Dr. Jude Grosser of the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center joins AccuWeather on the challenges facing orange farmers in the state from pests and diseases to hurricanes.

Florida

Florida's orange growers have experienced significant challenges in recent years, with production dropping to about 10% of previous levels. The primary cause is citrus greening, a bacterial disease that infects nearly all trees, leading to reduced fruit quality and billions of dollars in losses. The disease is spread by a small insect and is difficult to control, causing fruit to be sour and fall prematurely.

Researchers at the University of Florida are working to develop new citrus varieties and rootstocks that are more tolerant or resistant to the disease. Efforts include traditional breeding, biotechnology, and optimized nutrition programs. Federal and state programs are supporting growers in replanting with improved trees, aiming to restore production and maintain the quality of Florida orange juice.

Biggest challenges facing Florida orange farmers

Florida orange growers have been hit hard by hurricanes, pests, and disease over the past two decades, but new research could improve future citrus crops. Joining us is Dr. Drew Grosser, professor at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center. What a spot. Thanks for being with us this morning. And Florida orange production has continued to drop. What has been the biggest challenges for citrus growers? Of course, we have this devastating disease now in Florida. It's been here since 2005. So virtually all the trees out in the field are infected and it's reduced our production to about 10% of what the normal level is. So this is a massive problem causing billions of dollars of losses. So our approach is through traditional breeding and genetics combined with biotechnology to develop citrus varieties that are more tolerant or resistant to this disease that can bring our production back up and also maintain the quality of orange juice and fresh citrus fruit that you find in the marketplace. What is citrus greening and how does it affect the fruit? Okay, so it's a very complex disease. It's kind of like malaria and mosquitoes. So it's a bacterial disease that lives in the vascular system of the tree and it actually clogs up, the bacteria can clog up the phloem which is a part of the tissue that delivers the photosynthetic that's produced in the leaves that feeds the rest of the tree. So the tree is essentially starving to death. It's transmitted by a small, a very small insect that feeds on new growth and it's very difficult to control the insect. So it spreads very rapidly. If you plant new trees in the field after one year, about two thirds will be infected and after two years, 100% of the trees will be infected. And so all the trees that you see in Florida driving down the road, none of them are growing on their own roots. They're all grafted to other citrus types that have stronger root systems that have better adaptation to various soils, water conditions, salinity, they control the size of the tree, the productivity of the tree and the fruit quality. So what this disease does to the fruit, it causes the sugar not to develop fully and you have more acid and so the fruit is not sweet, it's sour. Also many of the fruit fall from the tree prior to harvest. So we have what we call a BRICS crisis. The BRICS is the amount of soluble sugar in the juice and that's much lower in fruits that we're taking from trees with HLB. So the goal of our breeding program has been to screen thousands of new clones of oranges to find ones that are more tolerant to the disease. We're also screening root stocks that can help mitigate the disease in the top of the tree. And we're also developing new hybrids with mandarins and with oranges and different citrus varieties that produce very tasty juice that has very high BRICS and very high color that can legally be blended at 10% into our not from concentrate or frozen concentrate orange juice product. And so we're having success with all of these things. And so now our goal is to combine these newly selected oranges and hybrids onto the more powerful root stocks and grow them under conditions that we know allow the trees to do better once they get infected. And we think we can restore our production to normal levels by doing this. Combining all these things together. I call it the three-legged stool. So you've got better fruit genetics, you got better root stock genetics, and then you're using an optimized nutrition program that we've been learning about as we go along. Yeah, incredibly in-depth. And just tell our viewers what the difference all of that is gonna make for Florida growers. So there's gonna be a bottleneck. You know, there's already lots of growers that have gone out of business. And part of the problem too is that the land has very high real estate value. So we're losing a lot of land that, you know, once the grove is torn up and the houses are built, we'll never get that back. So it's really a race against time. We've got to scale up production of these new trees that have the higher levels of tolerance and get them planted out. There's federal programs now that are assisting the growers in getting more trees out and also state level dollars going into helping get more trees planted out. So there's a race to get the new genetics out into the field and also using other emerging tools that can help mitigate the disease as the trees grow into production. And so we feel like we do have an opportunity. We feel like we have the tools in the pipeline right now that we can beat this disease. It's just a matter of really working together with the entire industry and getting the new combinations out into the farmer's hands and letting them grow the next new generation of oranges and other juice hybrids that will make the orange juice better quality. Dr. Drew Grosser, professor at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center. Thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early. A lot of great information. It's been my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. You have a good weekend, sir.

Photos of a "person of interest" in the assassination of Charlie Kirk were released by the Salt Lake City FBI. Authorities are searching for the person who shot and killed the conservative activist at an event at Utah Valley University.

Orem

Photos released of "person of interest" in Charlie Kirk assassination

Authorities shared new details about the suspect's movements leading up to the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The search for the suspect continued on Thursday.

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President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will award conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated during a campus event in Utah, the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

Washington

Trump says he'll award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Authorities say the weapon used in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been recovered and law enforcement tracked the movements of the suspect.

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Doha

Middle East Conflict

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Warsaw

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London

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U.S. President Donald Trump says rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk is dead after being shot in the neck at a university campus event in Utah. There is not a suspect in custody.

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Brasilia

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Global Tariffs

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Poland shot down drones that entered its airspace during a widespread Russian attack in western Ukraine, with the NATO member calling the incursion "an act of aggression." It marks the first time a member of the alliance has fired shots in the war.

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Two Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2022 election, as they cast the first votes in the final phase of the ex-president's trial.

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Nepal’s prime minister has stepped down with at least 22 people dead, the country’s parliament in flames and its main airport shut down during a violent revolt. The unrest started over a social media ban and grew into a broader anti-corruption protest.

Kathmandu

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U.S. President Donald Trump can't escape questions about Jeffrey Epstein as a congressional committee released a suggestive personal note to Epstein allegedly from Trump, for the convicted sex offender’s 50th birthday.

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Israel's military said it "conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization," amid reports of large explosions in Qatar's capital city, Doha.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has named loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, a one-time conservative protégé who rallied behind his 2017 presidential run, as prime minister. Analysts say France is in the midst of a complicated political crisis.

Paris

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the U.S. labor market added 911,000 fewer jobs between April 2024 and March 2025. CBS News MoneyWatch correspondent Kelly O'Grady breaks it down.

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A Michigan judge has dropped criminal charges against 15 people who were accused of trying to falsely certify Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. CBS News' Shanelle Kaul has the latest.

Michigan

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Israel says it carried out a strike targeting Hamas leaders. One Israeli official says it happened in Doha, Qatar. CBS News' Ramy Inocencio reports.

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The Trump administration launched a new immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, saying the latest federal crackdown in a US city would target the "worst of the worst criminals." But activists in the city remain defiant and say they will resist efforts by ICE to snatch people off the streets.

Chicago

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Norway's Labour Party has won four more years in government after seeing off a surge in support for the right. But exit polls predict it will only have a small majority, and its future may depend on how it navigates Norway's relationship with the rest of the world.

Oslo

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Officials in Nepal say at least 16 people are dead and dozens more injured after police opened fire on protesters. Tens of thousands, mostly young people, rallied in the capital Kathmandu against the government's ban on platforms including Facebook, X, and YouTube.

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France's Prime Minister François Bayrou overwhelmingly lost a confidence vote Monday after nine months in office. CBS News correspondent Shanelle Kaul has more.

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The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to continue its sweeping immigration stops in the Los Angeles area after they were briefly halted. CBS News immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez has more.

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Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday (September 8), killing six people in what police described as "a terrorist attack," one of the deadliest in the city in the past few years.

Jerusalem

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U.S. President Donald Trump said he was ready to hit Russia with a second phase of sanctions after its largest air attack on Ukraine in nearly four years of war. The assault on Saturday caused serious damage in Ukraine's capital, including to one of its most important government buildings.

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A drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck southern Israel Sunday, hitting Ramon International Airport near Eilat and forcing a shutdown of airspace in the region.

Ilan and Asaf Ramon International Airport

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Protests have erupted in Chicago after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a federal crackdown, including sending National Guard troops and expanding deportations.

Breakdown