Whether it is a late-night snack or a morning delight, oranges are for sure one of my favorite fruits to eat. Growing up, there were many weekends on which my family would wake up to a tasty cup of orange juice. Before anyone else woke up, my mother would get up early to make us a delicious breakfast meal and orange juice. Now I must say those weekends were the best. There was something about the freshly squeezed orange juice accompanied by a delicious meal my mom made that just made my day.

Orange history: 

Now before I dig into the juiciness of oranges, let me talk to you a little bit about the history of oranges. Nowadays, anyone around the world can consume oranges. However, oranges first originated in Southern Asia. During the Middle Ages, oranges were distributed to Mediterranean countries such as Egypt and Italy. Specifically, the way in which that happened was through the expansion of Islam, the Arab trade routes, and the roman conquests. However, after some time, the further expansion of oranges to the rest of the world or western countries such as North and South America was possible through the places Christopher Columbus colonized. Today the country that produces the most oranges is Brazil. In fact, three years ago, in 2019, about 17 million metric tons of oranges were produced in Brazil. Other countries that have a large production of oranges are China, India, USA, Mexico, and Spain. However, what makes the production of oranges in Brazil superior to these countries is that Brazil has more fertile soil, a lower number of psyllids, and more suitable climate conditions.

 

 

Production: How are oranges produced and is the production of oranges sustainable? 

Oranges are widely available throughout the world. However, most people know very little about how they are grown. Oranges can grow in moderate temperatures and are planted in a range of soil types. Often, though, oranges thrive best in intermediate soil types, such as sand and clay. There is actually a series of steps a farmer takes to grow their oranges. First, the farmers take their orange seeds and plant them in soil for 12 months at a lath house. Then, they take them out of the soil and take them to a nursery for 12-16 months. There, at the nursery, the seedlings get large enough to where they can bud. Once the budded tops are a year or two, the farmers can finally plant them in grid planting systems in fields. Once planted, it takes the newly planted orange trees 3 to 5 years to bear fruit. Often, these trees can live up to 150 years. However, an orange tree’s productive life is a third of that, which is 50 years. According to McFarland, through the 50 years of an orange tree’s productive life, an orange tree can produce anywhere between 12,500 and 15,000 oranges (McFarland, 2021). Now the reason an orange tree’s productive life is cut short is due to pests, diseases, and the climate. Some of the most common pests are mites, whiteflies, and leaf miners, and some of the most common diseases are citrus greening, foot root fungus, and citrus stubborn disease.

No matter how tasty oranges are, the production of most oranges you buy at the supermarket is not the most sustainable. Sure, oranges do not require a bunch of water intake compared to other plants. However, overall, orange production is still not the most sustainable because it consists of overuse of chemicals, burning of trees, long-distance transportation, low worker wages, and poor working conditions for workers. Now, overuse of chemicals, burning of trees and long-distance transportation are things that impact the environment, while low worker wages and poor working conditions are things related to society.  However, these society-related things also contribute to the sustainability of orange production because they impact the well-being of the workers. Essentially, this means that for a food system to be sustainable, the workers need to be properly cared for. In other words, sustainability is not made possible through just one thing, but instead, a combination of things, and those things include maintaining the environment healthy, social justice, and economic profitability.

Previously I have mentioned that most orange production is unsustainable, but when and why did it become unsustainable? Well, orange production became unsustainable during the 20th century. Specifically, the reasoning for this was that there was an increase in technology. Many new technologies were applied to produce and transport oranges, and specifically, these new technologies resulted in negatively impacting the environment. 

 

 

How can orange production be sustainable?

Now moving aside from the things that do not make orange production sustainable, let’s move into thinking of ways to make orange production more sustainable. Specifically, some ways in which orange production can become more sustainable are by building organic small-scale orange plantations, reducing the distance the oranges need to travel to be sold, increasing worker wages, and improving working conditions for workers.

 

 Oranges aren’t all bad. Well, not bad for our bodies anyways: 

Moving aside from the unsustainable aspects of orange production, let’s get into the beneficial aspects of consuming oranges. Oranges have a variety of health benefits. Those benefits range from improving your gut health to helping prevent certain diseases. Specifically, what makes oranges so beneficial to the body are the properties that make up an orange. Some of those properties include flavonoids, alkaloids, limonoids, coumarins, carotenoids, phenolic acids, essential oils, antioxidants, and pectin. Particularly, each of these properties plays a different role in helping your body stay healthy. However, sometimes, some of those properties both help target keeping a part of your body healthy. For example, vitamin C; an antioxidant, and hesperidin; a flavonoid, both support the immune system. 

 

Orange recipe:

How to make orange juice: 

Ingredients:

• Oranges

Tools:

• Knife
• Orange juicer squeezer
• Strainer
• Cutting board

Instructions:

First, place three oranges on top of a cutting board.

Second, with a knife cut the three oranges in half.

Third, place half an orange at a time on top of the orange juicer squeezer and press and move the orange around until no more juice comes out of the orange.

Fourth, get a strainer and place it over a cup.

Then, pour orange juice from the orange juicer squeezer container into the cup. This way, the clumps of the orange will not be in the orange juice. Note: This step is based on preference. If you do not wish to remove the clumps, then you can just pour the juice from the orange juice squeezer container into the cup.

Finally, enjoy your orange juice!!!

 

Bibliography:

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Post by: Yenifer Bravo