The Iran Connection: Water Privatization in California
Two unlikely worlds collide.
As part of our Pistachio Wars blitz, Rowan and I did an interview with Grayzone about the unlikely connection between America’s aggressive policies towards Iran and the billionaire-driven water grab going on in California.
Here are some snippets from
MB: How did the sanctions imposed on Iran by the Carter administration after the 1979 revolution affect America’s domestic pistachio market in general, and the Resnicks in particular?
YL & RW: Without out a doubt, President Carter’s embargo on Iran was what gave birth to America’s pistachio business. Historically, pistachios imported from Iran had dominated global markets, including in the US. When America was suddenly cut off from Iran’s pistachio supply after Carter’s economic blockade in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis, it left a giant hole in the market and created the need for an alternative source of pistachios. At the time, pistachio farming happened on a small scale in the United States — the bulk of it in California’s Central Valley. Sensing a perfect business opportunity, farmers in California stepped in to fill the void. At that time, Stewart Resnick had just gotten into agriculture. He was a shrewd businessman and he seized the moment.
From then on, America’s pistachio industry grew at crazy pace, with domestic output more than doubling every 5 years. In 2008, forty years after the embargo, America finally surpassed Iran as the world’s dominant producer of pistachios. And the bulk of America’s pistachio trade is controlled by one firm: the Wonderful Company, owned by Beverly Hills billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick…
MB: Has anyone from Resnicks’ Wonderful Company operation openly stated their intention to sabotage Iran’s pistachio exports through sanctions?
YL & RW: Iran has had America’s market closed to it pretty much since 1979. But more than half of their pistachios are exported internationally and are thus directly in competition with Iran’s exports.
So battling and taking over Iran international marketshare — whether in Europe, China, South Korea Russia, India or Israel — has been a prime objective of the Resnicks and the greater pistachio lobby. This is done with sanctions, but it is also done with free trade agreements — lobbying countries through American government trade reps to raise tariffs on Iranian pistachios, while lowering tariffs on American pistachios to zero.
They will use every tool they have to restrict and suffocate Iran’s pistachio industry. The Wonderful Company is very media and PR savvy so its executives and spokespeople don’t go out calling for war on Iran. But they are honest about Iran being their prime competitor and target. As one of their executives — in a very understated manner — told the press told the press not so long ago: “We don’t mind stealing share from the Iranians.”
MB: To what extent has the rise of domestic pistachio production, and particularly the growth of the Resnicks’ Wonderful Company impacted a water-deprived state like California? Would importing pistachios from a place like Iran or another pistachio-producing region take some of the pressure off of California’s water supply? And short of any market-based solution, what remedies can be applied to restore control over water to the public?
YL & RW: The two are directly connected. What makes pistachios different from other crops grown in California is that they grow on trees and cannot be fallowed in a dry year. With crops like cotton or alfalfa or lettuce or strawberries, farmers can simply not plant in a drought year when there is not enough water. But with pistachio trees it’s different. If you don’t water them, the trees die — which destroys years of investment that it took to bring them to maturity. There can be no water cutoff for pistachio orchards — they require a constant, year-round supply of water. But California has seasonal rainfall and periods drought. So in order to maintain their constant supply of water, California farmers — led by the Resnicks — have been draining aquifers and rivers at an alarming rate and are currently pushing through a devastating plan to siphon off of two largest rivers in California — all in order to feed the pistachio boom.
California’s water shortages cannot be solved through market mechanisms. A solution would require democratic control of water supplies. There needs to be a democratic political framework for determining how to use the state’s precious, over-tapped water supplies in a way that is maximally beneficial to the public and to the environment — to the future of the state. Water today is distributed purely based on raw economic power: it goes to the most powerful, most cutthroat business interests.
And that’s where we are today: not only are American pistachio farmers destroying California, but they are willing to risk war in Iran and the Middle East — all in order to boost and protect their lucrative pistachio business.
There is a bigger issue here that goes beyond pistachios and water in California. The fact is that we in America cannot fix our belligerent and destructive foreign policy without first reigning in the economic interests that drive it and benefit from it. In that sense, the pistachio business is no different than oil companies or weapons makers — it’s just that it is not so well known.
MB: Stewart and Lynda Resnick have taken an extremely active role in supporting the Israel lobby both in the US. What organizations are they backing and to what-extent is their support related to protecting their share of the pistachio market against Iranian exports? Or could it be that this power couple is just ideologically committed to the idea of Israel, as many other American Jews are?
YL & RW: Stewart and Lynda Resnick are donors and supporters of of some of the most powerful and influential neoconservative organizations in America, including the AIPAC spinoff WINEP (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) where they have been on and off the board for over a decade. WINEP has been extremely hawkish on Iran. One of its executives has openly called on Israel to provoke a war with Iran in order to pull in the United States.
Stewart Resnick, along with Sheldon Adelson, has also long been a board member and backer of American Friends of IDC, a not-for-profit foundation that serves as the fundraising arm of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a think tank with close links to the Israeli intelligence and military establishment, and which has long advocated an aggressive approach to Iran. And through their family foundation, the Resnicks have also funneled money to the American Jewish Committee, which one of the most active lobbyists pushing for a sweeping Iran sanctions bill that was eventually signed into law by Obama in 2010.
Whether or not they fund these groups solely for business purposes or because of their personal commitment to supporting Israel — well, that’s a hard thing to untangle. They are politically active and are major political donors. They donate widely across the political spectrum, but ostensibly, they are liberals. They said glowing things about Obama’s 2008 victory, they hosted a party for Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein, Arianna Huffington is a close friend of theirs, and they have Stephen Colbert in tow as a brand spokesperson. They rarely speak to their views around issues of real consequence, whether it’s about Israel, Iran, or even California and American politics.
Our sense is that for the these two issues are intertwined — there’s a synergy there. And the two positions are mutually supportive. Backing the aggressive, neoconservative Israel lobby by default helps their bottom line. We would add – and this is just our own reading of the situation here – that in the unlikely event that they would be forced to choose between supporting Israel and protecting their business interests, the latter would prevail. For the Resnicks, business comes first.
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—Yasha Levine