The vast Cuyama Valley overlaps four counties: Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern, and San Luis Obispo. Carrots are the largest agricultural product in the Valley, where Grimmway and Bolthouse Farms have been the dominant producers since the 1990s. From cattle ranchers at the western end of the region to olives and pistachio growers on the eastern side, small farmers get their water from wells. The entire area is dependent on rainfall, whether you're farming a few acres or, like Grimmway and Bolthouse, taking the lion's share for irrigation.
Investigative reporter Melinda Burns says California's Central Valley faces the same water allocation issues. The state has identified 21 ground basins that are threatened by depletion because much more water is being pumped out than can be replenished by rainfall.
Owned by private equity firms, Grimmway and Bolthouse operate across the country, producing more than just carrots. In the Cuyama Valley, where no public water is available and water rationing is in effect, the two corporations filed a water rights lawsuit, asking a judge to adjudicate how much water they get, thereby making them the plaintiffs — and all of the area's approximately 700 landowners the defendants.
The water used in Cuyama is well water accumulated from rainfall, which averages only 13 inches a year, making it a precious resource. Photo by Evan George.
"There is no voice for the environment,” says retired agroecology professor Steve Gliessman. “It's forced all of us, as small landowners, to have lawyers to defend our water rights." Together with his wife, they dry-farm five acres of grapes at their Condor's Hope vineyard in the Cuyama Basin. He says that before the lawsuit, farmers were fiercely independent, but the adjudication has galvanized the community after being pushed to the limit financially. Even the school district is being sued, already having spent $26,000 in legal fees.
"We're going to need everybody's help on this," says Jake Furstenfeld, one of the carrot boycott's organizers. "This isn't something that we can win here just with the residents of Cuyama Valley, so we're trying to get the word out to everybody in the world so we can put pressure on these corporations."
For Furstenfeld and his wife Nicole, it's not just a fight for water — it's a fight for their future. So far, Furstenfeld and his fellow organizers have gathered more than 8,000 signatures on a petition asking Grimmway and Bolthouse to drop the lawsuit, reimburse locals for their legal fees, and return to the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Plan that the companies had already approved.
Jake Furstenfeld (left) is one of the organizers of the carrot boycott. His wife, Nicole, is the garden organizer of the school where she teaches kindergarten. The school district has already spent $26,000 in legal fees in the water dispute lawsuit. Photo by Evan George.
As this episode went to air we heard back from Bolthouse Marketing Director, Karen White, who wrote via email:
“In Regard to Bolthouse Farms with over 100 years of farming legacy, Bolthouse Farms is acutely aware of the issue of groundwater depletion and we take the matter very seriously. In alignment with our sustainability goals and the goals laid out by the Cuyama GSA and SGMA we are actively reducing water usage by 5% for two years and have committed to doing so by approximately 60% by 2040.
With regard to the adjudication lawsuit filed in the Cuyama Valley, one important aspect to understand is that Bolthouse Farms is a tenant grower and not a landowner. Bolthouse Land Company (aka “Bolthouse Properties”) is our primary landlord in Cuyama. Bolthouse Land Company is an unrelated third-party company under an entirely different and unrelated ownership from that of Bolthouse Farms.
Recently, Bolthouse Farms re-evaluated its involvement in the adjudication and we believe that, given our existing actions to reduce water, it no longer makes sense to continue as a plaintiff in this lawsuit. On August 23rd, Bolthouse Farms filed a request to remove itself as a plaintiff from the Cuyama Valley water adjudication lawsuit. The Court granted this request on August 31st, 2023. Therefore, as of that date, Bolthouse Farms is no longer a Plaintiff in the adjudication.
Bolthouse Farms looks forward to continuing our alignment with the sustainability commitments as laid out by the Cuyama GSA and SGMA. Together, with our neighbors and fellow farmers of Cuyama, we look forward to making a positive impact on the land, people, and future of food. We take pride in our membership within the Cuyama Valley community and express gratitude for the dedicated efforts of our longstanding team members who have diligently contributed to our farms.”