Citrus Research and Development Foundation COO Dantzler to Retire Effective June 30
by TIM CRAIG
Rick Dantzler, the chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation and a driving force in Florida citrus, has announced his retirement effective June 30.
The announcement came on the heels of the decision by the state legislature, through the enacting of the Florida Farm Bill, to effectively merge the CRDF with CRAFT by October 2026.
“I knew the merger was coming, and I can’t say that it did not have a bearing on my decision, but it was not the driving force,” Dantzler says. “The merger was not my idea. But I am not actively opposed to it.”
Birth of CRDF
Dantzler, a former state senator from Winter Haven, was named the COO of CRDF in August 2018. He helped refine a research program that was designed to find a solution to devastation brought on by two decades of citrus greening.
“In 2009, growers came together to create a Manhattan-like project to try to find a cure against HLB,” he says. At that time, we didn’t even know how to attack it.”
That project was the CRDF.
“As the basic research evolved, the need to take it into a commercial environment became key,” Dantzler says. “We were at a point of dire straits, and we had to take some of what we were learning and take it to the growers.”
Dantzler believes the protocols are now in place
“The biggest limiting factor the citrus industry may be facing now is more about having enough land to grow citrus than it is the battle with HLB.
“We lost a lot of good soldiers in this battle, and I don’t take that for granted by any means,” he says.
One of his biggest challenges came in 2021.
“The industry just fell off a cliff. We changed our research strategy and the only way to survive was to kill as much of the bacteria that causes greening as we could as quickly as we could.”
That was a lesson: Time may be running out for the industry.
“From that point on,” he says, “the focus of the CRDF was on getting the tree of the future; one that is at least highly tolerant of HLB, but preferably one that remained disease free,” he says.
“We may have done it,” he quickly adds. “What we don’t have is the validation of what we believe is true.”
That’s where the upcoming field trials come in.
Ongoing Research
In the short term, though, growers are using tree injection therapies and getting significant results: a larger canopy, a wider root mass, and signs that the trees are getting better at resisting greening.
Those tree injection therapies were the result of five to seven years of CRDF research. Then CRAFT takes that lengthy lab research and puts it to work in a commercial setting, effectively merging the creation and the result of the research with the testing. The length of time for hard research and field trials is what makes the whole process difficult. Especially when it comes to citrus, Dantzler says.
“It’s not like a root vegetable where you plant a seed and six to eight months later you can see the results,” he explains. “With citrus, it’s more like 20 years before you can tell if it works.”
The arc of research history has gone long enough to see clear winners and losers in this battle with HLB.
Looking back at his tenure, Dantzler says that the CRDF changed with the times.
“We have focused on exactly where we needed to go and changed how we have gone about funding and how we renew research,” he says. “There have been fewer dollars, so we have needed to be more discerning and stay focused on the industry and keeping the growers alive.”
“I think that we have been successful in making research more relevant to the growers. We have tried to be great stewards of their dollars. Our funding comes from the box tax, so the obligation is there. The growers have been asked to make hard decisions, so we should too. I hope they see that as true.”
There’s something else that may be true: He’s not sure he’ll fully retire after he steps away from the CRDF. He’s had four careers — lawmaker, lawyer, presidential appointee, and Chief Operating Officer. He’s written three books and thinks there may be at least one more in the tank. He might work on his handicap or fishing. Either way, he suspects he’ll find ways to stay busy.
“My wife can think of 12 different things to do when I retire. She’s got her own list.”