#cuyama valley

[thoughtportal]

It sounds weird to say that carrots are having a moment, but social media has catapulted the humble root to a status resembling stardom. Anecdotal evidence suggests online carrot recipes trail in popularity only those for potatoes and brussels sprouts among vegetables, and Pinterest numbers support that: recipe searches for honey balsamic carrots on the platform are up 75% this year, while queries for roasted parmesan carrots skyrocketed 700%. Fresh carrots are an expanding $1.4 billion U.S. market, andAmericans are expected to consume 100 million pounds this Thanksgiving — roughly five ounces for every human being in the country.

At least 60% of those carrots are produced by just two companies, Bolthouse and Grimmway, both of which were acquired by buyout firms, in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

“There’s only two sources,” Adam Waglay, cofounder and co-CEO of Bolthouse owner Butterfly Equity, told Forbes. “We joke around — it’s kind of like the OPEC of carrots.”

Cartels are less funny for neighbors of the two producers in Southern California’s Cuyama Valley, who are calling for a boycott of Big Carrot over the amount of water their farms are sucking out of the ground. In 2022, Bolthouse and Grimmway together were responsible for 67%, or 9.6 billion gallons, of the area’s total water use. Local residents said they expect their wells to dry up if the carrot farms continue to use as much water as they do — Grimmway CEO Jeff Huckaby told Forbes his company has already reduced the amount of acreage it farms — and the two carrot producers have joined forces to defend their thirst in court. That worries local residents, who say they lack the deep pockets needed to wage a prolonged legal battle.

Cattle rancher Jake Furstenfeld places a boycott sign in New Cuyama, California in September.Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo

Water fights like this can take years to resolve, and often become a way to delay cutbacks, Karrigan Bork, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, told Forbes. “You see these rights again and again get trimmed back by the state or by courts,” Bork said. “In some cases, your savvy water users recognize that, and for them, just delaying that trimming back is a success, and the longer they can do that, the happier they will be.”

Price Concerns

Waglay uses the word “duopoly” to describe the two companies. Such market consolidationoften leads to higher prices, and the government has for years used increased consumer prices as an indicator of possible unfair competition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture declined to comment on any antitrust issues.

Since 2019, carrot producer prices have increased more than 40%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, outpacing the 22% inflation in the U.S. economy.

Carrot Top

Prices are near their highest since 2019, when Bolthouse was acquired by a private equity firm. Grimmway changed hands a year later.

Huckaby, the Grimmway CEO, told Forbes that the costs of a number of inputs have gone up, too. Packaging, fertilizer and fuel prices have all risen at a higher rate than inflation, he said, and California’s minimum wage has increased 27% since 2018. At $15 an hour, it’s the second-highest in the country.

Still, the carrot business has been a lucrative play. Total U.S. production value has increased 34% since 2019.

Duopoly Origins

Bolthouse, founded in 1915 in Grant, Michigan, started selling carrots packed in cellophane bags in 1959. In the 1970s and 1980s, production was centered around Bakersfield, California. After Bakersfield farmer Mike Yurosek invented “baby carrots” in 1986, consumption soared.

In the 1990s, Bolthouse ballooned into the largest carrot operator, reportedly shipping some 80% of California’s carrots. It amounted to half the U.S. carrot market in 1992, followed by Grimmway, founded by brothers Bob and Rod Grimm in 1969, and Yurosek’s family-owned outfit. Grimmway eventually bought out Mike Yurosek & Son. The carrot crop is now the tenth-biggest commodity in California, where one-third of America’s vegetables are grown.

Today, the industry’s growth could be limited by dwindling water supplies in the drought-prone Cuyama Valley, 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles and 90 miles west of Bakersfield. But the companies behind the duopoly aren’t giving up without a fight.

Both businesses, which own their own manufacturing, are hitting a similar point in their ownership lifecycles. Private equity-backed businesses typically change hands every three to five years. In 2019, Butterfly Equity acquired Bolthouse from publicly traded Campbell Soup for $510 million in cash. A year later, Grimmway was acquired by Teays River Investments, a Zionsville, Indiana-based investment firm, for an undisclosed amount. That means both businesses are in the sweet spot of what most investors consider the hot time to unload an investment or take it public.

Los Angeles, California-based Butterfly has sold only one of its investments, an organic protein company called Orgain, acquired by Nestle Health Science in February 2022 after two years of Butterfly ownership. Grimmway is Teays River’s only current investment after exiting two others in 2019 and 2013. Teays River held those investments for eight years and one year, respectively.

Grimmway’s owner, which according to Pitchbook has $1.38 billion in assets under management, is backed by pension funds including the public employees of the states of Maine and Oregon, Texas teachers, the New York state Teamsters union and the Producer-Writers Guild of America.

Butterfly Equity, by comparison, has $4 billion in assets under management and is backed byexecutives of private equity giant KKR, where Waglay worked for eight years. The firm has done eight deals in the eight years since it launched. Butterfly also owns America’s largest striped bass farm, the largest free-range egg company, an avocado oil maker that controls 60% of the market, and a large whey protein manufacturer.

Water Rights

Bolthouse and Grimmway started working with each other in a way that competitors rarely do. They filed a lawsuit together in 2021 in Kern County, California to ask a court to decide how to split up the water of New Cuyama, where they farm.

What’s happening in Cuyama Valley is an example of the kinds of water fights that are surfacing across California. Farmers of a variety of crops there have depended on irrigation for decades. Those years of pumping water and spraying it over crops through sprinklers or complex drip irrigation systems have had drastic implications, including threats of land sinking, a receding water table that makes it tougher to dig wells and the threat of some of them drying out.

That’s why water use around New Cuyama could get reduced by two-thirds over the next two decades. To bring the region back to a sustainable level by 2040, water cuts of 5% started this year and will continue each year going forward. The Cuyama basin currently has an annual water deficit of more than 8 billion gallons, and much of the area’s carrot farmland may have to be taken out of production. Some experts say Bolthouse and Grimmway would have to reduce their water consumption by about double what the city of Santa Barbara, California uses annually.

But water-efficient sprinklers can only save so much. The carrot companies’ lawsuit has forced area farmers, ranchers, residents and even the area’s public school to rack up legal bills. In response, a coalition of locals launched a boycott of carrots in July. The boycott’s goals: for the companies to drop the lawsuit, pay all legal fees and to reduce the amount of water they pump. One flyer the boycotters distributed suggests a Thanksgiving recipe for brussels sprouts instead.

Both Bolthouse and Grimmway lease farmland rather than own it. They recently withdrew from the lawsuit, though the companies that own the farmland are still in it, and what the judge decides will dictate how much the companies are able to farm there in the future.

Expanding Elsewhere

Huckaby said the carrot boycott has taken aim at Grimmway and Bolthouse because they’re easy targets. Only 3,700 of the 13,000 acres that Grimmway leases in the Cuyama Valley are being farmed, according to Huckaby. “We cut way back and we cut way back and we cut back and no one else did,” he said.

The companies may have to find new farmland to grow carrots. The average American now eats roughly seven pounds of the fresh vegetable every year, with consumption up 2% so far in 2023, according to NielsenIQ.

Grimmway has already expanded its farming operations outside of California with facilities in Florida, Washington and other states.

Butterfly’s Waglay doesn’t deny that water is one of the biggest barriers that his investment in Bolthouse faces. “Water challenges,” he said with a sigh. “This asset has great access to water, but it’s going to get worse and worse, and you need to be planning for that and trying to work on ways to minimize that. That’ll be a long-term challenge.”

California water fights often result in residents and smaller business owners getting “outgunned in the courts by large commercial actors,” Pomona College environmental analysis and politics professor Heather Williams, an expert on water issues, told Forbes. The lawsuit is among the first of many, she said.

“It’s put into motion a race to the basin — pumping as much as you can, and putting that into production,” Williams said. “Water is property in California. It’s what a rational actor acting on behalf of investors is going to do. If they’re playing this game, they’ve got to play hard.”

Grimmway and Bolthouse can move on, said Williams, unlike most of the residents in New Cuyama. “These are their homes, their small farms. If the well goes dry, it’s worth basically nothing,” she said. “They can’t pay lawyers for ten years of litigation.”

[wingedjewels]

204026-IMG_4931 Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) by Tony Morris Via Flickr: Cuyama Valley, 6/5/2006

[weather-usa]

Thunderstorms bring severe weather to multiple states, claiming a child's life, as heat scorches the West

Strong thunderstorms barreled across the central and eastern U.S. on Wednesday, reportedly claiming the life of a young child, triggering flood advisories, and causing a series of travel delays, while a heat dome baked California's Central Valley, other parts of the West, and southern Texas.

In Livonia, Michigan, a 2-year-old child was killed, and a 2-month-old infant and their mother were injured when a tree fell on their house amid high winds from a storm, according to WJBK-TV. The condition of the mother and baby, who were hospitalized, has not been detailed.

See more:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/196222201/Weather-Forecast-for-Illinois

Separate storms were set to roll over the Midwest, lower Plains, Ohio Valley, and the mid-Atlantic region throughout the day and into the night, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. By morning, flash flood warnings were in effect across parts of north-central Texas, northwestern Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Philadelphia.

In Texas, the weather service in Fort Worth advised residents to stay indoors as floodwaters remained high and rivers were above flood stage. "Doppler radar indicated the heavy rain has largely come to an end, but it will take several hours for flood waters to recede," the weather service said. "Please do not travel unless you are sure roads are not flooded!"

In Oklahoma and Iowa, meteorologists warned of flooding along the banks, fields, and roads near rivers. Across Michigan and Ohio, forecasters said isolated wind damage throughout the afternoon would be the main storm threat.

Nearly 60,000 homes and businesses were without power across Texas late Wednesday afternoon, according to a USA TODAY outage tracker. Additionally, 59,000 utility customers in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota experienced outages, along with 26,000 in Mississippi.

Weather Forecast For North Carolina:

https://devpost.com/software/weather-forecast-for-north-carolina

At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, more than 350 flights were delayed, and at least 45 were canceled Wednesday morning, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded all flights at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Travel disruptions extended to the Northeast as well. Flights at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport were delayed by more than three hours on average, while Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey saw average delays exceeding two hours. Departure delays were also reported at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Millions Under Heat Advisories

Climate and Average Weather Year Round in Kansas:

Much of the southwestern U.S., southern Texas, and California's Central Valley are under heat advisories as the first major heat wave of the summer brings anticipated record-breaking temperatures in the triple digits.

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles and Oxnard, California, forecasted temperatures up to 100 degrees across the Cuyama and Salinas valleys through the afternoon, as well as the Highway 14 corridor, which runs from Los Angeles to the northern Mojave Desert.

In the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, temperatures were expected to reach the 90s to lower 100s. Heat advisories were also active across New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada, where forecast temperatures approached or exceeded 100 degrees. In Las Vegas, the afternoon high temperature was expected to be between 107 and 114 degrees.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-35036

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-35038

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-35040

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-35041

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-35042

Southern Texas, which has faced unseasonably hot temperatures since late May, could see afternoon highs of 103 to 107 degrees. The heat index, or "feels like" temperature, could reach well over 110 degrees in some areas, including Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Uvalde, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley.

The extreme heat is expected to continue into the weekend.

[atowndailynews]

Flood watch remains in effect in Atascadero

Photo of downtown Atascadero by reader Olan Kaigel. Additional .26 inches of rain in the forecast today – An additional .26 inches of rain is in the forecast again today for Atascadero. A flood watch remains in effect for all of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties except the Cuyama Valley and the far interior San Luis Obispo Valleys through Wednesday morning. Halcon Road in…

[ssolson8550]

Residents in the Cuyama Valley are boycotting carrots - Los Angeles Times

Water Wars: family farms V. corporate farms.

[lareinedumondejeb]

The last La Grange Ditch 50 (Road to Tevis # 100)

I caught a lot of lasts this year. Most were xprides, because the Nicholsons have decided to stop coming to California. Jazz, Fantazia and I rode at the last Laurel Mt, the last Western Mojave, and the last Cuyama Oaks (which wasn’t even in the Cuyama Valley. Thank goodness Fantazia and I rode two days in Cuyama in 2021. (This post concerns that ride, though it’s about the advantages of using a…

[spankiesblog]

Silent War (Live from Cuyama Valley, CA) Five Times August

[usaccidents]

CUYAMA VALLEY, CA (June 15, 2023) – A man was airlifted in a rollover accident on Highway 166 in Cuyama Valley Monday morning on June 12.

[best2daynews]

Cuyama Valley Carrot Growers Get the Stick - The Santa Barbara Independent

Cuyama Valley Carrot Growers Get the Stick – The Santa Barbara Independent

[lies]

Sometimes when I’m birdwatching

[thechembow]

Gifting Santa Maria

Apr. 11, 2021

We drove into the Central Valley this morning and over to the coast on a road not yet gifted. It was not heavy on cell towers, but it was good to continue the OR grid from inland to the coast in a new place. The grid is already very thorough. Just yesterday a few of our orgonites went with a friend to another new road which bridges the Central Valley to the mountains east of it in northern California, so the grid has expanded in two directions in the south and the north in the past two days.

The day started with an overcast DOR sky, which took some time to transmute as we gifted. The land was very green from a good rainy season. The green grass shows there is no drought. This past January there was a two day storm that dropped 14 inches of rain on San Luis Obispo County, where we gifted today. The green grass has been delayed in the mountains and the hills in Gorman are just starting to green now. It’s not because we didn’t have enough snow and rain, but because this winter was so cold. We don’t have poppies yet here but they are already blooming in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.

The DOR started to lift as we gifted. As we were going through San Luis Obispo, the DOR clouds started spiraling up and away. As we had a lunch break in Nipomo, the sky was becoming very clear with dramatic spirals in the remaining DOR clouds.

We ended our gifting by doing a grid in Santa Maria, which is not a very big town, but a place where we haven’t yet gone street by street. There were surprisingly not a lot of towers. We already gifted a couple of the worst ones a few years ago, and Santa Maria was noticeably more pleasant that the last time we were there. The DOR was now almost fully lifted and the sky was blue with OR clouds forming in the distance.

We enjoyed more spiraling clouds as we returned home through Cuyama and Lockwood Valley. As we were walking into our house, we saw a chembow in the sunset. A chembow accompanies OR transmutation when freed water vapor is hit at the right angle by the sun. This was our first gifting since the ComputerVirus started, and watching the chemtrail crafts struggling was confirmation that they are still dying.

[rjzimmerman]

Every day, part of the “future effects” of climate change creep into “today.” California has experienced droughts and voluntary water cutbacks before, but this one feels different.....much like tomorrow is here today. Excerpt from this LA Times story:

Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking Californians to voluntarily cut back on water consumption by 15% compared with last year as drought conditions worsen and temperatures continue to rise across the western United States.

The governor on Thursday also expanded his regional drought state of emergency to apply to 50 California counties, or roughly 42% of the state’s population.

“We’re hopeful that people will take that mindset they brought into the last drought and extend that forward with a 15% voluntary reduction, not only on residences but industrial commercial operations and agricultural operations,” Newsom said at a news conference in San Luis Obispo County.

In addition, another story from the LA Times tells us:

The California Independent System Operator, which runs the electric grid for most of California, has issued a new flex alert for Friday, asking residents to conserve electricity as a heat wave sweeps the state.

Officials are calling on residents to cut back on their energy use from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. in order to ease the strain on the grid during the evening, when there’s less or no solar energy available.

During the flex alert, CAISO is asking consumers to set thermostats at 78 degrees or higher, turn off all unnecessary lights, and avoid using major appliances such as dishwashers or laundry machines until after 10 p.m.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings across portions of Southern California, including the San Diego County deserts, Coachella Valley, Antelope Valley, interior San Luis Obispo County and the Cuyama Valley. Saturday will likely be the warmest day overall, forecasters said.

[mobianflame]

Rain, Snow Results in Driving Nightmare on One of Year’s Busiest Travel Days; Grapevine, NB Cajon Pass Closed

Among the busiest traveling times of the year is switching into a nightmare for chauffeurs as rainfall and snow remains to drop around Southern California Thursday.

The chilly hurricane unit relocated right into the location on Xmas Time and triggered officials to shut the 5 Freeway over the Grapevine in both directions concerning 10:30 p.m.

Many motorists were actually trapped between Lake Hughes and Grapevine Street, the California Freeway Watch pointed out.

The roadway remained closed up Thursday early morning.

Climate condition motivated representatives to close down the Angeles Crest Road from 1 kilometer east of Newcomb's Ranch to the Islip Saddle/Highway 39 joint, Caltrans tweeted.

Condition Route 2 (Angeles Crest Hwy) is actually finalized from 1 mile eastern of Newcomb's Cattle ranch to Islip Saddle/Hwy 39 joint due to endure. Length of closure is not known. https://t.co/O37Qesrybo pic.twitter.com/q0TpqsORfP

-- Caltrans Area 7 (@CaltransDist7) December 26, 2019

Massive powder snow was likewise falling on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass area. Vehicle drivers were actually cautioned to expect substantial problems and were inquired to avoid the location when possible.

Vehicle drivers were actually stopped on the Grapevine on Dec. 26, 2019. (Credit: @r_t_c_94 using Twitter)

Officials lastly shut the expressway in both directions because of the snowfall about 6 a.m. Thursday. The southbound streets were actually reopened with 15 miles per hour escorts, the CHP twittered update right before 9:15 a.m.

. The 138 Freeway is actually also finalized coming from the 15 Highway to Beekley Roadway.

Chains are demanded for hill areas to the 3,500 foot amount, Caltrans specified Thursday.

A winter season hurricane precaution is actually in place for the San Bernardino and Riverside area mountains with 6 a.m. Friday, according to the National Climate Company. An alert is likewise in position until 10 p.m. Thursday for the Los Angeles County mountain regions.

Snowfall levels might fall as reduced as 2,500 shoes along with up to two shoes of snowfall going down at the greater altitudes, the Weather Company stated.

The Antelope Valley is trying to find around 6 inches of snowfall by means of Thursday. Roughly 2 to 4 inches might join the Cuyama Valley.

Rain was additionally influencing regional expressways Thursday early morning.

A SigAlert needed to be actually issued on the northbound 5 Freeway south of the 110 Freeway. All streets were actually temporarily obstructed because of flooding, according to the California Motorway Watch.

Website traffic must be actually drawn away off at Broadway.

Flooding additionally required the short-term fastener on a part of the 710 Expressway at Slauson Opportunity. All southbound streets were actually shut out along with traffic being taken off the freeway at Atlantic, the CHP tweeted.

A plant knocked down onto a 60 Highway switch street to the 605 Freeway just after 4 a.m. A married couple of lorries might possess reached the downed tree, which was actually creating web traffic problems, CHP representatives pointed out.

Various other downed plants were mentioned all over the Southland, featuring in Forest Hills where a plant fell onto a flats.

Hefty rainstorms at times caused a document volume of rains in Long Beach front Wednesday.

Along with the flood of rainfall that prolonged over south western The golden state last night (as well as proceeding in to this morning), Long Coastline Flight terminal cracked its own record for day-to-day optimum rains for December 25 along with 1.03 ins! Take a look at the file right here: https://t.co/h9Pdqzjx3N #CAwx

-- NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) December 26, 2019

At some factor, a hurricane caution was released for Carpinteria, Montecito as well as Summerland. The precaution was actually terminated eventually Wednesday night as the tornado was no more strong adequate to make a hurricane, according to the Weather Company.

Between 9 to 930 pm final night, a turning hurricane tissue over the SBA Channel moved north towards Montecito. The red square carton showed where the Twister Caution was actually valid. The circulation held all together as it reached land, however there were no reports of damages. #cawx #CAstorm pic.twitter.com/ivx425TnEy

-- NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) December 26, 2019

Drier, sunnier skies are expected to return on Friday prior to one more chance of rainfall arrives early upcoming week.

This content was originally published here.

[roses-and-rads-archived]

Can you do the tag thing for Sienna? :3

Full Name: Sienna Cuyama

Gender and Sexuality: Female lesbian

Pronouns: She/her

Ethnicity/Species: Native/african american mix, her dad was white her mom was tribal

Birthplace and Birthdate: A tribal settlement where the Death Valley National Park was pre-war, born August 21, 2238

Guilty Pleasures: Cooking, she loves making food for people, watching them enjoy her food and knowing that she’s cared for them as well is just satisfying

Phobias: Probably the only thing she’d be afraid of is someone having power over her, which is why she killed Benny and House so quickly

What They Would Be Famous For: She is famous for killing House, getting rid of the Legion and sending the NCR back to California, and helping the people of Freeside

What They Would Get Arrested For: Murder, theft, trespassing,

OC You Ship Them With: None her heart belongs to Red Lucy

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Courier if they were in the same timeline House would def want Sienna gone and Courier does what House says

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Sienna doesn’t really read unless its non-fiction she doesn’t care to work through books that won’t teach her something

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Drama or comedy, pre-war drama just isn’t relatable anymore and she just doesn’t find pre-war comedy funny

Talents and/or Powers: She’s able to live off the land, shes a skilled hunter, she could get anyone to trust her or at least believe that she’ll do what they want

Why Someone Might Love Them: She’s caring and will go out of her way to help people, but at the same time will go out of her way to fuck someone up if they mess with her

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She’s a woman in power that’s reason enough for people to hate her

How They Change: Sienna is a little more impulsive after getting shot in the head, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference bc she doesn’t seem impulsive but there is a difference between how she was before and now

Why You Love Them: I’ve honestly put a lot of thought into her past and her motivations to why she has an independent ending, her family and friends and why she does what she does.