A coalition of environmentalists on April 20 blasted Beverly Hills billionaire Stewart Resnick and other corporate agribusiness interests for continuing to plant thousands of acres of new almond trees during the drought while Governor Jerry Brown is mandating that urban families slash water usage by 25 percent.

“While farmers make their own decisions on what to plant, the public is paying the price for poor decisions made by greedy mega-growers, who plant permanent crops where there is no water,” Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, told reporters in a news conference about the “tunnels only” version of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that Governor Jerry Brown is now pushing. “That is not sustainable and the tunnels would subsidize unsustainable agriculture.”

Barrigan-Parrilla said Resnick, the owner of Paramount Farms in Kern County, uses as much water for his almonds as the amount of water 38 million Californians are now required to conserve. At this year’s annual pistachio conference hosted by Paramount Farms, Resnick revealed his current efforts to expand pistachio, almond, and walnut acreage during a record drought.

Read More: Stewart Resnick expands almond acreage as cities forced to slash water use | Governor Brown's drought order lets agribusiness, oil companies off the hook | Drought legislation must target agribusiness and Big Oil | Drought Shows Folly of Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels | Will drought relief money be used to support overpumping Delta water? | House Passes Salmon-Killing Drought Relief Bill | Feinstein delays controversial drought legislation until next year | Feinstein's fish-killing drought bill being negotiated in secrecy | Meet the Resnicks, the Koch Brothers of California Water | Brown fails to discuss wholesale draining of reservoirs in drought statement | Brown declares drought state of emergency as protesters urge halt to fracking

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