Incurable Disease Threatens US Citrus Crop

Yahoo ^ | 5/12/13

[SoFloFreeper]

Florida's $9 billion orange crop, the largest in the world after Brazil's, may not survive an incurable disease that threatens to wipe out citrus groves throughout the United States.

The disease, known as "citrus greening" or huanglongbing, is caused by a bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. The bacteria are spread from tree to tree by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid, The New York Times reports...

[SoFloFreeper]

Meanwhile, the focus of society is on...promoting sodomy, celebrating illegal aliens, and expanding the welfare state.

Reminds me of Old Testament prophets pronouncing the lack of JUSTICE among Israel being the reason for judgement....and among the judgments were failed crops.....

[ClearCase_guy]

I very much feel like we are in Old Testament times, so to speak. We have moved away from God, and we are seeing consequences of this on a daily basis.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

First canker, now greening. And, to think, Minute Maid is going to plant 25 thousand acres of new trees in the very near future. Not to mention, spend 2 billion dollars to develop it all and let several citrus companies process the fruit into juice.

[Gay State Conservative]

I vacation around the Sarasota Bradenton area.Tropicana has a huge plant in Bradenton that I've passed by often on my way to the beach and restaurants.Near the plant one can often see lines of trucks just chalk full of oranges heading to the plant.Very impressive indeed...at least to this city boy.

If the citrus industry dies in FL it would be a huge blow to the state...to the nation,actually.

[The Working Man]

Did this disease originate in China?

[stars & stripes forever]

Reminds me of Old Testament prophets pronouncing the lack of JUSTICE among Israel being the reason for judgement....and among the judgments were failed crops.....

ISAIAH 59

[SueRae]

I read this the other day...scary. And its not just here. There are some instances where I think GMO is useful..finding a way to develop hardier trees to fight off bacteria is one of them.

[IronJack]

Maybe we could whip this by hanging out in citrus groves and mind-melding with the bacteria or the insects that carry it. After all, we don’t want to spray any nasty pesticides or insecticides that could injure spotted owls or snail darters or some other furry woodland creature.

[gwjack]

Hmmmm. Maybe gwjack should go long in Orange Juice future?

Hmmmm.

Gwjack

[LibLieSlayer]

chinese disease? Where did it come from... is it terrorism?

LLS

[Gasshog]

Bushes Fault!

[Necrovore]

You better believe it's terrorism. Brought to you by the US Government with their lax immigration policies. Thousands of people with who knows what they are carrying are allowed into this country daily with no medical or background checks. The only immigrants which are scrutinized are those from European stock.

[Kenny Bunk]

If the aggie rocket surgeons at FSU cannot solve this dilemma, I ain't comin' down anymore. Without fresh citrus from one's own trees, it is a demonstrable fact that the IQ loss from crossing the Georgia border into Florida results in a massive irreparable IQ loss.

If my bananas don't come back, that's final

[V_TWIN]

yahoo and The new york slimes........with all due respect, call me cynical but I'll wait for more reputable sources.

[Teacher317]

The disease, known as "citrus greening" or huanglongbing

More fun from China?

Huanglongbing:
Huang = yellow
Long = dragon
Bing = illness

[Teacher317]

Yes. According to Wikipedia, it was first spotted in China, in 1943.

[Zhang Fei]

This news story is a lot like the one about giant African snails - way alarmist. This disease has been around for over 80 years since it was first described in China. Meanwhile China is projected to produce 7m tons of oranges in 2013 vs our 8m or so tons.

[artichokegrower]

Not way alarmist. Yes the disease was discovered 80 years ago in China but found in the USA for the first time in 1998. It’s a big problem, has done a lot of damage and hopefully control will be achieved. Our open borders create many problems that exist under the radar or are covered up for political reasons.

Anyhow here’s info from the field

http://www.agalert.com/story/?id=5252

[Zhang Fei]

Not way alarmist.

I wonder if this is the reason grapefruit and oranges have been a relative rip-off this past year.

[LibLieSlayer]

Yep... I agree... I was being rhetorical.

LLS