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

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

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