On the southern outskirts of the University of Florida’s sprawling campus in Gainesville, fruit trees stand in rows on about 17 acres of land.
Before the university razed nearly half of it to make room for the new baseball stadium that looms to the north, the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Research Grove was almost twice as big. Sometimes, during games, foul balls mockingly fly into the grove. At least 50 have been found.
Today, people who stream by each day on cars, buses and bikes may not even notice the remaining fruit orchard, wedged between the stadium and a scraggly forest.
But José Chaparro gives it almost all his time and attention.
The 64-year-old UF horticultural sciences professor has researched fruit breeding across the world, but he spends much of his time among the citrus trees, which include oranges, grapefruits and lemons. Chaparro is part of a statewide research army that has fought for nearly two decades against citrus greening, a disease ravaging a signature Florida industry. Spread by bugs, the disease has pillaged thousands of groves and forced many farmers out of business.
UF’s shrinking orchard is an emblem of the statewide groves its researchers are trying to save. Last year, Florida citrus inventory stood at 361,656 acres of orange and grapefruit trees statewide. That’s less than half the 1996 acreage, when more than 800,000 acres of sweet-smelling trees stretched across the state.
The farmers on those remaining acres are frustrated by the continued losses and lack of solutions to greening after pouring in millions toward research investments from their box taxes over the past 10 years. Millions more in Florida tax dollars have been directed by the legislature in an attempt to combat greening. Some farmers and others are now questioning both the research spending and the state’s outdated citrus policies.
This is the tale of the modern orange, the tiny bug killing it and the conflicts that have arisen in a once-dominant industry—now fighting for its life.
It’s not easy being green
Citrus greening, known scientifically as huanglongbing (HLB), originated in China and arrived in Miami in 2005. Ironically, the orange was named the state’s official fruit the same year.
By then, Florida’s citrus farmers had withstood freezing temperatures, hurricanes and citrus canker, another tough disease. But growers always replanted. Fourth and fifth-generation farmers would not exist otherwise. Yet, greening turned out to be the vilest enemy of them all.
Orange production is measured in 90-pound boxes. More than 40 million of them were filled in the 2021-2022 season. That’s a fraction—roughly 16%—of the 240 million boxes filled 20 years ago in 2003-2004, before greening settled across Florida.
The most recent USDA forecast for the 2022-23 season stands at 16.1 million boxes. The sharp decrease is due in large part to Hurricane Ian ripping through southwest Florida. The disease exacerbated the challenges farmers face in the wake of the Category 4 storm.
Greening spreads by a bug known as an Asian citrus psyllid. The brown bug only grows to be about 3 millimeters long, about the size of a flax seed or chili flake.