Department of Agriculture temporarily barred shipments of citrus-nursery trees from Florida to any other state in an effort to limit the spread of citrus canker, a contagious fungal disease that has infected some of the state's crop. Florida's $9 billion citrus industry has taken a beating in recent years from hurricanes and diseases. They already have put in place a comprehensive series of restrictions to prevent the shipping of citrus trees infected by canker and other pests. Our...

The moth has since been found in nine California counties, including Napa, where the discovery of one specimen set off alarm bells for winemakers and farmers in the grape region. Perhaps the most well known invasive pest was the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly, which prompted a statewide panic and aerial spraying in the early 1980s, when it appeared to threaten the state's billion-dollar citrus industry. The problem seems even more serious to the south in Santa Cruz County, where nearly...

Florida Citrus Mutual, founded in 1948 and based in Lakeland, is the state's largest citrus growers' organization with nearly 10,000 members. Meadows, 37, will direct Mutual's communication initiatives, assist in grower outreach and manage media relations. Meadows as the organization's director of communications. Sparks, executive vice president/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a press release. Meadows has served as public affairs manager at the Florida Department of Citrus since...

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Florida growers recently traveled to Brazil, where they studied how the industry there has dealt with greening, a deadly bacterial disease with no known cure. State legislators appropriated $250,000 to the University of Florida/IFAS to support a greening diagnosis lab to be set up at the Southwest Florida Research & Education Center in Immokalee and $1 million to develop citrus varieties resistant to canker and greening. On the federal level, President Bush's fiscal 2008 budget includes $1...