Water And Food: One Man's Vision

By Jim Lauria

Angelo Mazzei has always thought locally and acted globally. Born and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley — one of the world’s most productive farming regions — Angelo worked for his uncle’s 10,000-acre farming operation after graduating from college. There he saw a pressing need for a system that would allow farmers to safely and efficiently inject fertilizer into their irrigation water — a task made even more challenging with the 1968 introduction of high-pressure water supplies through the California Aqueduct, a 400-mile-long water conveyance system. A new approach was vital.