Growing oranges in Canada is no laughing matter
Jokes about growing oranges and bananas in southwestern Ontario used to be a global-warming staple. We laughed about winters getting so mild that even citrus production could be sustained here.
But lately, this joke’s taken on a dark hue.
In Florida, for example, the New Year had hardly started when Tropicana orange juice supplier Alico Inc., one of the largest orange growers in the U.S., dropped a bomb. It announced it was pulling out of the sunshine state, a storied source of American-produced citrus.
Alico said relentless extreme weather and plant disease meant it was no longer profitable to invest in Florida citrus. Hurricanes in 2017, 2022 and 2024, along with a devastating plant disease called greening that weakens orange trees, caused the company’s production to tumble 73 per cent over the last decade.
Alico said it tried pouring money into hardier orange tree development and citrus disease treatments. But such efforts couldn’t counter the climate and disease assault.
Similar scenarios have unfolded in California, another mecca for fruit and vegetable production. Insurance companies are increasingly exiting services there due to unusually severe weather-related problems like drought. And that was before the Los Angeles wildfires.
So you have to wonder where we’ll get our citrus, especially in the winter. Will the spotlight now turn to the world’s other biggest producers, namely Brazil, China, Europe and Mexico? Surely Mexico would be the logical choice, given the North America trade agreement. But food production there is suffering from extreme climate change too.
Something has to give. Alico is on U.S. president- elect Donald Trump’s doorstep in Florida. He can’t escape the fact that his adopted state has been affected mightily by climate change.
And who knows how these climate-related ills will fuel Americans’ frustration over high grocery prices. With some parts of the U.S. becoming less able to produce food at a reasonable price, grocery prices will be challenged to come down, which was one of Trump’s election platforms.
This is where the U.S. needs to work with Canada, not fight with it.
Canada and the U.S. have a healthy, successful agri- food trade system, developed through trade agreements over many decades. Canada plies the U.S. northeast and midwest with greenhouse vegetables year-round. We’ve long had a buoyant cattle and pork trade with the U.S. Americans import billions of dollars of cooking oil and frozen French fries each year. And on the flip side, we’re Americans’ single biggest customer.
Canada and the U.S. fight about some products, like dairy and poultry. But with climate change making food production more irregular, it’s to both Americans’ and Canadians’ advantage to nurture the trade relationship that’s traditionally existed between our countries. It’s not a threat, as Trump suggests. We’re in this together.
Maybe someday scientists will develop orange and banana trees that can survive both plant disease in the U.S. and winters in Canada. Meanwhile, let’s focus on practical, peaceful ways we can help each other with domestic food security and address climate change challenges. Is there anything more important?
Owen Roberts is an agricultural journalist from Guelph and a communications instructor at the University of Illinois. He regularly visits family in Creemore.
