Dozens of dead orange trees lay stacked here among vast green rows of grove.
Farmers felled them still bearing fruit, but these trees were really killed some time ago. All it took was a tiny insect's bite to deliver a fatal crop disease called citrus greening, a bacteria harmless to humans but deadly for the thousands of trees infected since its recent arrival in Florida.
The disease has set off a fervor among researchers and growers, already weary after weathering the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 and two decades battling a less-severe bacteria called canker.
Florida's $9 billion, nation-leading citrus industry has been suffering some of its worst harvests even before greening showed up, sending juice prices skyrocketing. The disease's further spread makes them seem unlikely to recede any time soon.
So Let's see Gasoline, Heating Oil, Milk(butter,cream, cheese) now Oranges and Orange Juice, Corn, Grain, Bread - and cost of transporting these basics-Inflation? I guess feed will affect Livestock and poultry - let me think? Wages to offset inflation, cost of living index (the true ones) affecting Social Security costs...let me think? Inflation? Naaa......
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