Headlines

Give Citrus a Squeeze – 7/20/2008
Amid the rotten economic news about Florida last week was something at least a little hopeful: The state's first industry is doing better. [Read More]

States say they won't check farm worker documents – 7/19/2008
Some states are balking at a federal effort to require them to screen potential farm hands for immigration violations before referring them to jobs, another conflict in the long-running dispute over the states' role in immigration enforcement. [Read More]

Reclaimed wastewater benefits Florida's citrus orchards – 7/19/2008
The Sunshine State has seen rapid growth in population during the last 50 years. The 1997 U.S. Census showed that the population of Florida increased more than five-and-a-half times from 1950 to 2000. Naturally, along with population increases, Florida is experiencing an increase in the amount of municipal waste. Studies confirm that the amount of wastewater generated by cities in Florida has increased more than fivefold since 1950. [Read More]

Tiny bug threatens California citrus industry – 7/18/2008
Border agents have stepped up searches and hundreds of traps have been placed on the California-Mexico line in an aggressive campaign to stop a tiny bug from bringing in a disease farmers say could wipe out the $1.3 billion citrus industry here. [Read More]

Citrus board reaches for help fighting dangerous pest – 7/18/2008
The Visalia-based California Citrus Research Board on Friday enlisted the help of master gardeners, homeowners, landscape managers and growers in the San Diego area to search for a deadly insect that could devastate the state's citrus industry. [Read More]

"Miracle biofuel" growing in SW Fla. – 7/17/2008
In Southwest Florida, a new weed called jatropha is being hailed the newest miracle seed in the quest for alternative fuel sources. It produces tiny fruits, which contain seeds that can be crushed for oil. [Read More]

Insect found in Tijuana poses risk to California citrus trade – 7/17/2008
A tiny insect that can carry a disease that kills citrus trees has been discovered just blocks south of the border in Tijuana, sending shock waves through the California citrus industry. [Read More]

Citrus Shipper Forced To Pack It In – 7/17/2008
Florida has one less citrus packing house. [Read More]

Noble Juice Creates New Packaging – 7/15/2008
Noble Juice has found a different way of serving organic-fruit drinks, and it seems to be paying off. [Read More]

Unorthodox Disease-Fighting Method Sparks Debate in Citrus Industry – 7/14/2008
For the past several years, a fatal plant disease called citrus greening has been spreading like wildfire through much of Florida's citrus-producing region. Recently, news of an unorthodox way to fight the disease has been spreading almost as quickly. The scientific community is skeptical, though, and it's touched off a big debate in the struggling citrus industry. 90.7's Judith Smelser reports. [Read More]

Orange crop totals 169.7 million boxes – 7/12/2008
Florida’s 2007-2008 orange crop finished at 169.7 million boxes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday in its final citrus report of the season. [Read More]

Citrus Greening Research Project Chief Has Solid Agenda – 7/12/2008
The Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council has hired Thomas Turpen to guide a $20 million research push to control citrus greening, a fatal bacterial disease, through Florida's citrus groves. Growers consider greening the top threat to citrus' future. [Read More]

Citrus up from 2007 despite problems – 7/12/2008
Florida's citrus crop finished the 2007-08 season up 32 percent from the previous season, with growers getting fairly strong returns. [Read More]

Duda, Cargill reach deal to distribute in Japan – 7/11/2008
Duda Products Inc. and international food provider Cargill have a three-year deal making Duda Products Cargill's exclusive supplier of Florida orange and grapefruit concentrate in Japan. [Read More]

Feds to release final Fla. citrus forecast – 7/11/2008
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release its final forecast for Florida's citrus crop on Friday. [Read More]

Deseret Ranch owners pull request to rezone property – 7/8/2008
Owners of the massive Deseret Ranch pulled their request to get a portion of their Orange County property rezoned for development. [Read More]

UF ethanol plant unaffected by U.S. Sugar deal – 7/6/2008
A University of Florida plant that would convert sugar cane into ethanol will be unaffected by state negotiations to buy U.S. Sugar for Everglades restoration, according to those involved in the project. [Read More]

2nd firm holds key to Glades' sweet deal – 7/4/2008
After striking a monumental deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp., Florida officials hoping to construct a watery pathway between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades may have an even tougher challenge ahead. [Read More]

Those Oriental fruit flies are worrisome, and they are here – 7/2/2008
Driving home recently, I noticed a faint, odd but not totally repulsive odor wafting into my sunroof. It was raining, and there was a bit of a Twilight Zone steaminess to the street, so I chalked it up to an unseen dead critter of some sort. I drove one more block, and the culprit emerged from a foggy trail. It was one of those bug-spray trucks that pretends to keep mosquitoes at bay in Florida. [Read More]

Alico settles IRS dispute for $64.5-million – 7/1/2008
Alico Inc. and its insurance subsidiary have settled a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service with a $64.5-million settlement. [Read More]

Alico Inc. names new chief executive officer – 7/1/2008
Dan L. Gunter has been named chief executive officer of Alico Inc. in LaBelle. [Read More]

U.S. farm bill includes money for Florida – 7/1/2008
The U.S. government's farm program conjures up images of corn, wheat and subsidies for Midwestern farmers. But the new version that recently became law looks like a "growth" opportunity to Florida farmers. [Read More]

Chemical From Tanker Spills on US 27 – 6/30/2008
A tanker leaked about 600 gallons of citrus pesticide on U.S. 27 this afternoon but caused no injuries, officials said. [Read More]

Public mourns loss of citrus great – 6/26/2008
Thousands of well-wishers turned out Tuesday and Wednesday to pay final tribute to Lake Placid's native son, Mason Smoak -- a local government official and citrus, cattle, and land management magnate. [Read More]

Juice Processing Site May Keep Operating – 6/26/2008
A U.S. Sugar official said Tuesday he did not expect the sale of the company's assets to the state of Florida would cause the shutdown of its citrus operations, particularly its Clewiston juice-processing plant. [Read More]

Florida, U.S. Sugar strike deal for 187,000 acres – 6/24/2008
Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday is expected to announce a blockbuster land deal that could be a boon for Everglades restoration and the St. Lucie Estuary and the end of a sugar cane giant. [Read More]

Land sale would mark the end for Florida sugar giant – 6/24/2008
The news hit South Florida on Monday like a Category 5 hurricane: U.S. Sugar Corp., the nation's largest sugar producer and the third-largest citrus company in Florida, may soon cease to exist. [Read More]

Heir to agriculture dynasty to be laid to rest – 6/23/2008
The heir apparent to one of the state's largest and most influential agricultural dynasties, Mason Gabelein Smoak, will be remembered at a celebration of life Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Memorial United Methodist Church in Lake Placid. [Read More]

Mechanical Citrus Harvesting Has Potential, But Still Not Many Takers – 6/23/2008
Labor availability and cost is an issue in most businesses, and none more so in recent years than the Florida citrus industry. [Read More]

Three-Pronged Greening Approach Helps With Control Effort – 6/23/2008
Polk County's agricultural industry is healthy, stable, challenged and thriving, according to leaders of its major sectors. And contrary to speculation in some quarters, Polk's agribusiness, which occupied 52 percent of Polk's 1,874 square miles in 2002, is not about to succumb to a pox of McMansions. [Read More]

Louisiana citrus growers face new threat to trees – 6/20/2008
Just as south Louisiana's citrus growers are starting to recover from Hurricane Katrina, they have a new threat: a fatal citrus disease that has infected thousands of trees in Florida and is now in the Bayou State. [Read More]

Citrus Commission To Examine Giving Up Lobbying To Citrus Mutual – 6/19/2008
The Florida Citrus Commission on Wednesday agreed to explore turning federal government lobbying duties over to Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest growers' representative, with the risk that the move could jeopardize the commission's taxing authority. [Read More]

Congress overrides Bush veto to enact farm bill – 6/19/2008
Congress has enacted a massive $290 billion farm bill for a second time after a clerical error in the first bill threatened delivery of U.S. food aid abroad. [Read More]

Growers Support DOC Budget – 6/17/2008
Faced with being wiped out by citrus greening, Florida growers have little stomach for a fight over taxes. [Read More]

Getting the Kinks Out of the Citrus Industry – 6/17/2008
Journalists, like most people, have only so much time in the day. So despite spending 17.5 hours Thursday at the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference and writing three online updates that day and one published article in Friday's Ledger (send sympathy cards to Lynne Maddox, business editor), I did not get around to writing about Mike Sparks' "State of the Florida Citrus Industry" speech. Let me correct that oversight here. [Read More]

Growers to launch pesticide spraying – 6/17/2008
Florida's citrus growers have launched an all-out aerial pesticide assault on the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect that spreads the much-feared bacterial disease known as greening. [Read More]

Peace River Citrus VP named president of Florida Citrus Mutual – 6/16/2008
Directors of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest grower organization, elected officers for the 2008-2009 season during its 60th annual meeting last week at the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs. [Read More]

Agri-Civic To Be Renamed For 2 Highlands Ag Pioneers – 6/16/2008
Two of Highlands County's early agricultural pioneers in the citrus industry will have their names names written posthumously on the outside and inside of the Agri-Civic Center on George Boulevard. [Read More]

Florida citrus growers study Vietnam's greening solution – 6/15/2008
Plant pathologist Tim Gottwald told about 300 citrus growers Thursday he had spent an earlier part of his life trying to keep out of Vietnam, so he was stunned to be visiting the country last year looking for a defense against citrus greening. [Read More]

Rising costs, citrus greening create 'perfect storm' – 6/13/2008
Couple reduced citrus prices with pressure from more competing products, add to that the rising costs of fuel and agrichemicals, and top it off with citrus greening, and you have what Mike Sparks called "the perfect storm" for the Florida citrus industry. [Read More]

Government Agencies Combining Efforts to Fight Citrus Diseases – 6/12/2008
The two officials most responsible for supervising citrus research in Florida told about 300 Florida growers today what their organizations are working on to combat the fatal bacteria. [Read More]

Researchers work to keep orange juice on shelves – 6/12/2008
Orange juice lovers beware: Your favorite drink could one day be a thing of the past. [Read More]

Vietnamese Farming Methods Studied by Local Citrus Scientists – 6/12/2008
Plant pathologist Tim Gottwald told about 300 citrus growers today he had spent an earlier part of his life trying to keep out of Vietnam , so he was stunned to be visiting the country last year looking for a defense against citrus greening. [Read More]

Brazil's Greening Problem Discussed at Citrus Conference – 6/12/2008
The morning seminars at the Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs sponsored by Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual started with a speech from Gale Buchanan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for research. He discussed programs in the new Farm Bill that will benefit so-called “specialty crops,” which includes citrus. [Read More]

Florida citrus growers fighting to stay grounded, CEO says – 6/12/2008
Florida’s citrus growers are in a fight for their life. [Read More]

Citrus industry fights for survival – 6/9/2008
When Michael Sparks, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, gives the state of the industry address Thursday at Florida's annual citrus conference in Bonita Springs, the 800-pound grapefruit in the room will be this: State agriculture officials say that if there are less than about 400,000 acres of citrus groves in Florida, the industry will not be able to keep its packing houses and processing plants open. More than 500,000 acres, and the industry can sustain itself. [Read More]

Thieves Target Diesel, Brass, Copper From Fields – 6/3/2008
Enterprising thieves have found new venues from which to pilfer: fields of strawberries and groves of oranges. [Read More]

Thieves go beyond pumps to get gas - stealing from groves – 6/3/2008
They're taking it straight from cars and trucks, tampering with gas-station pumps and striking the region's citrus growers. Throughout Central Florida and across the nation, gas thieves have figured out innovative and insidious ways of heisting the liquid gold. Sgt. Neil Mitchell of the Orange County Sheriff's Office estimates there is about one case of pump tampering each week in the county. [Read More]

Alico won’t build Southwest Florida ethanol plant – 6/3/2008
Alico Inc.’s plans to build an ethanol plant in Southwest Florida have run out of gas. [Read More]

Higher fuel, fertilizer costs challenge farmers – 5/29/2008
With gas prices nearing $4 a gallon, farmers and ranchers are either taking the hit or becoming creative in the way they offset the cost. [Read More]

Florida wins in farm bill, official says – 5/28/2008
The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, recently passed by Congress, breaks the Midwest's 70-year monopoly on farm and conservation programs, according to Rep. Tim Mahoney, D- Palm Beach Gardens, who voted to support the bill, H.R. 2419. [Read More]

Guest-Worker Plan Dies; Lawmakers Drop It From Bill – 5/22/2008
An ambitious agricultural guest-worker plan died with a whimper and not a bang this week, as senators quietly dropped the proposal from an Iraq war spending bill. With little ceremony and no debate, a quick parliamentary maneuver late Tuesday night killed California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's guest-worker plan. [Read More]

Mix-Up Throws House Veto Override Into Doubt – 5/22/2008
The House overwhelmingly rejected George W. Bush’s veto today of a $290 billion farm bill, but what should have been a stinging defeat for the president became an embarrassing episode for Democrats. [Read More]

Citrus Panel Research Funds Set – 5/22/2008
Despite holding the line on taxes while committing an unprecedented $20 million to citrus disease research, the Florida Department of Citrus may still have a tax fight on its hands. Squeezed by higher fuel, fertilizer and other production costs, representatives for grapefruit and fresh citrus growers have told Citrus Department officials they need a break from the current tax burden. [Read More]

Farm Bill's subsidies hard to swallow – 5/19/2008
If you're angry over the rising costs for food at the supermarket, call your congressional representative. Because Congress just sold you out in passing a farm bill loaded with subsidies for farmers even as the agricultural industry reaps record prices for their crops. [Read More]

Florida Farm Bureau members march on Capitol for immigration reform – 5/18/2008
More than 80 Florida Farm Bureau (FFB) members on May 13 marched up Capitol Hill and laid their farm labor woes at Congress' steps. [Read More]

Farm Bill Passes With Perks Targeting Florida – 5/16/2008
Florida's sugar, fruit and vegetable producers and Tampa Bay's tropical fish industry would benefit under a nearly $300 billion farm bill given final passage Thursday by the Senate and sent to the White House. [Read More]

Veto-proof farm bill OK'd – 5/15/2008
With enough votes to override a presidential veto, a $290 billion farm bill has been approved by Congress that proponents say increases money for nutrition programs and subsidies for farmers during the economic downturn. [Read More]

House OKs farm bill; Fla. fruits benefit – 5/15/2008
The House on Wednesday emphatically approved a massive five-year farm bill by a veto-proof margin including - for the first time ever - boosts in spending on so-called specialty crops crucial to Florida's agricultural economy. [Read More]

Ending the squeeze on Citrus – 5/14/2008
Lake County and Central Florida's citrus crop appears to be moving forward at expected paces, signaling a rebound from devastating hurricanes more than three years ago. [Read More]

Good for Florida farmers – 5/14/2008
The recent farm-bill agreement is good for Florida farmers, and federal lawmakers from our state would be wise to support it. [Read More]

Citrus Juice a national success – 5/12/2008
Beyond the bulbous bottles of pomegranate juice and the green "micronutrient" drinks with trendy labels, a very pedestrian beverage is perched in nondescript plastic jugs in grocery coolers from Miami to Japan. It's citrus juice — orange and grapefruit, mainly — made by a Treasure Coast family in a 100-year-old former bakery in downtown Fort Pierce. [Read More]

Farm Bill Has $2.5 Bil. Bonanza – 5/11/2008
As long as growers of the big five subsidy crops - corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans - didn't receive subsidies for growing fruits and vegetables, specialty crop growers stayed quiet on perennial agriculture legislation. [Read More]

Farm Bill's Negotiators Settle – 5/8/2008
Negotiators on a five-year, $300 billion farm bill say they have reached a tentative agreement on the legislation and it will be considered by the House and Senate next week. [Read More]

Both sides may appeal citrus canker decision – 5/8/2008
Both sides got a taste of victory and defeat in the legal battle over the value of thousands of residential citrus trees destroyed in an attempt to eradicate canker disease. Now, it's likely both the state and Fort Lauderdale-area homeowners will appeal. [Read More]

$11.5 Million Verdict in Canker Case – 5/7/2008
In a case with statewide ramifications, a jury decided Tuesday that the government owed more than $11.5 million to thousands of Broward County homeowners whose residential citrus trees were chopped down in an ultimately failed attempt to control canker disease. [Read More]

Broward County citrus canker case going to jury – 5/3/2008
A victory in the citrus canker trial could mean thousands of dollars for many Broward County residents. [Read More]

Save the citrus industry – 5/3/2008
It is no exaggeration to suggest that Florida's citrus industry is fighting for its existence. [Read More]

Congress still struggling to finish farm bill – 5/2/2008
Struggling to complete a farm bill that can survive a presidential veto, lawmakers have sent the White House a sixth extension of farm and nutrition programs. [Read More]

Fight against citrus greening to get boost from state – 4/30/2008
The Florida citrus industry's battle against greening disease will be getting a $2 million boost from the state's 2008-09 budget, a grower's group said today. [Read More]

A tiny pest's day in court – 4/30/2008
The pest that has laid waste to millions of dollars worth of residential and commercial citrus fruit trees is a hot-dog-bun-shaped, slime-covered bacteria cell called xanthomonas, measuring between one- and three-thousandths of a millimeter long, a state canker expert testified in Broward court on Tuesday. ''It likes wet, warm conditions, which is a perfect description of the Florida outdoor environment,'' said Tim Schubert, bureau chief of the Florida Department of Agriculture plant pathology division. [Read More]

CITRUS INDUSTRY TO RECEIVE $2 MILLION FOR PEST AND DISEASE RESEARCH – 4/29/2008
The Florida citrus industry is scheduled to receive $2 million from the state’s ’08-’09 budget to help fund pest and disease research. [Read More]

State scores point in citrus canker suit – 4/29/2008
In a victory for the Florida Department of Agriculture and a setback for homeowners, a Broward circuit judge Monday refused to block a state scientist from talking about citrus trees' vulnerability to canker or from telling jurors in a class-action suit, within limits, about how the tree disease has spread. [Read More]

Freezes of '80s Mean More Groves in Costa Rica; Fewer in Fla. – 4/25/2008
Costa Rica averages about 100 inches of rain annually, about twice the amount Florida gets. But the ties between the tropical Central American country and the Sunshine State run deeper than soggy ground. [Read More]

Ph.D.s put heads together to combat citrus greening – 4/25/2008
The sex life of the Asian citrus psyllid provided one of the few light moments during a conference about the disease those insects spread: Citrus greening. [Read More]

Canker jurors get lesson in tree pricing – 4/23/2008
Jurors in the first landmark citrus canker class-action suit to go to trial took a field trip from their Fort Lauderdale courtroom Wednesday to get a brief lesson in citrus tree prices. [Read More]

We Must Treat Farmworkers Fairly – 4/21/2008
Almost 50 years ago, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1960, CBS aired Edward R. Murrow's documentary about migrant farmworkers called Harvest of Shame. The portrayal of the workers' poverty, powerlessness and struggle to eke out a living introduced the plight of migratory farmworkers in Florida to the public consciousness. [Read More]

Polk Lawmakers Work the Field for Farms – 4/21/2008
Agriculture, especially the type found in Florida, has often been ignored on the national level as the big grain crops get all the attention from Congress. [Read More]

Citrus tree-cutting lawsuit finally in court – 4/15/2008
In the first of five class-action lawsuits to go to trial, more than 60,000 Broward County homeowners on Monday will wage a high-stakes showdown against the state of Florida for destroying their orange, lemon, grapefruit and other citrus trees in its aggressive quest to eradicate citrus canker. [Read More]

Citrus Agency Will Fight Greening – 4/12/2008
In a sign of how troubled the citrus industry is about the dreaded greening disease, the Florida Department of Citrus is shifting millions of dollars into finding ways to combat the tree-killing bacteria. [Read More]

Growers gird to fight greening – 4/12/2008
Florida citrus growers say the news about greening disease isn't good. [Read More]

Citrus Commission OKs Idea To Progress on Tax Reform – 4/4/2008
The Florida Citrus Commission on Thursday agreed to "move forward" on a major reform of state citrus taxes that revives its authority to tax imported orange juice. [Read More]

Florida Legislative panel approves citrus windbreaks – 4/4/2008
Hoping to add a weapon in the battle over citrus canker and other windborne diseases, Treasure Coast lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow growers to plant a noninvasive relative of a South Florida scourge. [Read More]

Executive to join water panel – 4/3/2008
Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday appointed Douglas C. Bournique, 56, of Vero Beach to a four-year term on the board of the St. Johns River Water Management District. [Read More]

Rising food costs are changing what we put on the table – 4/1/2008
Steadily rising food costs aren't just causing grocery shoppers to do a double-take at the checkout line — they're also changing the very ways we feed our families. [Read More]

Equal tax considered for Florida, imported juice – 3/28/2008
Florida's citrus industry imports 16 percent of the orange juice it blends and packages within the state. [Read More]

Farmworker Housing Discussed in Immokalee – 3/28/2008
While farmworkers picked crops in Immokalee’s fields on Thursday morning, a group of community leaders met to discuss the future of farmworker housing in the agricultural community. [Read More]

Stop and smell the oranges – 3/28/2008
If Florida has a taste, it might be the sweet-tart juice of an orange just picked by Fletcher Kelly at the Orange Shop on U.S. 301. [Read More]

Louis Dreyfus Commodities to invest in Brazil juice production – 3/27/2008
French commodities giant Louis Dreyfus Commodities plans to invest more than US$315 million over the next five years to produce and export not-from-concentrate orange juice in Brazil, a company executive said on Wednesday. [Read More]

Buchanan promises help with U.S. 17 widening, illegal farmworker concerns – 3/25/2008
[Read More]

Budget-cutting on today’s Florida Legislature agenda – 3/25/2008
Florida legislators are returning for the fourth week of the 2008 legislative session, with budget-cutting on today's agenda. [Read More]

Longtime Citrus Man Just Keeps 'Trucking' – 3/24/2008
During a cool, windy and overcast afternoon in January, most of Steve Maxwell's life lay in front of him as he casually sat back in his rocking chair on the porch of his gift shop. [Read More]

Will there be fruit on the ground? – 3/23/2008
Agriculture is still a viable business, what with Florida's ideal climate and plenty of land. This places even more of a premium on resolving some of the key issues regarding farm worker housing. [Read More]

Region’s growers, worker advocates cautious about guest worker reform – 3/22/2008
A few years ago, Paul Meador’s company made the decision to “do things the right way.” The Southwest Florida citrus grower started getting seasonal harvesters through a federal guest worker program known as H-2A. [Read More]

Hale Groves owners buy packinghouse for $6 million – 3/20/2008
Agricultural land giant A. Duda & Sons Inc. has sold its 30.5-acre packinghouse near Interstate 95 for $6 million, public records showed Wednesday. [Read More]

Fla. OKs Greening Research – 3/20/2008
The Florida Department of Citrus has enlisted some of the nation's top scientists in its fight against citrus greening, the fatal bacterial disease. [Read More]

Panel May Try New Citrus Tax – 3/20/2008
[Read More]

Adam Putnam: UF must not turn its back on its Land Grant mission – 3/18/2008
Talk to anyone involved in Florida agriculture these days and you will hear about the recent controversy over the future of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). I think this debate offers a unique opportunity to review the role of research and technology transfer in our state and what one of the oldest industries in Florida can contribute in the 21st century. [Read More]

Citrus Growers Retain Optimism Despite Some Biological Theats – 3/16/2008
The Florida citrus industry's future may be shaped more by what happens in research labs during the next few years than what happens in groves. [Read More]

Frozen Orange Juice Owes Its Existence to Research Center – 3/16/2008
The University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center celebrated its 90th anniversary in November. [Read More]

Farmworker Housing Debate Continues – 3/16/2008
The legion of county residents vehemently opposed to so-called "labor camps" was a no-show at the first official public workshop scheduled to probe farmworker housing issues in Hardee, leaving some officials crestfallen. [Read More]

Letters to the Editor: OJ Tariff Good – 3/16/2008
In your March 9 Business section story on the orange juice trade between Brazil and the United States, UC-Davis professor Colin Carter says he tells his children the tariff on OJ imported into the United States is a tax "to benefit the growers of Florida." [Read More]

USDA’s ’07-’08 Orange Crop Estimate Increases Slightly – 3/11/2008
Florida’s 2007-2008 orange crop estimate increased slightly to 167 million boxes, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which today released a revised citrus forecast. The USDA had previously pegged the orange crop at 166 million boxes. [Read More]

How opposing sides view the issue of citrus 'dumping' – 3/9/2008
When Colin Carter takes his kids to the grocery store to buy a gallon of orange juice, he tells them at the check-out counter: "We're being taxed to benefit the growers in Florida." [Read More]

Growers, Tropicana at odds over citrus 'dumping' – 3/9/2008
Florida citrus growers and their biggest purchaser - Tropicana Products Inc. - are embroiled in a dispute over whether the U.S. citrus industry was damaged as a result of underpriced orange juice imported from Brazil. [Read More]

Citrus Hall of Fame Celebrates Past, Future – 3/8/2008
The Citrus Hall of Fame of Florida celebrated the old and the new at a two-hour luncheon Friday at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. [Read More]

Don't Gut IFAS Budget – 3/7/2008
Agriculture in Florida is not as uncomplicated as it wa