Pistachio Wars is big in New Zealand
On the prowl for oligarchs…in San Francisco.
In some positive news for a change: my co-director Rowan Wernham, a New Zealand original, was profiled by one of the biggest radio programs in his home country: Radio New Zealand’s Saturday Morning show. He gave a great interview about our film Pistachio Wars and the larger story about how a billionaire farming couple has been waging a war on life in California…all to grow a boutique snack food. Turns out Rowan is much more of a doomer about California water politics than Kim Stanley Robinson, who was on the program slot right before him.
Check it out:
Pistachio nuts have become a popular snack around the world but a new documentary about where they come from and how they're farmed might make pistachio lovers think again before shelling their next nut.
Dunedin film-maker Rowan Wernham has teamed up with US journalist Yasha Levine to tell the story of a bitter battle being waged in California where 90 percent of the world's pistachios are produced.
Pistachio Wars is an investigative documentary into billionaire pistachio farmers and water barons Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who it's alleged are flagrantly bending the parched state's political system and privatising water to feed their vast farming empire in the desert.
Meanwhile we’re working to get this thing shown on the big screen and on streaming platforms.
Stay tuned…and take care.
—Yasha Levine