Trinitas Partners recent declaration of bankruptcy is likely just the beginning of widespread economic devastation throughout the San Joaquin Valley. No one saw it coming more clearly than the pseudonymous author of On the Public Record (OtPR), who wrote nine years ago,
“This economic model, in which powerful outsiders come in, displace the natives and destroy local natural resources (the aquifers) to provide cheap unprocessed goods to a foreign country is pure colonial extraction…. When Trinitas goes under, it should at least leave some nice public buildings and newly re-paved roads behind.”
Until its unknown author stopped posting, OtPR was often the most informed and insightful source for water news throughout the state. Self-described as “a low-level civil servant who reads reports,” the mystery writer obviously had access to inside information. More importantly, he/she cut through the bullshit about how giant agribusinesses owned by investors and speculators were going bring manna from heaven to the benighted citizens of the Great Valley.
No one knew better the coming crisis brought on by Big Ag’s relentless pumping of groundwater than the voice of OtPR. No one better expressed the outrage we should all feel as Big Money and Big Ag converted our most precious public resource into cash gained from export crops like almonds and pistachios.
Too few others realized that after the groundwater was gone and the scant supplies of surface water were diminished by drought and overuse, the devastation would fall on us — the waterless small towns, the dry wells of homeowners and small ranchers and farmers, and the crushing costs of subsidence and compaction — all the ruin would be borne by the vulnerable public.
“I don’t see how it is different from slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazon to provide cheap beef or cutting hardwoods like teak out of tropical forests,” wrote OtPR. “Mostly I am just stunned that my state is on the receiving end; I thought we were first world. I guess anywhere can be exploited if they aren’t willing to protect their poor or their natural resource.”
Did anyone notice that all during the almond boom, while the big guys made millions upon millions, Valley cities were dying from within? Somehow, the big profits from exporting almonds and pistachios never trickled down. Today, Valley cities continue to suffer the ill effects of rising poverty and homelessness, even while the Ag Giants continue to pump and profit.
The Ag Giants, Boswell, Resnick and Vidovich, and, most recently, Trinitas, have lived outside the Valley while privatizing profits and socializing costs. During their race to the bottom of Valley aquifers, some even managed to sell water to outside interests.
In fact, commodification and privatization of water has become among the most insidious and ongoing forces for destruction throughout the Valley. Ever since Charles Lux and Henry Miller began diverting water for crops to feed their cattle operations, predatory water barons have appropriated water for their own uses, even when it means destroying the resource.
Lux and Miller realized as early as the 19th century that they could manipulate local water boards and Sacramento politicians even more easily than they could divert water from the Kern River. That was the beginning of the political machinations that determine water use throughout the Valley to this day.
Almost certainly an insider witness to today’s current water shenanigans, OtPR knew over a decade ago that letting Big Money and Big Ag determine water use throughout the Valley wasn’t a case of the fox guarding the henhouse, it was a case of paying the fox to sell the eggs, eat the chickens, and then burn the henhouse down.
OtPR warned us about Trinitas and all the others who’ve brought ruin to Valley aquifers. We should have listened.
Some people would monetize the Sun if they could. We must view water as a public resource not a private trophy, so we can recodify and regulate our public aquifer and the four main types of surface water rights: riparian rights, pre-1914 and post-1914 appropriative rights, and prescriptive rights.
Well, Mr. Cain, this is a good start, but, there is a lot more to this story. During the upheaval in the Board of OID about 8 years ago, when the local residents of Oakdale elected two women to the OID Board, a few of us ‘volunteer’s were given access to the very large Trinitas Contract after submitting a public records request and dealing wiht the many objections by the GM at the time. Likely best for me not to divulge the real reason for that agreement, but here is a hint- the long term ‘plan’ by Trinitas was not for an orchard of trees. The long term plan (to be put into action by 2025) was something totally different and unexpected- and it was centered on the prospect of the North County Corridor Freeway- which is just starting to break ground. If you want to hear more, contact me directly.
Well It sounds like we are talking about a mega-bat housing boom on the east side
as the end game for the pumped dry east side foothill factory tree farms.
I would invite the developers to pay for a new freeway exit at their own cost
and not to use Salida and our highway 219 which the great state of California paid for,
or the yet-to-be-completed, imminent domain-based home-wrecking little bypass
the county is rolling over Riverbank with ( and now we know why )
Eric, what is the actual area and location of this Trinitas Partners Ranch operations? Are they located to the northeast or southeast of Oakdale?
Thank you.
Turlock Citizen: Most of the property is southeast of Oakdale, in the rolling foothills, to the best of my knowledge.
All this chest pounding is really diverting but clearly yall are ignoring some really inconvenient truths.
Predicting that a tree even an almond tree will fall is a sure bet any day it’s just a matter of time. So is the nature of boom-and-bust farming in California where it has always been and will continue to be the arena of optimists, entrepreneurs, and gamblers. Particularly in purely competitive market structures like nuts, corn, soybeans, etc. It is a shame that with all her (OPR) significant economic background she and you mislead your readers into thinking that this one bankruptcy happened in some preordained vacuum. The truth is that the last three plus years of irresponsible, destructive and calamitous economic policy on the part of the federal and state governments played a significant part in this story. Why would you leave that out? Just ask any average Jane about her struggles making ends meet today in her family life, small business, or farming operation and amplify that by billions to see what it is costing large complex industries. Costs of inputs have skyrocketed beyond sustainability. Trade deficits with predatory economies like China are completely out of control with no end in sight. Ag is one of the few key areas of our economy that is making inroads with the Chinese trade deficit. Despite this government is still on the war path demonizing business with California being the number one anti-business state in the Union. Anyone who can pull up stakes has done it or is sure as hell thinking about it. Unfortunately, the poor out-voted farmer is stuck here, held hostage, government bureaucrats and farm unions banging on the front gate and shoving their greedy hands into her pockets any chance they get. Her property can’t be moved to Idaho or Florida, and you know it. The fact is California farmers (capitalists) have become the most efficient businesses in the world providing more food per acre with the least inputs than at any time in human history. They have employed all the sophistication of high-tech water management systems, robotics, automation, AI, and lean manufacturing to produce the cheapest food ever. Just remember back to your first Econ 101 class if you ever took one. Government does not pay the bills, business, capitalists do. Oh, and you shouldn’t begrudge her a tidy profit either, she deserves it.
Instead of crowing like a banty rooster at Trinitas’ demise what I suggest you should be wondering about is who is next to go under? The egg producers, lettuce growers, turkey and chicken farmers, beef producers, dairy farmers, I can hear the whining now when a loaf of bread is 10.00, 00ps it already is. Ask not for whom the bell tolls people because this type of large-scale ag business collapse could be a bell-weather, the canary in the coal mine, the Bidenomics chickens are coming home to roost and nothing to celebrate.
The facts are that Trinitas payed millions in property taxes, environmental fees, building fees, sales taxes, direct payroll for up to 80 families, spent millions with local suppliers of irrigation supplies, farm equipment, ag contractors, land use consultants, engineers, pollination, pump supply and maintenance companies, fertilizer and ag chemical supplies, fuel suppliers, trucking, nut handling and hulling, export, construction contractors, and general engineering contractors to name a few. These industries allied to Stanislaus County’s ag economy employ thousands of people many of them our friends and neighbors.
Sure, ground water supplies are affected by farming methods like those that Trinitas employed but not always exactly like you are lead to believe. Before all of the large-scale land use conversions to drip irrigated crops took place thousands of acres of Stanislaus County crops were flood irrigated. This is highly inefficient from an input perspective because way more water is usually applied than is needed in most cases. I have seen studies and research showing some crops commonly being over irrigated by 90%. Now the unintended and advantageous consequence of this is that ground water supplies are artificially recharged by these inefficient methods. When you convert thousands of acres of flood irrigated pasture to an automated drip system controlled by an analytics program like Climate Minder the trees are getting just the water that they need and virtually no water is bypassed to the water table. The result, water tables start to recede, it’s just simple math. The paradox of efficiency. Another inconvenient truth is the fact that the City and County of San Francisco and East Bay MUD have diverted billions of acre feet of water off the western slope of the Sierra Nevada so bay area residents can flush their toilets with clear, cool, pristine mountain water. I don’t hear anyone bemoaning the fact that some of that water really belongs back in our regional sub basins. But it does! Hell, the Hetch Hetchy Pipeline runs smack down the middle of Stanislaus County! It’s time for them to start paying the true cost of the water they use by using desalinated water.
Dirtwater: One word: “Sustainable.”
tRump tariffs put in place by your leader killed trade in nuts with China
Well, here is another thought to chew on. I challenge all of you to watrch this documentary:https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/nofarmersnofood-5390883?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Documentary&utm_campaign=D29&utm_content=button1
you will have to copy and paste into your browser. The point of this is- all farms in the US will be closed , this is the plan worldwide….. pay attention – it is happening in CAlifornia now and it will be here soon. Climate Change is the catalyst . But, this involves politics, so no one wants to talk about it. But, in about 10 years, there will be no more food grown or raised on farms.
Mr. Woods: if you truly believe there is a worldwide plan to end farming and are using Epoch Times as your support for that claim, I suggest you seek the exit sign promptly and hope that it is well lit. You need a way out of the darkness.