West Coast Observer: California’s Fishing Problem

By William Silveira

Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the wealthy landowners I mentioned in Friday’s column – the couple who are irrigating desert land in Lost Hills – made the Los Angeles Times yesterday. In an op-ed column entitled “The Fate of the Salmon Is a Grim Indicator of Our Future,” author James Pogue notes that immense power is wielded in Sacramento by large agribusiness interests and their lobbyists. He mentions the Resnicks specifically as “the Beverly Hills-based planter billionaires” and notes that they “have donated more than $350,000 to Governor [Gavin] Newsome since 2018.” The following instructive paragraph immediately follows the mention of the Resnicks:

West Coast Observer: California’s Water Problem

By William Silveira

A friend on the East Coast recently sent me a link to the New York Times article “The Central California Town That Keeps Sinking” [by Lois Henry, May 25]. Its opening sounds a siren:

CORCORAN, Calif. — In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the farming town of Corcoran has a multimillion-dollar problem. It is almost impossible to see, yet so vast it takes NASA scientists using satellite technology to fully grasp.
    Corcoran is sinking.

[You can read the whole article here, after I provide a context for you.]

Father’s Art: Works of Billy Charles Duvall [5]

Detail from lead painting

Three Paintings from an Old Triptych

By André Duvall

Today’s three paintings were originally conjoined on one 6" x 12" piece of Masonite, which my father divided with painted black lines into segments of equal length. Dad completed the center and right paintings in 1988, but “painter’s block” kept him from completing the left side until a few weeks ago (32 years later!) – when I told him that I planned to arrive in town to catalogue another set of paintings for a Father’s Art post, he rediscovered the incomplete triptych, and upon viewing the vacant spaces in the left-side painting, knew suddenly, after all these years, how to complete the painting and what it would be titled (the other two paintings are untitled).

West Coast Observer: Del Bosque Farms and Water

By William Silveira

After the publication of my observation (“American Hypocrisy”) on Alfredo Corchado’s article in the New York Times, “A Former Farm Worker on American Hypocrisy,” I decided to do some research on Del Bosque Farms, and I found a very interesting post regarding that company on a website sponsored by the American Farmlands Trust, an organization in the United States that works to protect and conserve farmland.

West Coast Observer: American Hypocrisy

By William Silveira

In the New York Times article “A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy” (May 6, 2020), Alfredo Corchado accuses our government of hypocrisy when it says workers formerly considered “illegal” are now “essential.” Much of what Corchado discusses was known to me. I grew up in Tulare and have resided in Tulare County my whole life. My father was a farm owner with 400 acres of farm land south of Tulare. At the time I was growing up, we raised sugar beets, cotton, milo, barley, and alfalfa. We also had pigs. My brother and I irrigated these crops and cut, mowed, and raked the alfalfa. In our spare time we were expected to help out with the pigs – fence maintenance, health care, and feeding.

West Coast Observer: Heads in the sand

Without water

By William Silveira

Trump blew into the City of Tulare on August 30 for a luncheon fund raiser at the home of Tulare Union High School classmate, Corky Anderson. Anderson owns and operates a wholesale pistachio nursery as well as owning his own pistachio groves. In attendance at the event were members of some of the Central Valley’s large agricultural enterprises, including Annette and Bob Smitcamp of Fresno and the owners of Harris Ranch. Also in attendance was our congressman, Devin Nunes, whom Trump invited along for the jet ride from San Francisco to Fresno. Trump purportedly picked up 1.3 million dollars from the event – not a bad haul for a 1.5 hour visit. The event was closed to the public – except for those who wanted to pay $25,000 for a private talk with Trump or $2,700 for lunch with about 250 other people.