Florida citrus growers worry that deadly bacteria will mean end of orange juice

[cali]

<snip>

What Story saw in the orchard in Polk County, Fla., wasn’t an anomaly. It’s the new norm in the Sunshine State, where about half the trees in every citrus orchard are stricken with an incurable bacterial infection from China that goes by many names:

huanglongbing, “yellow dragon disease” and “citrus greening.” Growers, agriculturalists and academics liken it to cancer. Roots become deformed. Fruits drop from limbs prematurely and rot. The trees slowly die.

The bacteria is spread by a tiny, invasive bug, also from China, called Asian citrus psyllid. It acquires the bacteria while feeding on the leaves of infected trees, then transmits it when feeding on healthy trees — akin to the way mosquitoes transfer malaria.

<snip>

Florida citrus, which provides up to 80 percent of U.S. orange juice, has been hardest hit, but the disease — which also has an African and Latin American strain — also has been detected in Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and California. It has spread to other parts of the world, including Mexico, India, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil, which provide nearly 20 percent of the orange juice Americans drink. In each case, the impact to citrus has been devastating.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/florida-citrus-growers-worry-that-deadly-bacteria-will-mean-end-of-orange-juice/2014/01/12/1391c470-7891-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html?wprss=rss_national

[dipsydoodle]

1. Sounds serious.

Citrus greening disease (Chinese: 黃龍病; pinyin: huánglóngbìng; literally "Yellow Dragon Disease&quot ,[2] is probably the worst disease of citrus caused by a vectored pathogen. The causative agents are motile bacteria, Candidatus Liberibacter spp. Transmission is by insects: the Asian citrus psyllid (Sternorrhyncha: Psyllidae), Diaphorina citri or, in Africa, by Trioza erytreae, the African citrus psyllid, also known as the 2-spotted citrus psyllid. The disease was first described in 1929 and first reported in China in 1943. Likubin has seriously affected Taiwan since 1951. The African variation was first reported in 1947 in South Africa, where it is still widespread.

The causative agents are fastidious phloem-restricted, gram-negative bacteria in the gracilicutes clade. The Asian form, L. asiaticus is heat tolerant. This means the greening symptoms can develop at temperatures of up to 35°C. The African form, L. africanum, is heat sensitive and in its case, symptoms only develop when the temperature is in the range 20-25°C.[3] The bacteria are transmitted by the psyllid vectors and also by graft transmission.[4] Although Trioza erytreae is the natural vector of African citrus greening and Diaphorina citri is the natural vector of Asian citrus greening, either psyllid can in fact transmit either of the greening agents under experimental conditions.[5]

Distribution of CVPD is primarily in tropical and subtropical Asia. It has been reported in all citrus-growing regions in Asia except Japan. The disease has affected crops in China, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, the Ryukyu Islands, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. Areas outside Asia have also reported the disease: Réunion, Mauritius, Brazil, and Florida in the U.S. since 1998, and in several municipalities in Mexico since 2009[6][7][8][9][10] On March 30, 2012, HLB was confirmed in a single citrus tree in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles County, California.[11] Prospects are dim for the ubiquitous backyard citrus orchards of California as residential growers are unlikely to consistently use the pesticides which provide effective control in commercial orchards.[12]

This disease is distinguished by the common symptoms of yellowing of the veins and adjacent tissues; followed by yellowing or mottling of the entire leaf; followed by premature defoliation, dieback of twigs, decay of feeder rootlets and lateral roots, and decline in vigor; and followed by, ultimately, the death of the entire plant. Affected trees have stunted growth, bear multiple off-season flowers (most of which fall off), and produce small, irregularly-shaped fruit with a thick, pale peel that remains green at the bottom. Fruit from these trees tastes bitter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_greening_disease

[Ellipsis]

2. Perhaps it's time they reconsidered how to grow citrus.

[MineralMan]

3. My parents are citrus farmers in California.

This citrus disease and other issues have heavily impacted citrus growers. In my small hometown, which is in a historic citrus growing areas, more and more orchard owners are simply pulling out all of their orange trees and switching to other crops. In fact, row crops are becoming the norm in that area.

It's not just the diseases, either. Income from citrus growing has plummeted in recent decades, with prices for citrus actually lower than they were in the 1960s to the farmer. Many farmers began switching to avocados as a crop, but there, too, prices have gone down, due to an increased supply and imports from other countries.

Enjoy your orange juice now. It may be less available, more expensive, and come from places other than the US very soon.

For my parents, who are now 89 years old, the whole thing is academic, but citrus farming is on its way out in the US.