Grayzone Project
Investigative journalism and analysis of war and empire
#LobbyExposed, Iran December 4, 2018
"Pistachio Wars": How the Resnicks' Snack Food Fortune is Fueling the
Assault on Iran
A highly original documentary project reveals how a couple of Beverly Hills
billionaires "are willing to risk war in Iran and the Middle East - all in
order to boost and protect their lucrative pistachio business."
By Max Blumenthal
Three years ago, journalist Yasha Levine and filmmaker Rowan Wernham first
arrived at the vast pistachio plantation of Stewart and Lynda Resnick in
California's parched Central Valley. There, they saw firsthand how a
billionaire power couple had successfully manipulated the state's political
system to privatize its water supply for their own financial benefit.
Today, the Wonderful Company farm owned by the Resnicks soaks up more water
than the entire city of Los Angeles. Their business was based on "a heist of
epic proportions," according to Levine, that "will put family farms out of
business, and push life in the biggest river estuary on the west coast of
America towards mass extinction."
The story eventually took Levine and Wernham far beyond the parched Central
Valley, and into the heart of America's Israel lobby. It turned out that the
Resnicks had been pumping their money into some of the most militantly
pro-Israel think tanks in Washington, including the American Jewish
Committee and the Washington Institute on Near East Policy (WINEP). Both of
these outfits have lobbied heavily for sanctions on Iran and against the
Iran nuclear deal. One WINEP executive, Pat Clawson, has even called on the
US to stage a false flag attack that could trigger a war with Iran.
Levine and Wernham recognized that the Resnicks' support for the Israel
lobby was all about protecting their monopoly from a nation traditionally
recognized as the producer of the world's best pistachios. The billionaire
nut barons were not only threatening the environment and livelihoods of
their local competitors, they were bankrolling forces determined to take
America to war against a rising Middle Eastern power. This is why the title
of Levine and Wernham's work in progress, "Pistachio Wars," is so apt.
In an interview with the Grayzone, the filmmakers detailed the dangerous
nexus between the Resnicks' pistachio profits and the escalating economic
attack on Iran. Their insights showcase the originality and political daring
that make "Pistachio Wars" so relevant.
At the moment, Levine and Wernham are raising funds to bring "Pistachio
Wars" to completion. You can follow this link to see a trailer and support
their groundbreaking project. Our interview is below:
Steven Colbert stars in a commercial for the Resnicks' Wonderful Company
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.
Through clever and aggressive marketing, the Resnicks have singlehandedly
driven a global pistachio boom, creating a demand for pistachios where it
had not existed before.
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.
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."
Another thing that's interesting is that if you go into the Central Valley
and talk to pistachio farmers, everyone is very much aware of and concerned
with Iran. We were interviewing farmers out in the field right after
President Barack Obama pushed through the Iran nuclear deal that would lift
some sanctions from the country, and the farmers were livid with Obama. They
were not happy with the potential market consequences of that deal. "Obama
really screwed the pooch," one farmer told us.
We were able to get a camera person into the American Pistachio growers
convention in Palm Springs where they dedicated an entire session to the
importance of retaining the embargo. These events are very bland, but they
recounted the history of Iranian sanctions relative to the industry,
including moments that were jubilant for the American public - like the
release of the hostages after the embassy crisis, or things that were very
bad for Iran - like America's support for Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf
War, with glib pronunciations about how the price of pistachios went up or
down.
For the lawyers and lobbyists presenting all this, there was a sense that
they were pitching the farmers as to why they should continue to allocate
around half a million dollars a year to their firm to work on the issue.
These things have their own sick kind of momentum.
MB: Ironically, Israel has been a leading importer of Iranian pistachios,
which are considered the best in the world. They do so through third parties
like Turkey with whom they enjoy semi-normalized relations. Does this
threaten the Resnicks and has the US done anything about it?
YL & RW: Yeah, about a decade ago there was a scandal in Israel when it
turned out that the country was turning a blind eye on the importation of
Iranian pistachios through Turkey, which were rebranded as "Turkish
pistachios." Turns out that if given the choice, Israelis would rather eat
Iranian pistachios rather than American ones, which they consider to be of
inferior taste.
The US ambassador to Israel at the time wrote an angry letter to Israel's
Finance Minister accusing him of willfully turning a blind eye to this
practice and of violating Israeli laws. The media in Israel went wild with
accusations that anyone who bought Iranian pistachios was directly financing
terrorists and helping Iran build a nuclear bomb that would be used to wipe
Israel off the map.
Israel consumes more pistachios per-capita than any other country in the
world. It's a tiny country, but it's market is valued at just over $30
million dollars - which about 10% of the entire pistachio market in China,
the world's biggest importer of pistachio in the world with a population of
1.4 billion. It's not peanuts, so of course the Resnicks have a stake in
making sure that the market is dominated by American pistachios. Since it's
already illegal to import Iranian pistachios in Israel, the American
pistachio lobby has been putting pressure on Israel to enact trade policies
that would make the stealth importation of pistachio from Iran even harder:
things like increasing tariffs on pistachios imported from Turkey, while
dropping tariffs on American pistachios to zero. And that what the situation
is today: American pistachios come in duty free while everyone else pays a
steep tax.
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.
Allowing Iranian imports would not make American pistachio farmers very
happy, but it would not solve California's water crisis either. The problem
now is that through clever and aggressive marketing, the Resnicks have
driven a global demand for pistachios on a scale that had never existed
before. And today global demand outstrips supply - which is why pistachios
are such a lucrative crop to plant and why so many farmers are converting
their fields to pistachio orchards. So in the extremely unlikely event that
America was suddenly flooded with Iranian pistachios, the Resnicks would
adapt by simply shifting their supply to global markets - all while
continuing to extract California's over-tapped water supply. Their business
might suffer, but it would probably not be catastrophic.
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 know.
That's why our documentary is so important.
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of books
including best-selling