Aliens & Pests

A Florida couple has lost their latest effort to save the grapefruit trees in their back yard. Florida is struggling with citrus canker, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri. Quarantine rules require all trees within 1900 ft. of an infected tree to be destroyed. The Boca Raton couple, Edmund and Laura Gerstein, sued to stop their two grapefruit trees from the ax. They claimed that the Geneva Convention prohibited government destruction of civilian food sources in time of war. Claiming that the war on terrorism and the Iraq war could cause a food shortage, the Gersteins posted the Geneva Convention on their front door and tried to stop agriculture officials from cutting the trees. The court didn't buy it and the trees have been cut down.