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A Big Hit To Breakfast

The disease first appeared in Florida in 2005. It is caused by bacteria spread by a 4-millimeter-long bug called the Asian citrus psyllid, which looks a little like an aphid but is much more active. The bacteria turns fruit sour and changes its color. These unripe fruit fall from the trees and eventually die.

Researchers, citrus growers, and agriculture officials are doing everything they can to stop its spread. The desperate nature of the effort elucidates the severity of the problem.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently allocated $31.5 million to fight the disease in Florida, a number that seems like a lot until you consider that Florida’s citrus industry is worth $9 billion and employs 76,000 people. Initiatives have been launched to stop the spread of the disease in Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana.

Researchers and growers all over Florida are breeding trees and trying to find hardy ones that can survive long enough to get the pests under control. Part of the USDA’s money is going toward approving new varieties of citrus.

In California — which produces 80% of the whole-fruit citrus eaten in the U.S., an industry worth $2 billion — the USDA recently promised $1.5 million to help release a million parasiticPakistaniwasps each year. The wasps hunt the psyllid bugs, which have spread to the state, though no one is certain how far they’ve spread the greening bacteria yet.

Around the world, in Asia, Africa, and South America, similar efforts are underway. In Brazil, the only place that produces more orange juice than Florida, diseased orange groves are cut down entirely and healthy trees are planted in new groves, hopefully far enough away that the bugs won’t find and infect them.