RICK DANTZLER
COO, CITRUS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, LAKE ALFRED
The foundation funds most of the research for the Florida citrus industry, financing projects from researchers all over the world. In the last 11 years, the organization has spent nearly $141 million, of which approximately 85% has gone to fighting citrus greening. That disease has caused production to fall from 240 million boxes to 56 million boxes, with citrus acreage plummeting from 900,000 acres to 400,000. Dantzler, a state legislator at 26, also served as president of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
| EDUCATION | University of Florida (BA, JD) |
| NEW HOBBY | We started a socially distanced walk on Saturday afternoons with neighbors as a way to maintain some contact with friends. We walk at a snail’s pace, often sipping a glass of wine or margarita. |
| WORRIES ABOUT | The thought of the citrus industry losing its critical commercial mass where growers become simply hobbyists and not growers who make their livings growing citrus. |
| READING | Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose |