Excellent article. I’m usually very skeptical about science articles involving pesticides and herbicides.
Non-scientists often find everything is terrible, but I was quite surprised to read Roundup was used in an orchard, and that drew me in. Chelating agents are used to make some ions more available (Fe chelation reduces chloriosis). But glyphosate does the opposite.
Sadly ORANGE JUICE WITH Lots of Pulp is hard to find. The impact of hard freezes in the 1980’s and one in the 1990’s resulted in elimination from McIntosh Florida ( the most Northern Grove to Orlando. However, massive population growth north of I-4 from Daytona to Tampa has eliminated lots of orange groves .
This is a really nice recap -- thank you for sharing.
> Where his trees were almost dead from HLB, Edward now has almost normal trees with excellent citrus yields. Soil organic matter levels have gone from nearly zero up to a range of 3-5%—levels almost unheard of in hot, sandy Florida soils. Even more significantly, his input costs are now a third of what is typical in citrus. No insecticides are sprayed. No more herbicides to keep the ground bare. Instead, his groves have a vigorous understory of cover crops, many of which are nitrogen-fixing legumes.
If the yields are better and the inputs cost less, why did growers not do this for decades? What is the downside? Labor costs?
I’m wondering about the damage to farming from the continued spraying of chemicals from “ geo- engineering”? These undisclosed amounts of toxic aerosols are continuing all across the U.S. & Europe. Legislation has passed banning this practice, but they continue their assault on our world anyway. Private financiers, like Bill Gates, continue to disregard the unknown harms to our food, water, and air.
Farmers have complained to their state representatives & shared concerns with Congress. Dying crops are not just tragic for farmers, but affect us all. Look up & you will see the horizontal trails of “ vapor” that last for hours & hours. Eventually these white/ gray smoke lines fall horizontally down to the soil.
Thank you for this summary. Dr Thomas , entomologist, has a talk on the 100 year history of florida Citrus production which describes the degradation in time with the increased use of fertilizers , then pesticides and herbicides and fungicides, all with continued degradation to the trees and yields. Herb Young is inspiring, coming into retirement after a career in chemical ag as a pesticide chemist and going into regenerative citrus production. His grapefruit have 8x the nutrient density over conventional.
Great summary Sam. The exact same thing happened in Belize, we have citrus graveyards here. Farmers are still replanting and spraying glyphosate everywhere (once you see it, you can't unsee it). Soil replenishment is very hard work, we are starting to see the results, but not sure the older citrus farmers will buy in. Thanks again.
Very interesting, but it would be nice to have more citations of your sources!
Seeing agriculture as partnership once again will be so important :)
Superb work.
I'm interested to know their replanting schedule to maintain output.
Excellent article. I’m usually very skeptical about science articles involving pesticides and herbicides.
Non-scientists often find everything is terrible, but I was quite surprised to read Roundup was used in an orchard, and that drew me in. Chelating agents are used to make some ions more available (Fe chelation reduces chloriosis). But glyphosate does the opposite.
Amazing.
Great writing.
Sadly ORANGE JUICE WITH Lots of Pulp is hard to find. The impact of hard freezes in the 1980’s and one in the 1990’s resulted in elimination from McIntosh Florida ( the most Northern Grove to Orlando. However, massive population growth north of I-4 from Daytona to Tampa has eliminated lots of orange groves .
This is a really nice recap -- thank you for sharing.
> Where his trees were almost dead from HLB, Edward now has almost normal trees with excellent citrus yields. Soil organic matter levels have gone from nearly zero up to a range of 3-5%—levels almost unheard of in hot, sandy Florida soils. Even more significantly, his input costs are now a third of what is typical in citrus. No insecticides are sprayed. No more herbicides to keep the ground bare. Instead, his groves have a vigorous understory of cover crops, many of which are nitrogen-fixing legumes.
If the yields are better and the inputs cost less, why did growers not do this for decades? What is the downside? Labor costs?
I’m wondering about the damage to farming from the continued spraying of chemicals from “ geo- engineering”? These undisclosed amounts of toxic aerosols are continuing all across the U.S. & Europe. Legislation has passed banning this practice, but they continue their assault on our world anyway. Private financiers, like Bill Gates, continue to disregard the unknown harms to our food, water, and air.
Farmers have complained to their state representatives & shared concerns with Congress. Dying crops are not just tragic for farmers, but affect us all. Look up & you will see the horizontal trails of “ vapor” that last for hours & hours. Eventually these white/ gray smoke lines fall horizontally down to the soil.
Watch the documentary “ Dimming the Sun.”
This needs to end.
Thank you for this summary. Dr Thomas , entomologist, has a talk on the 100 year history of florida Citrus production which describes the degradation in time with the increased use of fertilizers , then pesticides and herbicides and fungicides, all with continued degradation to the trees and yields. Herb Young is inspiring, coming into retirement after a career in chemical ag as a pesticide chemist and going into regenerative citrus production. His grapefruit have 8x the nutrient density over conventional.
Why did we ever stop grazing under our orchards? What I think is just as alarming is the need to spray under solar panels instead of allowing grazing.
Great summary Sam. The exact same thing happened in Belize, we have citrus graveyards here. Farmers are still replanting and spraying glyphosate everywhere (once you see it, you can't unsee it). Soil replenishment is very hard work, we are starting to see the results, but not sure the older citrus farmers will buy in. Thanks again.