Because the food crops showing the potential for the most impact from the removal of

methyl bromide are also some of the same crops which are important to Florida, the issue of

removing methyl bromide is especially important to Florida. The primary objective of this

report is the estimation of the economic impact of the removal of methyl bromide on the Florida

agricultural sector and consequently on the economy of the State of Florida.



Organization of this Report

 This report is organized to first (Section 2) provide a historical background on the

development and use of methyl bromide in the Florida fresh produce industry. Alternative

chemical and non-chemical production systems that do not use methyl bromide are presented in

Section 3. A discussion of the crops that are important to Florida that use methyl bromide

follows (Section 4) with a presentation of production practices used for each crop. Finally, the

economic consequences of a methyl bromide ban are estimated and presented (Section 5) and

conclusions are drawn from the analysis (Section 6). References and appendices that support

the analyses follow.