Safia Hachemi, Marion Sigrist

History of citrus farming in Florida begins with the discovery of America: Christopher Columbus introduced citrus trees to the Americas from the Orient in 1493. Since the early XIX century until the present, citrus farming has grown to one of the state’s main economies; Florida is now one of the leading producers of citrus fruit in the world, next to Brazil.  The purpose of this research is to investigate and reflect on the trends affecting Florida’s agriculture, with the special emphasis on the citrus farming industry and its relation to urbanization. For example, it appears that the housing construction has lead to the steady loss of agricultural land, especially in the high-pressure counties surrounding the Interstate 4. Another reason for the loss in citrus farming is related to climatic change: several catastrophic freezes since the 1980s drove many citrus farms further south, in particular to the southwest of Lake Okeechobee, while in the 19th and beginning of the 20th century production flourished in central Florida, especially along the Lake Wales Ridge, a gentle hilly valley along the US Highway 27.