Fort Pierce, Florida

The U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, which maintains a staff of 6,000 employees—including 2,100 scientists—to conduct 1,200 national research projects. The Service’s annual research budget is $1.1 billion.

The Horticultural Research Center in Fort Pierce is nationally responsible for research into:

• Control methods for pests of subtropical plants
• Basic research into post-harvest problems in horticultural crops
• Developing new commercial citrus varieties
• Improved control of bacterial, fungal, nematode and viral diseases of subtropical crops
• Developing an alternative to methyl bromide fumigation
• Reducing the negative impact of horticultural crop production on water conservation