10/09/2000 Florida Crossroads – Forbidden Fruit

In the summer of 1995, a highly contagious disease that infects citrus trees was discovered in the back yard of a home west of Miami. Easily spread by wind-driven rain, the citrus canker soon was turning up in yards and lime groves throughout most of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, leading agriculture officials to order the destruction of hundreds of thousands of citrus trees and jeopardizing the future of South Florida’s lime industry – the source of nearly all commercially-grown limes in the United States. In “Forbidden Fruit”, Florida Crossroads examines the battle to prevent the disease from invading Central Florida’s lush citrus belt and the impact the canker eradication program has on South Florida’s farmers and residents.