Colin Risdahl

Hey, Guy, thanks for having me.

Describe for me, would you, the mood in the room at the 2026 Florida Citrus Show, the scene with which you start this piece.

Well, let me say that to begin with, agricultural optimism is a very real trait.

And farmers, you know, they're used to dealing with difficulty and they're used to taking it on the chin.

And so there was some optimism somewhere.

I think it wasn't non-existent, but the situation is dire.

I mean, extremely dire in the Florida citrus industry.

And there was no getting around that.

greening we have talked about on this program and i think a lot of people know the challenges that the citrus industry down in florida is having with the i don't know if it's a virus or bacteria but whatever they're they're having real problems just sort of biologically but there are other things going on uh climate change of course is one thing the other thing that you point out which was fascinating to me is development and what that has done to the groves and why it's happening

Yeah, it's interesting, right?

Because, yes, there is very much a biological story to be told here about the demise of the Florida Orange.

But there's also really a story of political economy or even just a politics period to be told.

The fact of the matter is the economy in Florida has changed dramatically over recent years and developers in Florida have a ton of power.

The state's growing quickly.

And the result of that is that there's a lot of land that has orange trees on it that could be housing.

And those developers have taken over, I think is probably the best way of putting it.

And so this area, the ridge in central Florida, the sort of famed Edenic

citrus growing region is also one of the fastest growing counties by population in the entire country.

So that land it's worth a lot of money as housing.

And right now it's not worth a lot of money as oranges because they can't really grow them.