thank you very much and for the next
little bit we will talk about citrus and
one of the huge impacts that’s going on
within the citrus industry today the
citrus industry in Florida is a key
agricultural commodity it’s at a tipping
point within the area we’re losing both
political and economic influence as well
as influence with the chemical companies
that make the chemicals and the products
that we use because of our declining
supply of oranges so the challenges that
we faced over the many past years are
such things as land prices as they
increase it’s more difficult to farm as
well as demand for irrigation water
diseases we all are familiar with the
citrus canker episodes from a few years
ago environmental issues like hurricanes
droughts and the much needed rain we’ve
had the last couple of days labor
shortages and due to all this our
production cost had more than doubled
since the year 2000 with each of these
new challenges the industry has always
come forth with solutions to grow thrive
and to prosper
however all of that changed recently in
2005 as citrus canker or some people
refer to it as Hong Kong being or hlv
came in to Florida all varieties are
affected by citrus greening and it is
considered one of the worst diseases
worldwide for citrus greening was first
found in Florida in 2005 and rapidly
spread throughout the entire state
nearly all mature trees now within
Central Florida are infected with the
disease it was found in 2004 in the
state of San Paulo Brazil and they are
the world’s largest citrus juice
producer currently currently they have
17% of their trees are infected as well
and that total is about 32 million trees
in Brazil hlb or citrus greening is also
found in Texas California and men
sico as well as in china and some other
countries worldwide the disease is
caused by a bacterium but that bacterium
is transmitted from tree to tree by a
small insect called the Asian citrus
psyllid it’s much smaller than a grain
of rice but large enough to bring the
citrus industry to its knees
the psyllid acquires the bacteria as it
feeds on an infected plant the bacteria
then replicates inside of the insect and
then it’s able to transmit that disease
to another tree there is no known cure
for hlb or citrus greening at this point
in time if you think of the analogy of a
mosquito feeding on an infected person
with malaria and then feeding on someone
that’s not infected it’s the same
transmission process feeding on the
infected and then feeding on the non
infected the disease causes tree decline
so if those trees lose both their shoots
and their roots therefore they’re
producing less fruit per tree this
ultimately reduces the economics of this
interest industry thereby reducing the
revenues to the grower and also the
revenues to the local communities that
those farmers employ or either buy the
services locally or elsewhere since 2002
the citrus industry has decreased from
eight hundred and fifty thousand acres
in that time period currently to four
hundred thousand that’s a 48 percent
decline in acreage in that 15 year time
period since 2002 to 2016 season
the orange production has dropped by 66%
the grapefruit production is down now by
80% and in this year you actually go
farther down because of the effects of
not only greening but also the effects
of herma we are now down 82 percent from
that 2002 time period
well growers are currently doing all the
practices that they can to remain
economically viable they’re minimizing
any kind of stress that the tree is
experiencing the
that moisture stress or water we are
applying the same amount of water but in
smaller doses more frequently same
amount of nutrients but in much smaller
doses trying to allow the tree to
survive the disease as best as possible
the long term solution we must
ultimately develop a tree that is
resistant to the disease or either find
the tree that’s resistant to the disease
we need to use every innovative
technology whether that’s a GMO tree and
I know lots of people don’t like the
concept of GMO but I’m they like to eat
fruit from a GMO tree versus no fruit at
all or either one that’s been sprayed
less so there’s always a trade-off
between those things but whatever kind
of tree we come up with genetically
modified or some other naturally
resistant tree that is found it must
produce high-quality fruit and lots of
it for the grower to be profitable the
industry and its partners since in the
last 10 years has spent over seven
hundred million dollars researching
every Avenue possible they’ve studied
the bacteria they studied the cellar
they studied the interaction between the
cyllid and the bacteria and how that
ultimately impacts a tree they’re also
using the latest technology which is
called CRISPR and which is a genetic
tool that you can block a certain gene
or regulate it up or regulate it down
again trying to come up with a disease a
tree that will be resistant to the
disease the National Academy of Science
recently reported and 185 page report
and I won’t refer to all of it but in
that they said they would find no single
solution that is likely going to be to
be the solution without a solution the
continued downward trend as you can
notice in the chart is going to continue
the new new tree if one is found when
it’s found will take a period of time to
bring it into production there’s
certainly a lag between any kind of
innovation the adoption of that
innovation and when that innovation will
yield fruit and that’s going to be
probably at least five or six years at
the time
growers must be willing to try every new
strategy possible they need to think
outside of the typical production box
and then find solutions you may say well
it really doesn’t matter to me but
however the economics of this is huge in
2002 we had over 100 fresh fruit packing
houses today ly we have less than 20 and
of those 23 probably could pack every
orange in the state of Florida well you
may say I don’t eat fresh fruit but I
drink juice we had 42 processing plants
in 2002 today we have less than 14 and
all of those are working at less than
optimum efficiency the economic impact
of the state is over a billion dollars
per year and 20,000 jobs have been lost
due to the disease citrus growers and
researchers must find strategies to
combat the disease and a long-term
solution to allow profitability if you
wish to have your orange juice every
morning you now you and the growers must
determine if this Sun is rising with new
solutions or just a Setting Sun on the
Florida citrus industry thank you very
much
[Applause] [Music]
little bit we will talk about citrus and
one of the huge impacts that’s going on
within the citrus industry today the
citrus industry in Florida is a key
agricultural commodity it’s at a tipping
point within the area we’re losing both
political and economic influence as well
as influence with the chemical companies
that make the chemicals and the products
that we use because of our declining
supply of oranges so the challenges that
we faced over the many past years are
such things as land prices as they
increase it’s more difficult to farm as
well as demand for irrigation water
diseases we all are familiar with the
citrus canker episodes from a few years
ago environmental issues like hurricanes
droughts and the much needed rain we’ve
had the last couple of days labor
shortages and due to all this our
production cost had more than doubled
since the year 2000 with each of these
new challenges the industry has always
come forth with solutions to grow thrive
and to prosper
however all of that changed recently in
2005 as citrus canker or some people
refer to it as Hong Kong being or hlv
came in to Florida all varieties are
affected by citrus greening and it is
considered one of the worst diseases
worldwide for citrus greening was first
found in Florida in 2005 and rapidly
spread throughout the entire state
nearly all mature trees now within
Central Florida are infected with the
disease it was found in 2004 in the
state of San Paulo Brazil and they are
the world’s largest citrus juice
producer currently currently they have
17% of their trees are infected as well
and that total is about 32 million trees
in Brazil hlb or citrus greening is also
found in Texas California and men
sico as well as in china and some other
countries worldwide the disease is
caused by a bacterium but that bacterium
is transmitted from tree to tree by a
small insect called the Asian citrus
psyllid it’s much smaller than a grain
of rice but large enough to bring the
citrus industry to its knees
the psyllid acquires the bacteria as it
feeds on an infected plant the bacteria
then replicates inside of the insect and
then it’s able to transmit that disease
to another tree there is no known cure
for hlb or citrus greening at this point
in time if you think of the analogy of a
mosquito feeding on an infected person
with malaria and then feeding on someone
that’s not infected it’s the same
transmission process feeding on the
infected and then feeding on the non
infected the disease causes tree decline
so if those trees lose both their shoots
and their roots therefore they’re
producing less fruit per tree this
ultimately reduces the economics of this
interest industry thereby reducing the
revenues to the grower and also the
revenues to the local communities that
those farmers employ or either buy the
services locally or elsewhere since 2002
the citrus industry has decreased from
eight hundred and fifty thousand acres
in that time period currently to four
hundred thousand that’s a 48 percent
decline in acreage in that 15 year time
period since 2002 to 2016 season
the orange production has dropped by 66%
the grapefruit production is down now by
80% and in this year you actually go
farther down because of the effects of
not only greening but also the effects
of herma we are now down 82 percent from
that 2002 time period
well growers are currently doing all the
practices that they can to remain
economically viable they’re minimizing
any kind of stress that the tree is
experiencing the
that moisture stress or water we are
applying the same amount of water but in
smaller doses more frequently same
amount of nutrients but in much smaller
doses trying to allow the tree to
survive the disease as best as possible
the long term solution we must
ultimately develop a tree that is
resistant to the disease or either find
the tree that’s resistant to the disease
we need to use every innovative
technology whether that’s a GMO tree and
I know lots of people don’t like the
concept of GMO but I’m they like to eat
fruit from a GMO tree versus no fruit at
all or either one that’s been sprayed
less so there’s always a trade-off
between those things but whatever kind
of tree we come up with genetically
modified or some other naturally
resistant tree that is found it must
produce high-quality fruit and lots of
it for the grower to be profitable the
industry and its partners since in the
last 10 years has spent over seven
hundred million dollars researching
every Avenue possible they’ve studied
the bacteria they studied the cellar
they studied the interaction between the
cyllid and the bacteria and how that
ultimately impacts a tree they’re also
using the latest technology which is
called CRISPR and which is a genetic
tool that you can block a certain gene
or regulate it up or regulate it down
again trying to come up with a disease a
tree that will be resistant to the
disease the National Academy of Science
recently reported and 185 page report
and I won’t refer to all of it but in
that they said they would find no single
solution that is likely going to be to
be the solution without a solution the
continued downward trend as you can
notice in the chart is going to continue
the new new tree if one is found when
it’s found will take a period of time to
bring it into production there’s
certainly a lag between any kind of
innovation the adoption of that
innovation and when that innovation will
yield fruit and that’s going to be
probably at least five or six years at
the time
growers must be willing to try every new
strategy possible they need to think
outside of the typical production box
and then find solutions you may say well
it really doesn’t matter to me but
however the economics of this is huge in
2002 we had over 100 fresh fruit packing
houses today ly we have less than 20 and
of those 23 probably could pack every
orange in the state of Florida well you
may say I don’t eat fresh fruit but I
drink juice we had 42 processing plants
in 2002 today we have less than 14 and
all of those are working at less than
optimum efficiency the economic impact
of the state is over a billion dollars
per year and 20,000 jobs have been lost
due to the disease citrus growers and
researchers must find strategies to
combat the disease and a long-term
solution to allow profitability if you
wish to have your orange juice every
morning you now you and the growers must
determine if this Sun is rising with new
solutions or just a Setting Sun on the
Florida citrus industry thank you very
much
[Applause] [Music]
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