Isn't it Wonderful? Activity by Shyla Mendoza

A Kingdom from Dust : Section 1 Summary

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:00:00 UTC

Section 1 from "A Kingdom from Dust" begins by describing the journey the author, Mark Arax, takes across Highway 99 to reach Kern County. Driving along Highway 99 allows him to view all the new agriculture creations and advances that where never there when his grandfather, an Armenian immigrant, traveled to the U.S. As Mark reaches Kern County, he sees the hundreds and thousands of acres of plants that have somehow found their way to thrive even when the county is struggling to provide water for most of its citizens. Before, Kern County was filled by desert land but now it is one of the best agricultural regions. Mark later discovers that a man named Stewart Resnick is the owner of most if not all of the trees and plants located in Kern County. He is labeled as one of the richest farmers in the United States but somehow never physically worked on a farm or grew up around agriculture. Resnick was born in New Jersey and overtime found his way into agribusiness becoming the owner of Wonderful Company. He lives in Beverly Hills and owns at least 15 million trees spanning over 180,000 acres. To get the water his plants needs to survive, Resnick secretly has built water banks and pipes to keep his plants alive even in times of extreme drought.

Some pros from this section are that Max goes into detail about visual aspects and allows the reader to visual Highway 99 and eventually Kern County with the million of trees located on both sides of the streets. He also provided historical context which lets the reader know that Kern County was never always a thriving agricultural region but instead a struggling county filled with desert land. Some cons from this article are that it seems that it can be biased by painting Resnick and his wife in a villainous light and may have left out important details about other farmworkers in the area.

Kern County Investigation

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:00:50 UTC

Kern County is a county in California and has a population of around 922,529 people as of 2024. The population of Kern County is mostly occupied by Hispanic or Latino individuals. After investigating Kern County, I have found that there are many pros and cons for individuals that live within or near this area. Some of Kern County's pros are that they are very advanced in agriculture and produce several important crops for both the state and the United States. Kern County is very popular for producing grapes, almonds, citrus, pistachios, and many more. This means individuals that live within the area are blessed with many popular and nutritious crops. Kern County also produces low cost of living with affordable houses all throughout the county. The county also is know to have a strong job market because they have so much agriculture. Having millions of crops and plants that need maintaining, many individuals in Kern County work within the agriculture there or in energy. Some cons when it comes to Kern County are its location. Kern County is located in the southern part of the central valley which means individuals there experience very hot and dry summers with low air quality as dust is constantly flowing around. Kern County also is in a location where other major cities, stores, or popular sights are far away.

Kern Water Bank Investigation

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:01:07 UTC

The Kern County Water Bank is a 32 mile property that is know to store 15 million acre-feet of water underground so Kern County can receive water during dry years with more water constantly being stored during wet years. The water bank features 85 deep recovery wells that can produce up to 5,000 gallons per minute. The Kern County Water Bank covers about 20,000 to 20,600 acres of land through the valley and is located 12 miles southwest of Bakersfield. The water bank is owned and managed by the Kern Water Bank Authority (KWBA) with several water districts and agencies being members. The Kern County Water Bank is also mostly owned by the Resnick family who are very popular among Kern County agriculture. Other than providing water for the land, The Kern County Water Bank is found to be a habitat for several species. The area of land is protected by state and federal agencies.

The Resnicks Investigation

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:01:55 UTC

The Resnick family includes the popular Stewart and Lynda Resnick who are farmers, entrepreneurs, and the owners of the Wonderful Company (POM Wonderful). They currently live in Beverly Hills California but somehow have managed to own large amounts of farmland in the Central Valley, mostly Kern County. They are known to own at least 57% of the Kern Water Bank Authority which manages the Kern Water Bank. Stewart Resnick is one of the richest farmers in the United States but never grew up on a farm or previously worked in agriculture. He was born in New Jersey and began his entrepreneurial journey during his time in UCLA. Stewart would expand into several different departments and even owned half of Los Angeles's commercial alarm accounts by the 1970s. This time is where Stewart and Lynda would meet. They met as Stewart was seeking marketing assistance and Lynda was already an owner of a advertising agency. They decided to partner up their skills and eventually got married in 1972. They created the famous POM Wonderful company in 2002 after receiving a pistachio farm with pomegranates in 1995. As they continued to invest and find ways to produce more plants, the Resnick's got richer in both money and agriculture and grew the Wonderful brand into some huge. As of now, their most famous products are their 100% pomegranate juice, Wonderful Pistachios, FIJI Water, and more.

California Droughts Investigation

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:02:13 UTC

Droughts in California are very common and we often see and experience them every few years. Extreme droughts can last for multiple years if the previous years are very dry. Some popular droughts that happened recently in California were in the years of 2012-2016 and 2020-2022. During these years, the state of California experienced extreme water shortages and had to put limits on how much water was able to be used by the citizens. Some counties and homes in certain areas lost water completely and relied on volunteers and water transport from other areas in order to make food, clean dishes, take showers, and even drink clean water. Droughts in California bring many consequences for the state. When California is in a drought, we all experience water shortages that lead to lower water in reservoirs as seen in the image and less water in our homes. Having little to no water also means our agriculture is affected as plants will not be able to grow. Since California is already a hot state throughout summer and sometimes fall, droughts make the desert land even drier which means the hot sun can cause wildfires with the dry trees and plants all around. Wildfires are prone to happen when droughts occur which is why there have been several projects done to prevent droughts from happening often.

Resnick's Wine Takeover Investigation

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:02:37 UTC

Stewart and Lynda Resnick created the Wonderful Company which produced POM Wonderful. These companies were already very popular and successful leading to them to obtain at least 8 billion dollars from these companies alone. Overtime, the Resnicks decided to continue expanding to other areas of entrepreneurship and eventually landed in California's wine industry. The Resnicks first began their wine expansion in 2010 in Paso Robles. The Resnicks first acquired Justin Vineyards & Winery which is high known for "Bordeaux-style blends" Using this company, the Resnicks continued to buy more vineyards to increase the amount of wine they produced and created. In 2011, The Resnicks occupied Landmark Vineyards in Sonoma Valley. This vineyard was award-winning and produced Chardonnay flavored wine. This addition increased the Resnick's net worth by 11 million dollars. Transitioning to wine has helped the Resnicks become more known and also richer. Their expansion has also received some sorts of criticism over there use of agricultural water and the removal of oak trees in order to make more space for their grape growth on their Justin Vineyards property.

Federalism

smendoza208785 — 2025-09-30 18:03:00 UTC

Controlling water in California is an example of Federalism because it involves shared responsibilities and power from different parts of the government. To control the water in California, the state of California has certain responsibilities and controls water usage for the state. On the other hand, the federal government owns and operates certain reservoirs within California that produce water for the state. Local governments are able to control how water is used in communities close to them and maintain water pipelines and canals for the city they are in. Overall, controlling water in California is federalism as no single part of the government fully controls all of the water the state of California has and sees.

A Kingdom from Dust: Section 6 Summary

smendoza208785 — 2025-10-01 19:02:05 UTC

During California's drought, the Resnicks struggled to maintain the water supply they had before causing thousands of trees to die. Eventually, the rain in 2016 allowed for farmers and the Resnicks to replant the lost plants and trees but they still continued to struggle with water. This caused the Resnicks to expand to both state and underground water to feed their millions of plants and trees in Kern County. Despite all their efforts to find the correct amount of water for their plants, the state of California presented new laws regulating pumping meaning that some cropland around the valley will have to be retired.