Controversy Follows Stewart and Lynda Resnick, Who Make Money off California’s Water Supply

In the wake of the January 2025 Los Angeles fires, people have been struggling to find a villain in the heartbreaking tragedy. Some have looked at climate change as the main cause, while others point to the failure of state and federal governments. One TikToker is pretty invested in the idea that the devastation could have been curbed if it weren't for the greed of two individuals.

"Hi, Stewart. Hi Lynda. Your city's burning down," says Cody Jacob in a highly controversial TikTok. He then introduces us to Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company, the parent company of POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, and Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds. Cody alleges they "own 60 percent of California's water." If that's true, their net worth must be nuts. Let's take a look.

According to Forbes as of April 2022, Stewart and Lynda Resnick are worth a whopping $8 billion. That's a lot of pistachios. Stewart initially wanted to be a lawyer but he started his own janitorial business while in law school, and sold it in 1969. From there he literally put his money into money when he purchased The Franklin Mint in 1986. Anyone with a grandparent has undoubtedly stumbled upon a collectible in their home sold by The Franklin Mint.

Stewart must have really loved model cars and coins, because he remained CEO of The Franklin Mint until its sale in 2006. You might be wondering, where is Lynda in all of this? The two met when he hired Lynda to do marketing for the janitorial business. They were married in 1972 and went on to have five children together. She's been with him since the beginning and was president of Teleflora and API Alarm Systems, a company they bought in 1979.

A few years after purchasing The Franklin Mint, the Resnicks formed Paramount Farms for the purposes of growing and harvesting pistachios and almonds in California's Central Valley. The company was eventually renamed Roll Global and in June 2015, it was rebranded as The Wonderful Company. This was after the water started rolling in.

The Resnicks use more water than anyone else in California, per Curbed LA, which includes "businesses, farms, and even the city of Los Angeles." In order to keep their many farms going and growing, the Resnicks own a majority share of the Kern Water Bank, which is a $75 million underground storage facility developed by the state. This allows the Resnicks to profit off the publicly-funded water transportation system. That's very fishy!

By the way, the Resnicks drilled 21 new wells during the California drought which lasted from 2011 to 2017. It should be noted that the Resnicks are also quite the philanthropists. Stewart sits on the boards of the Visitors of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Bard College, and Conservation International, the Board of Advisers at UC Davis, and the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law & Policy at UCLA. He is also a Caltech Senior Trustee.

They have also made significant donations to various hospitals, and even helped create The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA which is "among the leading centers in the world for comprehensive patient care, research and education in the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities and neurology." The Resnicks have also used quite a bit of their money in the field of climate change.