How The Nation’s Biggest Peach Grower Went Bankrupt. And An Update on the Damage from the Storm

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hundreds of thousands of people lost power in the Bay Area, streets were flooded and trees were uprooted, crushing houses and cars as winds gusts reached as high as over 100 mph in Sunday’s storm. But some of the most feared impacts, such as flooding from the Guadalupe River in San Jose, didn’t happen. We check in on how the Bay Area fared in the storm. Guests: Ezra David Romero, climate reporter, KQED The nation’s largest grower of stone fruit, Prima Wawona, is shutting down leaving 5,400 workers out of a job. Four years ago, a private equity firm bought up two major stone fruit growers in Fresno to create the peach power house, which claimed it produced five times more peaches than the entire state of Georgia. Last fall, Prima Wawona shocked the Fresno community by declaring bankruptcy, blaming too much debt, bad weather, and rising costs among other factors. The former CEO has since sued the company claiming the failure was caused by poor management and unnecessary spending on consultants. We’ll talk about what the company’s stunning demise means for Fresno and what the increased interest from private equity in agriculture means for the future of farming in California. Guests: Antonio De Loera-Brust, director of communications, United Farm Workers Daniel Gligich, senior reporter, The San Joaquin Valley Sun Rod James, reporter covering private equity, The Wall Street Journal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, a wellness resort in Baja, California, just an hour from San Diego,
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0:12.8	Summer retreat packages of three, four, or seven nights including hiking, water classes, mindfulness,
0:19.9	spa therapies, and culinary adventures with
0:22.8	farm-fresh ingredients. Learn more at Rancho LePuerta.com.
0:27.3	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a
0:33.2	true story. From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and
0:39.7	Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused
0:46.3	of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,
0:53.4	and devotion.
1:02.6	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.9	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.5	From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:24.6	There were once two great peach companies in Fresno, Garawan
1:28.5	farming and Wawona packing, both third-generation family businesses that employed thousands
1:33.7	of seasonal workers. Then a New York-Slas San Mateo private equity firm got involved. They engineered
1:39.6	a merger of the two companies and loaded the combined entity with debt. Can you guess what happened?
1:45.4	We'll run through the details of the bankruptcy.
1:47.7	But first, that storm.
1:49.2	If you have a story to share, email us forum at kQED.org.
1:54.2	We'll take stock of the weekend's wild weather.
1:56.5	That's all coming up next after this news.
	...

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