Orange Research Papers

From a very young age I was involved in activities and sports. While I have played everything from softball to kickball, soccer has always been my absolute favorite. I can recall numerous early Saturday morning tournaments and dew covered grass. My mother would bring icy cold juicy oranges for breaks and halftime. Nothing can compare to that tangy fruit when you are an exhausted teenager. Amazingly enough it had the ability to refresh and renew the team to keep fighting for the win. To this day after a workout or simply mowing the lawn I find myself craving a fragrant juicy orange that no other fruit has the ability to quench. As I recall these fond childhood memories I start to wonder where oranges originated from and the process which takes

William Wolfskill has been considered the grandfather of American citrus farming. California is where many of the commercial orange groves are currently located. Wolfskill grew hundreds of lemon and orange seedlings. Lee explains how the orange business triggered a type of “gold rush” in California and proved to be an extremely lucrative business. Lee states, “Because of the 1849 gold mining boom, oranges gained tremendous popularity because of the high vitamin-C to fight scurvy”. Oranges still have a huge impact on keeping California’s economy afloat.” So called because the end of the fruit resembles a belly button, the navel orange was far superior to other varieties at the time because it was seedless, sweet and ripened in winter under California's Mediterranean climate”(Lee,Ching). Interestingly enough Lee also points out, “Nearly all of the navel orange trees grown in the United States are descendants of Tibbett’s’ original trees, now 137 years old, still stands and bears fruit in Riverside, California, and has been designated as a California historical landmark”( Lee, Ching). The navel orange furthermore altered how growers produce citrus and other fruit trees. Before the navel orange, citrus was grown mostly from seed, which meant the trees retained their biological variety, bearing an assortment of fruit that

HLB actually was discovered in Florida in 2005 according to research done by Journal of phytopathology.”the disease infects all commercial citrus cultivars and causes substantial economic losses by promoting fruit drop, rendering fruit inedible and shorting the lifespan of infected trees” (Miyakawa, da Graca, and Bove´). This is just one of many citrus diseases that is steadily rising it has forced none-organic farmers to use controversial pesticides to treat the problem. Pesticide use has been extremely questionable in the last few years. A recent scientific journal points out that, “Fresh fruit can be a source of toxic substances-pesticides, which may penetrate plant tissues and remain in cells. Children are in fact at risk for pesticide exposure because their diets generally contain many fruits [including oranges]” (Food Additives & Contaminants). Children can be heavily affected by these toxic substances. According to the Hamilton Spectator,” The review of 142 studies found that prenatal exposure to pesticides can cause neurodevelopmental, respiratory and reproductive problems in newborns and children, including attention deficits, asthma and lower birth weight”. As a child I had frequent respiratory issues, some of which I am still dealing with today. Through my research I have formed the opinion that pesticides are doing more harm