Complex sentence: Growers have been forced off their acreage by drought conditions and harassment by the Water Department, Gittes explains, depressing value, and then bought tens of thousands of acres "for peanuts" using the names of straw buyers.
Split into simpler sentences: Growers have been forced off their acreage by drought conditions and harassment by the Water Department, Gittes explains, depressing value. Unidentified persons are buying tens of thousands of acres "for peanuts" using the names of straw buyers.