A Day Without Sunshine

It’s as modern as citrus growing gets. Which makes it even cooler that Dundee Citrus also has a classic holiday gift fruit program that’s as old-school as it gets. It’s a heartening example of farmers working to keep the best of the past as they build the future.

We made the pilot episode for Where The Food Comes From four years ago, telling the stories of how Florida citrus growers have tried to stand their ground against a lethal disease called greening that’s wiped out half of Florida groves in the last 20 years. We focused not on the loss, but on the innovation that’s transforming the industry — and the Sunshine State. For this episode, we went back to the exact spot where we filmed the first frames of this show to see what had happened in the interim.

The answer was mind-boggling. In a quarter-mile stretch, we went from gnarled, infected citrus trees that were being knocked down and burned, through a lunar landscape that will soon be home to something new, to the staggering sight of hundreds of acres of citrus growing in giant screened enclosures. They’re not only safe from greening, they’re also producing 2.5 times the fruit of typical groves — and it’s all perfect.

It’s as modern as citrus growing gets. Which makes it even cooler that Dundee Citrus also has a classic holiday gift fruit program that’s as old-school as it gets. It’s a heartening example of farmers working to keep the best of the past as they build the future.