User:Wcline11/The Wonderful Company
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Article Draft
[edit]Sources I will use to cite:
Arax, Mark. “Massive Farm Owned by L.A. Man Uses Water Bank Conceived for State Needs.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2003, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-dec-19-me-kern19-story.html.
Sorvino, Chloe. “Amid Drought, Billionaires Control a Critical California Water Bank.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 11 Oct. 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2021/09/20/amid-drought-billionaires-control-a-critical-california-water-bank/?sh=4d3b62cc2e7a.
Gibler, John. “Water Heist - How Corporations Are Cashing in on California Water.” Public Citizen, Public Citizen, https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/water_heist_lo-res.pdf.
Gibler, John. “LOST IN THE VALLEY OF EXCESS.” Earth Island Journal, vol. 25, no. 4, 2011, pp. 34–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43880556. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023.
from article: Controversy
[edit]The Wonderful Company has been criticised for its aggressive consumption of water in the drought ridden state of California. The company has expanded its business even as California residents have faced water shortages and the water ecosystem has been irreversibly damaged. Residents of the Central Valley, while the target of the company's charitable giving, suffer from an acute water crisis. It is also claimed that the company lobbies to privatise the State's water and funds opposition research on the impact of farming on the drought.
My addition:
The Kern Water Bank:
The Wonderful Company has been able to expand their agricultural operations through their ownership of the Kern Water Bank (Mark). The Kern Water Bank is a man-made underground reservoir in the Central Valley (Public Citizen). The Department of Water Resources spent $74 million building the water bank, and it is the largest of its kind, capable of holding one million acre-feet of water (Gibler, "Lost in The Valley). Through what some source have called backroom negotiations, in 1994 the water bank was transferred from the public to the private ownership of the Resnick's (citation?). It was passed from the Department of Water Resources to the Kern County Water Authority, and from there to the Kern Water Bank Authority. The Kern Water Bank Authority is comprised of four water districts and a private company, Westside Mutual (citation?). Westside is a shell corporation owned by Paramount Farming which is a subsidiary of The Wonderful Company (Public Citizen). It is primarily through Westside that the Resnicks own 57% of the Water Bank (Sorvino). News outlets, academic papers, and advocacy groups have criticized The Wonderful Company for its possession of what was originally meant to be a public asset, and the monetary benefit they have gained through it.