The War on Cankerism

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's citrus canker program, under which hundreds of thousands of over a million perfectly healthy trees were needlessly tortured and condemned to death, is being abandoned.

According to state officials, this means Florida Government will have to stop cutting down perfectly healthy trees that belong to others:

The state will continue to cut down infected trees... but it will stop destroying those within 1,900 feet of an infected tree, which under current law are considered 'exposed.'

Citrus industry spokesmen are blaming hurricanes for spreading canker too wide and far. But Andrew Myers, chief counsel for Broward County, says that's "disingenuous... and blatantly false." He adds:

"Any effort to effectively address the citrus canker issue was undermined by shoddy science and bureaucratic incompetence. It is unfortunate that the constitutional rights of so many Floridians were senselessly trampled."

As for the governor, Jeb Bush says he's "troubled" by the failure of this ill-conceived and badly executed program. Here's an idea: why not simply declare victory and leave?