He joined us on Valley Public Radio to talk about the Resnick empire and the future of valley agriculture.
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