Another orange tree, infected by the spit of a gnat-size insect and condemned by a scarlet letter X, is “pushed.” Death came in six seconds.
On this day alone, in this single grove, 300 trees will be clipped and burned. It’s like this every day now for the citrus industry, under attack by a new threat called greening.
“A sad deal,” said Jim Snively, a fourth-generation grower.”Florida orange juice isn’t going away, and neither are we,” said Ricke Kress, Southern Gardens’ president.
Like cattle ranchers, citrus growers represent old Florida at its best. They tend to be genuine, humble and polite — “sir” and “ma’am,” “darn” and “shoot,” boots and jeans. And a wide streak of tenacity.
“Don’t forget,” Sparks said, “the whole state of Florida just cannot be condos and highways.”
Sometimes, though, it seems that it is.
You can drive along Florida’s Turnpike from Hollywood to beyond Orlando — a route colored by groves as recently as 10 years ago — with hardly an orange or grapefruit tree in sight.
Commercial acreage is down from 941,000 in 1970 to 832,000 in 2001 to 621,000 now, citrus morphing into condos in Davie and Bradenton, Vero Beach and Port St. Lucie, Lakeland and Clermont.
But 621,000 acres, the equivalent of 970 square miles, is not insignificant. And, from the growers’ perspective, fewer trees do not necessarily mean financial ruin.
In the world of commodities, less supply nearly always means higher prices, so although acreage plummeted 22 percent between 2004 and 2005, the value of Florida’s scarcer citrus crop increased 14 percent to $1.02 billion. Last year, sales rose to $1.36 billion.
As those cash receipts rebound around Florida’s farm supply stores, trucking companies, processing plants, supermarkets, shopping malls and other businesses, they end up contributing about $9 billion in indirect annual economic impact, according to the University of Florida, state officials and the Citrus Mutual.
In the lobby of the group’s office building in downtown Lakeland, a plaque honors Citrus Mutual pioneer A.B. Michael, a grower from the Vero Beach area. Michael’s pet phrase was, “Don’t fret.”Click here for more of this article…
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