No matter where you live if a fire or hurricane hits an area with a lot of agriculture it will make an impact on your life. Natural disasters have been occurring a lot more recently. For the blog I managed to get ahold of Johnny Georges who was on the tv show Shark Tank and a successful entrepreneur of the Tree T Pee. Hurricane Irma hit southern Florida months ago, but the impact is still affecting a lot of Florida and the rest of the country. “Hurricane Irma damaged more than 30% of the agricultural ground in southern Florida” (Georges). Many crops were affected by this hurricane, 50%-60% of the oranges and grape fruits, a variety of vegetables, also 25% of the country’s sugarcane. If the trees weren’t blown over and split most of their crop was lying on the ground in standing water. The fruits trees will most likely die due to being in standing water as they can only last up to three days in standing water.
Along with the fruits and vegetables being damaged, many greenhouses were also damaged. If the plants made it through the storm some didn’t last long after the hurricane cleared up. Without power, growers weren’t able to water the plants unless they transported water in the greenhouses. Another problem a lot of people don’t realize is hurricane Irma caused the spread of a deadly bacterial disease in orange trees known as Citrus Greening Disease.
The price of oranges and orange juice will stay high for a while. This is because orange trees take four years to produce a crop. Not only did hurricane Irma make a substantual impact on orange trees but also, had a large impact on greenhouse structures. With this kind of damage it will take months if not years for Florida to get back to its highest production level. In fact Florida could possibly never get back to the production stage it held before hurricane Irma. Prices are expected to rise by 30% as they already are rising in the southern states. After going to the local grocery store and checking on the price of a bag of oranges where they now cost $6.99 with a 30% increase that bag of oranges will eventually be around $9.09.
My name is Riley Mitsdarffer. I was raised in Monticello, IL on a Angus cattle farm. Currently I attend Western Illinois University majoring in agriculture with an emphasis in business. In my free time I enjoy tractor pulling and working on my tractor that my brother and I built.
Western Illinois University School of Agriculture 
Natural disasters have a negative impact on everyone no matter where you live. It is sad to see what they are going through and to think about how many of those people lost their jobs until the trees can be reestablished. Great Post!
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Yeah i am definitely not buying oranges anytime soon.
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Man that’s a lot for oranges. Hopefully prices don’t stay up for long and they can get the greenhouses fixed and everything back to normal.
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A lot of times when I see a natural disaster, I feel terrible, but I never consider the economic impact. Illinois to Florida is quite a long distance. I hope orange juice doesn’t go up substantially! But my question is how often does this happen? Florida gets hit by hurricanes almost every year. Was it the severity of hurricane Irma that caused substantial damage?
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