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Florida Farmers Brace for Irma

Dan Florida, Weather

floridaHurricane Irma is threatening havoc in Floria farmlands. Bloomberg says the hurricane is threatening a negative impact on $1.2 billion dollars worth of production in America’s number one grower of tomatoes, oranges, green beans, cucumbers, squash, and sugarcane. Florida has a huge influence on the American food supply as the number two producer grower, second only to California. Almost 10 percent of America’s farmland that’s dedicated to fruit and vegetable production is found in Florida. The storm threat is pushing orange juice futures and domestic sugar prices higher. Reggie Brown is executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange and a grower too. He says there’s never a good time for a hurricane, but now is better than late October or early November. “Oranges may be able to better withstand the high winds than later in the season because they aren’t full size,” says Dean Mixon, President of Mixon Fruit Farms in Bradenton, “and lighter fruit could resist being blown off trees,” Stil, there will be damage and it will take time to recover. Mixon says his operation took two years to fully recover from Hurricane Donna in 1960.

From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.

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