"As the seasonal harvest approaches, ‘ghost groves’ abandoned by growers are scattered across the state. ‘We’re in a race right now to save the Florida citrus industry,’ a researcher said."
"ODESSA, Fla. — Through a tiny office window behind William Kennedy Burchenal’s desk, a row of sickly orange trees could be seen standing in the bright Florida sun. Their limbs were withered and leaves deformed; the wood looked like rot.
They were thriving once, but that was before a citrus disease that scientists compare to HIV struck, crippling hundreds of trees and forcing the family to let part of the grove decline, close its juice blending business and put the entire operation up for sale.
“I’ve spent the last two years slowly dismantling my father’s dream," Burchenal said of Cee Bee’s Citrus, established by his father, Bill, who died in 2016. "And it feels like crap.”
There are so many dead and dying Florida groves like Cee Bee’s that some economists have administered last rites to the state’s $9 billion citrus industry."
Darryl Fears reports for the Washington Post November 9, 2019.
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