Following a week of freezing temperatures that threatened Florida’s fruit and vegetable crops, the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, lifted the height, length, weight, and width restrictions on commercial trucks carrying crops. Now the state of emergency that lifted these restrictions has been extended for a third week, reports Karen Voyles for the Gainesville Sun online.While the total cost to agriculture is not yet known, preliminary estimates from the Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson and his staff “place the losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Officials said some of the damage from the cold may not be immediately apparent, for example fungal or bacterial problems, or conditions like root rot.”
The hope is that with the restrictions lifted producers can get their crops where they need to go and minimize any financial losses or destroyed crops.
Voyles quotes Bronson as stating in a news release, ‘"Growers are taking advantage of the improved weather to salvage as many fruit and vegetable crops as possible to mitigate the damage and their losses . . . The ability to get the products where they need to go is critical to reducing the losses and ensuring these commodities get to the public."’
To read the Voyles article in the Gainesville Sun, click here.
Posted: 01/20/10
