This past week has meant some sleepless nights for the Florida Citrus industry and many growers around the state. On the heels of a very challenging cold front, where freeze protection measures had to be executed, there\u2019s never been a better time to remind ourselves of this fact: Against all odds \u2014 and over centuries of challenges from diseases, hurricanes, freezes, pests and more \u2014 we\u2019ve always persevered and prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s interesting to me how quickly some (who are far removed from the field) tend to forget, but this is not the Sunshine State\u2019s first freeze, and it certainly won\u2019t be the last one we ever see. The old saying that \u201chistory tends to repeat itself\u201d has a vein of truth. Ask any citrus grower who\u2019s been in this from the time he was born, having heard the stories from his parents and grandparents. He\u2019ll quickly remind you of the \u201cChristmas freeze\u201d of 1989, which was preceded by freezes around the same holiday in 1981, \u201983, and \u201985. The freeze of 1957 brought with it snow to Central Florida. Before that, our ancestors saw more than one freeze at the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century. These events are called-to-mind and I\u2019m grateful for our early weather warning technology, our collaborative spirit, our sustainable field management practices and our freeze protection strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m also grateful to each of you\u2014 for your continued perseverance and hope that we\u2019ll come through on the other side with our fruit intact and our trees without damage. Still, that might not be the story for everyone, which is why the next few weeks spent assessing the groves will tell the full story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My hope and prayer through this challenge\u2014 like all challenges great and small\u2014 is that God protects and blesses the Florida Citrus grower and the trees He has put in our care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a reminder, the next regularly scheduled FCC Meeting will be on March 18 at 9:00 a.m. EST, and will be held at the Florida Department of Citrus, 605 E. Main Street, Bartow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steve Johnson is Chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission, which oversees the Florida Department of Citrus. He is the owner and general manager of Johnson Harvesting, Inc., based in Wauchula, FL.<\/em> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Freeze protection measures executed in defense of Florida’s citrus crop This past week has meant some sleepless nights for the Florida Citrus industry and many growers around the state. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","fdoc_news_item_category":[82,80,100],"fdoc_citrus_type":[],"fdoc_health_category":[],"class_list":["post-7681","fdoc-news-item","type-fdoc-news-item","status-publish","hentry","fdoc_news_item_category-commissioner-notes","fdoc_news_item_category-fdoc","fdoc_news_item_category-industry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item\/7681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fdoc-news-item"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fdoc_news_item_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_news_item_category?post=7681"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_citrus_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_citrus_type?post=7681"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_health_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_health_category?post=7681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}