Orange you savvy: Eric Copeland, Democratic candidate for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has opened a new front in his campaign to unseat Republican incumbent Charles Bronson. Today Copeland filed a public records request with the Florida Department of Agriculture for the names, addresses and contact information of the estimated 600,000 Floridians who had citrus trees removed from their private property under the state’s defunct Citrus Canker Eradication Program (CCEP).
This was a tremendously unpopular program carried out with Gestapo-like tactics by the Florida Department of Agriculture in an attempt to eradicate citrus canker and protect Florida’s citrus industry, already besieged by cheaper imported OJ from Brazil. Citrus canker sounds nasty, but basically it just discolors the skin of the fruit, makes the fruit drop from the tree early and shortens the productive life of citrus trees. It was first identified at the beginning of the 20th century, and no treatment has been discovered since then.
The CCEP allowed Agriculture Department contractors to enter private property to determine whether a citizen had a citrus tree on the property. If so, the location was noted on a map for future reference. In the event that a citrus tree was determined to have canker, all trees within a half-mile radius were removed.
At first, homeowners were offered compensation in the form of — I kid you not — cash credits at Home Depot to replace the citrus with other plants. Unfortunately for many homeowners, the state (typically) didn’t commit enough money to this sweetheart deal for the dough to last past the first blitz on backyards. The program was characterized by aggressive bullying of citizens, trespassing, destruction of private property and even the poisoning of pets, as untrained gangs of canker hunters ran roughshod over Floridian’s homes and rights.
As of January 2006 Department of Citrus records show that 860,000 trees had been removed from private, residential property and more than 12.5 million trees have been destroyed statewide. That same month the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled the Florida CCEP when it was finally determined that eradication of canker was as likely as eradication of the common cold — especially after the active hurricane season of 2005 that blew the stuff all over hell and gone.
Copeland maintains that as a result of the USDA decision, the removal and destruction of more than 860,000 private citrus trees was pointless. And, he notes, Bronson’s CCEP cost state and federal taxpayers more than $1 billion and exposed the state to as-yet undetermined legal liability over seizure of private property.
It’s not a bad place to start a campaign — 600,000 guaranteed voters who miss their homegrown grapefruit in the morning.
