Representative Scott Franklin (R-FL) spearheaded a recent letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin urging reviews of emerging technologies that help protect Florida citrus production, especially by improving the plants' resilience to diseases.
Rep. Franklin specifically highlighted citrus greening disease, known as huanglongbing (HLB), which has devastated citrus production since its discovery in Florida in 2005.
"Citrus production has fallen by more than 90 percent from its peak in the 1990s, and total acreage has declined by hundreds of thousands of acres," Rep. Franklin noted in the letter.
However, there is hope: a biotech company called Soil Culture Solutions has partnered with the University of Florida to develop orange trees that are resilient to greening disease through gene-editing and plant-breeding techniques collectively known as CRISPR, even mimicking natural selection to avoid a GMO label from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"These technologies represent one of the most promising paths forward by enabling the development of citrus trees with greater resilience to HLB," the letter notes. "They can work in tandem with existing tools and provide the long-term durability needed to support commercial production. Florida growers are prepared to invest in over 2.5 million new trees this year alone, but that investment depends on regulatory certainty and access to solutions that can sustain productivity over time."
As a result, Franklin is calling for the EPA to expedite its review of these new developments in protecting Florida's citrus, as "timely, predictable decisions will help keep momentum going, protect jobs and strengthen the future of this industry."
In December, Franklin helped lead the charge to secure $1 billion in USDA funds for specialty crop farmers affected by unfair market disruptions as part of the larger Farmers Bridge Assistance Program (FBA), which provides broad relief to United States farmers, although most of the funds cover row crops such as grains.
