http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-agriculture1209jan12,0,6735400.story
Coming year looks mostly sour for citrus
Jerry W. Jackson | Sentinel Staff Writer
January 12, 2009
The top challenge facing Florida agriculture in 2009 is one of the oldest: the threat of crop and tree diseases wiping out the state's citrus. Canker and the more recent blight known as citrus greening are so widespread, and the solutions so uncertain, that the survival of the citrus industry is at stake, said Mike Stuart, president and chief executive officer of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
Hurricanes helped spread canker throughout the state in recent years, and in 2005 the Asian Huanglongbing disease, also known as greening or yellow dragon, was confirmed to be in the state. Since then, a tiny insect has carried it throughout every citrus-producing county. There are no known cures for either canker or greening, which do not harm humans but ruin citrus fruit and weaken the trees.
"Those are daunting challenges," Stuart said. "We have to find solutions, or we won't have a citrus industry."
With eradication of canker and greening no longer considered feasible, research into control techniques and genetically improved citrus trees that may be more resistant to disease has been ramped up by the University of Florida and state and national agriculture agencies. But citrus growers say the progress has been so slow and the potential payoff so far down the road that they remain discouraged and dubious of the prospects for quick solutions.
Many growers have taken to experimenting on their own, with some success. Southern Gardens Citrus in Clewiston, for example, has U.S. Department of Agriculture approval to field-test new types of citrus trees this year in its South Florida groves, as the company hopes to build on research it has done on genetically modified trees in secure greenhouses. The payoff, though, remains years away.
Stuart said he considers the "No. 2 threat" to Florida agriculture to be the food safety issue, or the way government regulators react to outbreaks of contamination in fruits or vegetables. If salmonella or some other food-borne illness spreads through multiple states, the ensuing recalls, public panic and inability of investigators to quickly pinpoint the correct culprit can wreak havoc with sales and cost the farming industry hundreds of millions of dollars in a matter of weeks or months.
"We've got to make more progress on that," said Stuart, whose Maitland-based organization represents growers, packers, shippers and others statewide.
Charlie Bronson, an Osceola County cattle rancher who will give up his statewide seat as Florida's elected agriculture commissioner in 2010 as a result of term-limit requirements, said he is confident the state's large and diverse farm and ranch sector will survive and thrive in coming years despite all the challenges.
"Agriculture is going to come back strong," said Bronson, a big advocate of alternative-fuel production and the role that farming might play in producing fast-growing crops and woody byproducts for that could be converted to ethanol and "biodiesel," replacing petroleum-based automotive fuels.
Bronson said that much of the state's farm, foliage and biofuel production will increasingly move into high-tech greenhouses and controlled environments, where the weather and elements can be more closely controlled and monitored, giving the industry a much larger science-and-technology component plus some high-tech jobs.
