“After having poured millions into wasteful subsidies to Monsanto-Bayer to fight a bacteria that has wrecked Florida’s citrus groves, the lead person responsible for finding a solution has proposed a better idea,” Jesse Rojas of Save Citrus writes in Florida Daily.
“He wants to treat infected trees with medication used to cure acne and venereal disease,” Rojas says.
“‘Other solutions on the table will take too long “to achieve the Big Reset,’ Citrus Research and Development Foundation COO Rick Dantzler wrote in his June 2022 column.
“’That will require a gamechanger, and the only one I see on the short-term horizon is a controversial one: injecting oxytetracycline (OTC),’ Dantzler said.
“Injection methods under study include firing an OTC-tipped .22 magnum bullet into the trunk of each tree,” Rojas continues.
“The CRDF leader admits his idea is ‘controversial.”’Oxytetracycline is an antibiotic “commonly used for the treatment of various infectious diseases like anthrax, Chlamydia, cholera, typhus, relapsing favor, malaria, plaque, syphilis, respiratory infection, streptococcal infection, and acne,’ according to a succinct description on ScienceDirect.com. It is also commonly used to treat infections in livestock.
“Based on what he calls ‘limited data,’ Dantzler wants to ‘aggressively fund’ research to inject the acne medication into citrus trees until something better comes along.
“This is a reversal of previous policy, when Dantzler’s CRDF gave the thumbs-down to other potential solutions that years of small field trials have been shown to fortify citrus trees and fruits against the disease. That policy cost citrus growers precious years.”
