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Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
How America's Richest Female Farmer Became The Fourth-Richest Self-Made Woman In America
Lynda and Stewart Resnick arrive for a State Dinner in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, at the Booksellers Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 10, 2024. It's one of my favorite times of year, and no, I'm not talking about the start of strawberry season. This week Forbes unveiled its annual issue dedicated to America's Richest Self-Made Women. And it's a big one—the 10-year anniversary. It hits particularly home for me since this June also marks a full decade for me on Forbes' staff. A major milestone for a journalist! I've worked on the Self-Made list, as our newsroom calls it, since its inception, and over the years I have had a hand in celebrating listmakers from BET cofounder Sheila Johnson to United Therapeutics founder Martine Rothblatt through the issues' pages. From the food world, this year's ranking features Lynda Resnick, America's richest female farmer, as No. 4. I've been writing about Resnick since my earliest days at Forbes and continue to find the vastness of her ventures through the Wonderful Company—from Fiji Water to Wonderful pistachios to seedless lemons and the country's largest bee colony—fascinating. The spread also features Panda Express cofounder Peggy Cherng as well as Merrilee Kick, the former public school teacher in Texas who landed a massive deal for her booze brand BuzzBallz last year when it was acquired by billionaire-owned spirits conglomerate Sazerac. Other names you might be excited to see in the issue include Selena Gomez, Sara Blakeley (of Spanx fame) and Serena Williams. It's an exceptional group of 100 entrepreneurs and industry game-changers. Enjoy perusing it all! — Chloe Sorvino This is Forbes' Fresh Take newsletter, which every Wednesday brings you the latest on the big ideas changing the future of food. Want to get it in your inbox every week? Sign up here. From left: Daniela Amodei, Selena Gomez, Gwynne Shotwell Bigger fortunes. More billionaires. Increasing impact. We mark the 10th anniversary of our annual list of America's most successful self-made women by celebrating how far these 100 entrepreneurs have come: There are 38 billionaires this year, with fortunes originating in everything from cars to cosmetics to chardonnay. ORLANDO KISSNER/AFP via Getty Images Big Ag Spying: Don't miss this Wired investigation about a powerful agricultural lobby that for years 'led a persistent and often covert campaign to surveil, discredit and suppress animal rights organizations,' and then hand-delivered the opposition research to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The network of informants relayed information to FBI agents within its department of Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate in an effort to convince the government that animal activists are 'the preeminent bioterrorism threat to the United States.' Chef Sean Sherman, owner and chef at Owamni prepares cricket to be served in his restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 3, 2023. Decolonizing The Food System: Chef Sean Sherman—who is behind the award-winning Minneapolis restaurant Owamni (where I had one of the most mind-blowing meals of my life, as previously covered in this newsletter) as well as his Native-owned pantry staples marketplace Indigenous Food Lab—is expanding his vision, Civil Eats reports. I got an early taste of some of his plans myself when I moderated a keynote fireside chat with Sherman at Expo West 2024 and I'm thrilled to see some concrete news that will bring that all to life. Along with a forthcoming second cookbook called Turtle Island, Sherman is opening his second outpost of Indigenous Food Lab later this year in Bozeman, Montana and is also starting a venture called Meals For Native Institutions, which will address the lack of culturally appropriate meals at institutions like schools, hospitals, prisons and community centers. Boxes of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers are stacked at a Costco Wholesale store on April 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. Cooking At Home Is Back: Or so Campbell's chief executive says. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the beleaguered soup company reported earnings this week that left its stock struggling. And while on first blush it may seem like Campbell's iconic soup cans might do well with more Americans tightening their budgets and less eating out, well, turns out, that's not the case for all its products. Cambell's snacking portfolio of brands like Cape Cod chips, Pepperidge Farms and Goldfish, for example, have not been performing as well as corporate leadership would like. The Price Of Milk The documentary series The Price of Milk, is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival this Sunday, June 8, with an additional screening on Thursday, June 12. I'd love to see you there! (Full disclosure: I hear Sunday is down to standby-only tickets.) It's my Tribeca Film Festival debut and I'm excited to see this important topic brought to life! FRANCK FERVILLE/AGENCE VU/REDUX 1 It was fun to podcast about my recent article on Chobani and its billionaire founder Hamdi Ulukaya. Check out the full interview here. Chloe Sorvino Maybe the best strawberry shortcake I've ever tasted, after a luxuriously drawn-out lunch at the New York City outpost of Venice Beach-famed restaurant Gjelina. Thanks for reading the 145th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Let me know what you think. Subscribe to Forbes Fresh Take here.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Wonderful Company proposes 3,500-unit housing project in Shafter
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A first of its kind for The Wonderful Company, who's looking to expand and step into the housing business. The proposed land is at the corner of Lerdo Highway and Cherry Avenue. 'Wonderful has 650 acres to the east of core Shafter, where the company is proposing to build a new housing community,' said Jed Hwang, Vice President of Real Estate at The Wonderful Company. Up to 3,500 homes for rent and purchase would serve all types of families, not just Wonderful employees. 'What we've envisioned is to provide a mix of housing types from multi-family condos and apartments up to single-family homes,' said Hwang. Bail granted to driver in fatal Westside Parkway crash There are some filters to pass before construction starts. 'We're in the planning phases right now, it's not an approved project at this point,' said Hwang. 'We're going to be presenting that project to the City Council of Shafter at the beginning of 2026 and I anticipate that an approval decision would be made some time in 2026, construction could potentially start in 2027 if it's approved.' Before that comes to fruition, Wonderful wants community members to share what they would like from this project. 'What we're looking for is really just to understand how people would live in their ideal community,' said Hwang. 'And how that might change and be different from how housing has been done in the past.' Shafter residents are invited Thursday May 22, to a Community Workshop starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Ford Theater, with dinner served. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
08-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
This small city is the fastest-growing in California
Among the almond orchards, grapevines and alfalfa fields alongside State Route 99 is California's fastest growing city with more than 20,000 people: Shafter, California. According to a state report released this week, the population of Shafter, a Central Valley city just north of Bakersfield, grew by 4.7% — about 1,000 people — between Jan. 2024 and Jan. 2025, the most of any city in California with more than 20,000 people whose population gains did not come from college dormitory populations. Shafter's boost was largely driven by an increase in housing, according to John Boyne, a research data specialist with the California Department of Finance, which compiled the report. With 309 new housing units built in 2024, Shafter was also one of the fastest growing cities in the state in terms of housing. All of the added units were single family homes, Boyne said. The majority-Hispanic town is, like many Central Valley cities, an agricultural hub. But it is also home to an industrial park owned by the Wonderful Company (of pistachio and pomegranate juice fame) that houses distribution centers for large companies like Walmart, Target and Amazon — with plans to expand. The city has grown significantly over the last decade and a half, going from about 17,000 people in 2010 to just under 23,500 as of January this year. Shafter's growth was part of an overall growth trend in California's Central Valley and inland areas. Several other cities in the Central Valley saw notable growth, including Lathrop and Patterson. (Merced and Folsom also showed large gains, but Merced's was due to the city annexing the UC Merced, incorporating its on campus students into the city's population, and Folsom's growth was due to increases in the state prison population there.) And of the ten largest cities in California, Bakersfield gained the most population, though the increase was slight at just over 1%. And Fresno and Kern counties were first and second in terms of year-over-year population growth among California counties with more than 500,000 people. But not all of the Central Valley saw gains. Wasco, which is less than 10 miles away from Shafter, lost nearly as many residents as Shafter gained. Boyne described this as 'a tale of two cities.' While Shafter added housing, Wasco lost it, he said — it had a net loss of 163 housing units due to the demolition of 226 multi-family units as a part of a multi-year affordable housing project. On top of that, Wasco's population was also impacted by decreases in the prison population at Wasco State Prison, Boyne said. Some Bay Area cities were among the fastest growing as well. Belmont, American Canyon and Burlingame, which are all around the same size as Shafter in terms of population, were all in the top 10 fastest growing cities by population, and each saw notable increases in housing supply between 2024 and 2025.
