Legislation - Policy

Harvard Reportedly Buying Up California’s Vineyards—and Their Water Rights

Harvard University’s endowment is reportedly buying up vineyards in California’s wine country, along with the water rights belonging to those properties.

Instead of making the land purchases in its own name, Harvard is using a wholly owned subsidiary—named Brodiaea after the scientific name for the cluster lily —to buy vineyards. Harvard created Brodiaea in 2012, and by 2015 the unit had already purchased 10,000 acres in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for about $60 million, according to an earlier report by Reuters.

Earlier this year, the Harvard Crimson reported that Brodiaea had continued to buy up land in the area, especially vineyards with good access to ground water. Unlike many California vineyards, the ones owned by Harvard don’t welcome tourists to tastings but instead feature “no trespassing signs” on the properties, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday.

California’s central coast has, like much of the state’s farming region, suffered a long and serious drought since 2011. The drought has led many farms and vineyards to draw from ancient aquifers, making land rights to their underground water an increasingly precious resource. According to UC Berkeley’s California magazine, more than 100 water basins throughout the state have reached critical levels of overdraft.

While some local farmers say they aren’t worried about Harvard’s purchases of vineyards, others—as well as some local politicians—are expressing concern that […]

More about water rights and privatization:

How a private water company brought lead to Pittsburgh’s taps

Watergrabbing — A Story of Water

Hirst decision protects salmon and water rights for farmers, tribes

Baltimore first large U.S. city to ban water privatization

Summary
Article Name
Harvard Reportedly Buying Up California's Vineyards—and Their Water Rights
Description
Harvard is using subsidiary named Brodiaea to buy vineyards and their water rights. 100+ California water basins have reached critical levels of overdraft
Author
Publisher Name
Fortune
Publisher Logo

Recent Posts

Scathing report released detailing Navy’s handling of Red Hill fuel spill

The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…

5 days ago

Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards

Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle…

2 weeks ago

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

3 weeks ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

3 weeks ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 weeks ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

4 weeks ago