Florida 1, California 0
Score one for the Florida citrus industry. We recommend you read this article, as it's very informative, but we'll try to summarize the pertinent information for you here. The Florida citrus industry is afraid of a fungus called Septoria citri, which causes small lesions and can cause the fruit to fall prematurely. This fungus apparently is found in California, so Florida asked that any California citrus be treated with a fungicide before shipping to Florida. This inspection/treatment is expensive, and California citrus growers weren't happy, so they sued Florida citrus growers. Just recently, Circuit Judge William Gary in Tallahassee denied the temporary injunction that the California growers wanted. So for now, Florida wins, although it looks like it's going to be a long battle:
The rule requires California fruit to be inspected and treated with a fungicide before it can be shipped to Florida, which already requires in-state citrus to undergo similar treatment for other diseases.We love the spin here: Florida is punishing family farmers in California. We tried doing a quick search for California citrus farm statistics; unfortunately, we couldn't find much, but we're willing to assume that most of the California citrus found in supermarkets doesn't come from what most people would think of as a "family farm." Also, the whole idea of shipping citrus from California (second-largest citrus crop in the country) to Florida (largest citrus crop in the country) seems unbelievably silly. The one exception would be a severe shortage due to hurricanes or other natural disasters that would seriously hurt the citrus crop in any given year. Otherwise, why would you ship oranges across the continent to a place where the orange is the official state fruit? Seems like a waste of time, gas and money to us."Our growers are already under siege by citrus greening and canker, and the measures we implemented were designed to ensure Septoria citri is not introduced into this state," said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson.
"It's extremely disappointing," said Joel Nelson, president of the California Citrus Mutual, one of four plaintiffs. "It's unfortunate this action was taken to punish family farmers in California over a pest that most countries worldwide - including the U.S. Department of Agriculture - do not consider to be a major problem."
The USDA has classified the black fungus as being of "minor significance" and only two cases were verified in California last year, according to the lawsuit.
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The citrus industries in the two states are about equal in size, about $1.1 billion in annual sales each. But most of Florida's oranges are turned into juice while the bulk of California's crop is sold as fresh fruit.
Florida Wins Citrus Case for Now [Forbes]
Photo: Flickr
Comments
I think the lawsuit is silly. It's Florida getting back at California for banning fruit because of citrus canker. This disease seems extremely minor in comparison.
As for the citrus grown in each state, an in-law, who is a buyer for a supermarket chain in Northern California, said something similar in that most oranges in FL go for juicing and most in CA are grown for fresh consumption, reason being the fruit grown in FL is pretty inferior in the qualities you look for in fresh fruit (he said the same is true for other, non-citrus fruits here as well). Maybe the growing methods are better in CA? I'm not sure. But if you think about it, CA grows clementines, blood oranges, etc. which you never see in FLA because the industry here is focused on Tropicana and Minute Maid and not fresh fruit for the individual consumer. Whew!
Posted by: L2M | January 2, 2008 09:40 AM
I imagine it's just the difference in climate. It's so much drier in California, so they don't have as many problems with bugs/fungus. So I guess it makes sense that all of the "uglier" oranges from Florida go to make juice. But still...one would think we'd diversify a bit to satisfy in-state demand, right?
Posted by: Carolina | January 3, 2008 11:34 AM
You'd think. But just to show you how clueless people are about their customers here, I recently went to a nursery looking for a meyer lemon tree. The owner said, "Gosh, why is everyone looking for these? I only have one left." I wanted to say, "Jeez lady, maybe it's because meyer lemons are becoming popular (and have already gone very mainstream)?" People here just tend to focus on what they know and any kind of deviation from the norm is either frowned upon or not rewarded.
Posted by: L2M | January 3, 2008 03:40 PM