{"id":4501,"date":"2019-11-09T16:55:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T21:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=4501"},"modified":"2019-11-09T16:56:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T21:56:05","slug":"the-end-of-florida-orange-juice-a-lethal-disease-is-devastating-to-the-states-citrus-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/11\/09\/the-end-of-florida-orange-juice-a-lethal-disease-is-devastating-to-the-states-citrus-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of Florida orange juice? A lethal disease is devastating to the state\u2019s citrus industry."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Darryl Fears <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through a tiny office window behind William Kennedy\nBurchenal\u2019s desk, a row of sickly orange trees could be seen standing in the\nbright Florida sun. Their limbs were withered and leaves deformed; the wood\nlooked like rot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were thriving once, but that was before a citrus\ndisease that scientists compare to HIV struck, crippling hundreds of trees and\nforcing the family to let part of the grove decline, close its juice blending\nbusiness and put the entire operation up for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the last two years slowly dismantling my\nfather\u2019s dream,” Burchenal said of Cee Bee\u2019s Citrus, established by his\nfather, Bill, who died in 2016. “And it feels like crap.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many dead and dying Florida groves like Cee\nBee\u2019s that some economists have administered last rites to the state\u2019s $9\nbillion citrus industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ninety percent of the state\u2019s groves are infected by a\nbacterium called huang\nlong bing<\/a>, which, like oranges, originated in China. The pathogen\noften prevents raw green fruit from ripening, a symptom called citrus greening.\nEven when the fruit does ripen, it sometimes drops to the ground before it can\nbe picked. Under Florida law, citrus that falls from a tree untouched cannot be\nsold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A scientist displays a normal orange, left, with one\naffected by citrus greening at a research grove in Vero Beach, Fla., in\nNovember 2015. (Mark Elias\/Bloomberg News)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the state prepares for the November to May harvest,\nthousands of growers have already quit, leaving \u201cghost groves\u201d in their wake.\nMore than 7,000 farmers grew citrus in 2004; since then, nearly 5,000 have\ndropped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About two-thirds of the factories that processed fruit to\njuice have shut down. The number of packing operations \u2013 which make oranges,\ntangerines and grapefruit look polished for picky buyers \u2013 has nosedived from\nnearly 80 to 26. And 34,000 jobs were eliminated in the 10 years up to 2016,\naccording to a University of Florida study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss of so many farmers and citrus cultivation<\/a> could be the death the state\u2019s\nsecond-largest industry behind tourism, and one that produces more than 80\npercent of the country\u2019s orange juice, some economists say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s Department of Citrus called huang long\nbing \u2014 which means yellow dragon sickness \u2014 \u201cone of the most destructive\nforeign plant diseases imaginable\u201d and acknowledged that it “has decimated\nthe state\u2019s iconic industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacedric Stovall harvests tangerines in Fort Pierce, Fla.,\nas the citrus industry tries to find a cure for the citrus greening. (Joe\nRaedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outlook is so bad that researchers at a compound of\nlaboratories 30 miles south of Disney World in rural Lake Alfred are\nfrantically trying to develop new root stocks to create trees that can better\ntolerate disease and genetically engineer new types of oranges to replace\ntraditional varieties that are more vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe\u2019re in a race\nright now to save the Florida citrus industry,\u201d said Michael Rogers, the\ndirector of the University of Florida\u2019s Citrus Research and Education Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HLB, short for huan long bing, is spread by yet\nanother invasive species \u2014 a tiny insect called a citrus psyllid, which sucks\nthe bacteria into its gut as it feeds on citrus leaves. The insect then infects\nthe next healthy leaf on which it feeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citrus psyllids reproduce so rapidly that they develop a\nresistance to insecticides within a year. Spraying to control them while trying\nto revive trees has driven up farming costs. Growers are spending $663 more per\nacre than they did the year before the discovery of the bacterium, a 54 percent\nincrease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study by researchers at the University of Florida and\nVirginia Tech shows that climate change will allow the psyllid to spread to\nstates north of Florida as their temperatures rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, the pest thrives in temperatures\nbetween 60 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That is bad news for growers in Florida,\nwhose temperatures hover in that range year-round. It means the bug is here to\nstay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuch of the Florida citrus groves are already pretty\ninundated,\u201d said Leah R. Johnson, an assistant professor of statistics at\nVirginia Tech and co-author of the study. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard because we\ndidn\u2019t catch it early enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ray of hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the grim news, the state citrus department struck an\nupbeat tone recently, saying an increase in the amount of fruit boxed in the\npast two years was a sign that the industry was rebounding. Sales jumped from a\nlow of 40 million boxes two seasons ago to 70 million last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunkist Growers citrus product is stacked on pallets at the\nPremier Citrus packing facility in Vero Beach, Fla., in November 2018. (Eve\nEdelheit\/Bloomberg News)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citrus growers \u201care resilient and optimistic about the\nfuture,\u201d Shelley Rossetter, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Citrus,\nsaid in July. \u201cFlorida will continue to be a major producer of citrus for years\nto come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of the nation\u2019s largest orange juice distributors \u2014\nPepsiCo, the owner of Tropicana, and Coca-Cola, the owner of Minute Maid \u2014 were\nsimilarly optimistic, even though citrus production has dropped by half and\nrevenue loss is approaching $5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Florida\u2019s citrus industry were to fail, the companies\ncould buy citrus products from other parts of the world, such as Costa Rica and\nBrazil. But both say they support the Florida industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropicana partnered with the University of Florida to create\ndisease-tolerant orange varieties in experimental groves. Minute Maid has\ninvested billions to plant new trees and partnered with Bayer\u2019s crop science\ndivision to develop an anti-bacterial agent to fight HLB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout advanced tools to control citrus greening, the\ncitrus industry in Florida could be out of business within 10 to 15 years,\u201d\nAdrian Percy, the former head of Bayer\u2019s research division, told a digital magazine<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citrus fruit is tested and analyzed in the lab of Tripti\nVashisth, an assistant professor of horticultural science at the Citrus\nResearch and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Fla. (Courtesy of Lyon Duong)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those tools are now available at the lab in Lake Alfred,\nRogers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lab has a storied history. Since it opened a century\nago, scientists there have come up with innovations that have protected crops\nfrom damaging winter freezes and devised ways to improve the quality and flavor\nof juices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help the U.S. war effort in the 1940s, a research team\nled by Cedric Donald Atkins<\/a> invented frozen concentrate\norange juice there. It revolutionized the citrus industry and paved the way to\ndecades of healthy earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now its scientists are working to unravel the mystery of\nHLB. But the pace is slow and time is short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the effort started nearly 15 years ago, the scientists\nquickly learned how fearsome HLB was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe actually had to go through the process of all of our\nresearchers getting approval to work with what they call select agents,\npathogens that are on the bioterrorism list,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cWe had to go get\nfingerprinted by the FBI, have background checks run, and all that kind of\nstuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HLB was discovered in China in 1919. Rogers theorized that\nsmuggled tree clippings from Asia brought it to Florida\u2019s Delray Beach area in\n2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The citrus psyllids were waiting to spread it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, after greening and fruit drop decimated citrus\ncrops, Rogers ordered the overwhelming majority of the lab\u2019s 25 professors and\n250 staffers to stop whatever they were doing to focus on HLB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work resulted in a key finding: The disease attacks\ncitrus tree roots, robbing them of their ability to absorb the nutrients the\ntrees need to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripti Vashisth, an assistant professor of horticultural\nscience at the University of Florida, said each fruit on a tree relies on\nnutrients drawn from the roots. To ration the dwindling food, the trees drop\nthe fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIts own survival is more important, right?\u201d Vashisth said.\n\u201cMaybe it thinks, I can produce more food next year. Let me survive this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vashisth and her team developed a technique by which farmers\nspoon-feed smaller amounts of fertilizer to sick trees every two weeks, as\nopposed to massive amounts three times per year, so allowing roots to better\nabsorb the nutrients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another part of the lab, researchers working under Jude\nGrosser, a professor of plant cell genetics, took an only-the-strong-survive\napproach to root-building. They analyzed which roots succumbed to the pathogen\nand replaced them with roots that were more tolerant. But the replacement\ncouldn\u2019t be just any root; it also had to produce a sweeter fruit for the\nmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New fruit could soon replace the two vintage orange\nvarieties \u2014 the Hamlin and the Valencia, a juice mixture that most Americans\nhave gulped for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hamlin\u2019s bland juice is processed early in the season.\nIt is mixed with the sweeter Valencia, which ripens around spring. Both are\nmore vulnerable to HLB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grosser\u2019s group created a sweeter fruit to replace the\nHamlin. Two others could nudge out the Valencia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and\nMedicine still maintains a downbeat outlook. A breakthrough discovery for\nmanaging HLB in the near future is unlikely, it said in a study last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tripti Vashisth examines citrus fruit in a lab at the Citrus\nResearch and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Fla. (Tyler Jones)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dying dream<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the citrus industry\u2019s heyday, Bill Burchenal purchased a\ntiny grove near Tampa on the edge of a swamp full of alligators and turned it\ninto a 300-acre farm bursting with oranges, tangerines and grapefruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 70, the former developer learned to concoct juice\nblends so sweet that customers drove hundreds of miles to buy them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, three years after Burchenal died, the juice stand\nat Cee Bee\u2019s is closed. The fruit boxing operation is caked in dust. A \u201cFor\nSale\u201d sign recently hung at the entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His son stood under a hot morning sun surrounded by hundreds\nof trees that were sick, dying or dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HLB lived up to its reputation, Burchenal said. Too many of\nhis Hamlin and Valencia never turned orange. Some fruit ripened but dropped\nbefore harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s part of what\u2019s heartbreaking. You can get all\nthe way up until harvest time, when you need to make your money for the year,\nand all of a sudden something goes wrong,\u201d Burchenal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Florida agricultural extension agent offered a solution\nthat seemed preposterous to Burchenal and his son, Adam, who took over the\ngrove\u2019s management after his grandfather\u2019s death: Raze hundreds of sick trees\nand start over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe smaller groves and independent groves like us, we just\ncan\u2019t do that,\u201d Adam Burchenal said. It would take up to five years before the\nnew trees produced enough fruit to break even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At $12 each, the new, disease-tolerant trees being offered\nby the University of Florida cost far more than growers can afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re replanting 2,600 trees, it adds up pretty\nquickly,\u201d Adam Burchenal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

avid Hill harvests tangerines in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Joe\nRaedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The most feared citrus disease in the world\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At KLM Farms in Alturas, grower Jerry Mixon anted up and\nrolled the dice to save his ailing farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixon carefully followed the advice of researchers at the\nuniversity lab. He placed 70 of the 235 acres in a grove he owns under a milky\nwhite screen to protect it from the citrus psyllid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At $20,000 to $25,000 per acre, according to a trade blog<\/a> distributed by the Griffin Fertilizer\nCompany, the cost of Citrus Under Protective Screen, or CUPS, would drive most\nfarmers out of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But under the screen, tangerine trees bulged with so much\nfruit that their limbs bent. Mixon expects to fill thousands of crates of fresh\ncitrus for as much as $40 per box when they ripen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mixon, it\u2019s the price of doing business in a troubled\nlandscape. In 2012, the worst year in the greening era, he watched his entire\ncitrus operation fail. Acting on the advice of the scientists, he clear-cut his\ntrees and started over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the fruit hanging from his trees make it to market, Mixon\nwill emerge as one of the industry\u2019s few survivors and set an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I think the Lord had a lot to do with it,” Mixon\nsaid. Nodding at Rogers, he added: \u201cI also think there was some great work these\nguys are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixteen miles east at Fort Meade, another farmer, N. Larry\nBlack, toured a grove with trees bursting with lab-created fruit he hoped to\nsell \u2014 Sugar Belle oranges, Bingo tangerines and other new varieties planted\nwith root stock created by the university to tolerate infestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t matter to Black that his farm is surrounded by\nothers full of dying trees and, possibly, citrus psyllids. Looking toward the\nghost groves, Black said, \u201cI see opportunity.\u201d He might buy them and expand his\nfarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black said his confident swagger shouldn\u2019t obscure his fear\nof the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s scary,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you study citrus greening\nor HLB, you know it\u2019s the most-feared citrus disease in the world.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Darryl Fears  Through a tiny office window behind William Kennedy Burchenal\u2019s desk, a row of sickly orange trees could be seen standing in the bright Florida sun. Their limbs were… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}