How the Pandemic Shifted Trends in Gardening - A Discussion with Dr. Benjamin Campbell

For this kickoff episode, Sam and Lara interview Dr. Benjamin Campbell, an agricultural economist, to talk about his recent research on how horticulture consumer behavior has changed from COVID-19. Find this featured publication at https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH04911-21. The authors include Benjamin Campbell, David San Fratello, William Secor, and Julie Campbell, from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and the Department of Horticulture at the University of Georgia.

For more information on Dr. Benjamin Campbell visit his faculty page or view his list of publications. You can reach him by email at ben.campbell@uga.edu.

Learn more about the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) at https://ashs.org/.
HortTechnology, HortScience and the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science are all open-access and peer-reviewed journals, published by the American Society of Horticultural Science (ASHS). Find them at journals.ashs.org.

Consider becoming an ASHS member at https://ashs.org/page/Becomeamember!

You can also find the official webpage for Plants, People, Science at ashs.org/plantspeoplesciencepodcast, and we encourage you to send us feedback or suggestions at https://ashs.org/webinarpodcastsuggestion.

Podcast transcripts are available at https://plantspeoplescience.buzzsprout.com.

On LinkedIn find Sam Humphrey at linkedin.com/in/samson-humphrey. Curt Rom is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-rom-611085134/. Lena Wilson is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-wilson-2531a5141/.

Thank you for listening!

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Transcript

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 0:08

Welcome to Plants, people Science. This is a podcast of the American Society for Horticultural Science, the ASHS, whose mission is to bring together researchers, scientists, industry, academia, extension, government and students to cultivate ideas and share new techniques relating to horticulture and plant sciences. We'll be promoting this mission by interviewing leaders in the field to pull back the curtain and to learn a little bit more about the scientists and their science. If you listened to the trailer, you might have already heard who we are, but for all of you who didn't, my name is Lara Brindisi and I'm a plant biologist with a focus on breeding and genomics, and I also have experience in plant physiology and chemistry. I'm a PhD candidate in the Simon Lab, currently at Rutgers University and my research centers on sweet basil, though I've also worked on African indigenous vegetables and vertically farmed leafy greens, and I'm Sam Humphrey, a master's student at North Carolina State University. I study ways to propagate strawberry plants in controlled environments or indoor farms. In undergrad at the University of Florida, I studied plant physiology and had various engineering and chemistry-focused projects.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 1:16

Lara, how's your week going? My week is going pretty good, actually. We're in peak season for planting, so I work mainly on basil, sweet basil and we planted huge trials this month and we planted a CRISPR edited trial actually this week. So we're in the height of field season. It's great to get outdoors, get a little tan trying not to get a farmer's tan as best as I can How's everything going with you, sam? I can. How's everything going with you, sam? It's been a rough week. My strawberry plants had a mini crisis this past Monday or Tuesday and not many of them made it, but my week has gotten better.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 1:57

I, admittedly, am working on far fewer plants than you are. I have like 25 plants, but you said you have a lot of basil. I'm so curious how much basil are you growing there? Yeah, so the one that we planted this week was a small trial, only about 30 plots, so that's about 300 plants. But down south, at our other farm site about two hours away, we've planted about 1300 plots, so it's way bigger. I would say it's actually the largest field study that we've ever done on basil I think maybe anyone's ever done on basil. So quite a lot of work, but we have a big team.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 2:36

Don't worry, this is just the beginning. I think we're going to need a future episode on this podcast about how you avoided farmer's tan, because I don't know how you've done it. A balance of tank tops and rolling up my sleeve. That's the whole episode. No, no, no, leave the tips. Leave the tips for later. Okay, you got it All right. So today we'll be talking with our very first guest, dr Benjamin Cantbill. He is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia and he studies consumer behavior and marketing. Dr Campbell has recently published a paper entitled the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Gardening in the United States Post-Pandemic Expectations. All right, welcome, dr Campbell. How are you doing today?

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 3:30

I'm doing well, you've had a long week. You've been out and about and I'm sure your research was put on hold but what does that typically look like for you?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 3:45

What does your work tend to look like? So I am a sort of green industry economist so I deal with a lot with nursery, greenhouse and turf industries, mostly in the state of Georgia, but throughout the nation. So a lot of my research is focusing on issues from production to marketing economics related on those areas. So it can be anything from consumer preferences to policy to looking at what's happening production-wise and the supply chain side. So it's very varied and a lot of it depends on what's happening current issues.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 4:18

How did you start studying something like that? I mean, the intersection between horticulture and economics is so crucial, but I don't think it's something that a lot of people in either field necessarily think to intersect.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 4:31

I would agree it is very, very few of us that do sort of green industry economics because generally it sort of marries agricultural economics and horticulture together. I get a weird start, I would say, in doing that. When I went to Texas A&M for my PhD there was an advertisement that came out that looking for someone to do research on biodegradable potting containers. So from the horticulture department and I was in agricultural economics and I contacted Charlie Hall who put the announcement out and from there we started working on a project together and it sort of fit from there and you know I went from doing fruits and vegetables and looking at national school lunch program to more doing green industry, greenhouse, nursery plants, those type things. So it sort of evolved from there. It was sort of just by chance that I sort of focused in on nursery greenhouse and turf instead of doing something else.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 5:32

So you're telling me you didn't always dream of being a horticultural economist. The pieces kind of came into place.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 5:38

Well, so starting out when I went to college I didn't know I want to be a veterinarian but I didn't want to take chemistry, so agriculture economics was one major didn't require chemistry, so that's for me. And then from there I knew I want to be an agriculture economist because I like the classes I started doing for my master's thesis at Auburn. I did fruit and vegetable work, mostly fruit, looking at consumer preferences, and so I knew I really liked doing that kind of stuff and so the plant side really didn't come in for a while. I knew I knew I liked the agricultural economics side. I liked the specialty crop side. So you know, the plant sort of came in later when I started my PhD work at Texas A&M.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 6:22

So I knew I wanted specialty crops.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 6:24

It just focused on a lot more on the plant side once I started working on the project at Texas A&M.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 6:30

I'm sure you didn't see this pandemic coming either. So how did that, how did that work in your master's and your PhD, lead into what we're talking about today with your your current work in that paper on pandemic gardening?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 6:43

Uh, yeah, I did not see the pandemic coming. Um, interesting enough, we put our house on the market the week that the quarantine, um lockdown hit. What came into effect in Georgia, um, and so we were looking to buy, uh, to move somewhere in the area. But we're where we were, are now, but, yes, did not see that coming. You know, again, the one thing I like doing is looking for issues that are impacting industry, that can make an impact. So you know, sort of that's what I like to do. If someone's already done it, I generally try to find something new and interesting. Pandemic provide that opportunity to say, hey, what's happening? We had anecdotal evidence coming in from uh, um industry that that there was uptick in um plant purchases, and so it sort of led into hey, I like doing new and interesting things, and we've got this anecdotal evidence that you know there's a change happening in behavior and sales, and so that sort of led into the research of looking at what happening pandemic was.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 7:41

Sorry to hear about your housing decision. Bad timing for the market. I guess you couldn't predict the global pandemic.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 7:47

Well, you can say bad or good, right, I mean it's you know. We ended up happy where we're at, so it all worked out, yeah.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 7:55

So I guess that leads us into the paper. Then, specifically with COVID-19. I mean, this was a really unpredictable event, but you were able to use this phenomenon happening around you and then understand it more through your research. Can you talk a little bit about how you were able to do that?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 8:12

Yeah, so we had a survey. That was the way it started was sort of weird. We had a survey that was supposed to go out in January, not January, march-ish of 2020. The pandemic hit, so we pushed it back a little bit and several months, until until I think we'd end up doing it in july, uh, and then from there it was the survey was looking at. We sort of in happenstance, put a question in because we're interested out the antidote evidence that um sales were going up, just so we wanted to see, okay, what happened with gardening sales um, from january july of 2020?

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 8:54

and so that sort of led it.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 8:56

It led to the start of this research. You know, get pushed back on another survey. We had a couple of questions on sales and saw that sales were up roughly 8% from January July of 2020. And so that sort of got us wondering well, why are sales going up? Is it people are buying more? Is it new people coming in the market? Why are sales going up? Is it people are buying more? Is it new people coming in the market?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 9:24

And so then we sort of went about and had another survey lined up to do later in the year, coming into January of 2021.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 9:28

So we were like, okay, well, who's in the market and are they going to stay in the market? Because what we see in most major events is that someone comes in the market or they do some kind of change in behavior and then sort of, as we move away, farther and farther away from that event, people sort of go back to their norm, the pre-event levels or consumption or behaviors. So we want to know, okay, what happened and why, and who's going to stay in the market if they were entered the market. So that first paper paper, the change in sales that led to the second paper, the one on gardening, and who's going to be in the market. What we did January 21, asking did you enter the market? Did you start gardening or were you gardening before? And then, what are your sort of plans after this, after the event, are you going to continue gardening? So that's sort of how it led to a long path, of how we got from no pandemic, no issue, to looking at what's happening on the sales side and the gardening side.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 10:27

That's wonderful. Yeah, the sales side and gardening side is not something I typically think of in my work, and so it's really exciting to see how you looked at this problem. So what would you say the main takeaways are? For someone who's listening to this podcast or might not be deeply in tune with this work, what are the main takeaways of this research?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 10:52

I think the big takeaways are that, I mean, we are seeing a reversion to that pre-pandemic norm. You know, you had people because they were stuck at home for quarantine or they were scared or whatever reasons they were at home they were, you know, couldn't do a lot of things, and so gardening and the landscape, those type things, were something they could do, and so gardening and the landscape, those type things, were something they could do, given that most states classified greenhouses as essential businesses. The only two exceptions were Michigan, which shut down greenhouse greenhouses sales for roughly a month, two months. And then you had New York, who had some sort of restrictions on greenhouse sales for a while. Other than that, every other state had a greenhouses nursery as essential businesses. So you had these sales that were happening and, you know, at some point people get to go back to sort of move out of that pandemic lifestyle and go back to their norm where they've been, going back to work, and so we're seeing a reversion.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 12:02

We see that, with even coming out of 2020, 2021, as you see in the paper, that the large number of people started saying, look, I'm not going to garden even though I started in 2020. And we see it across demographics, which is really really interesting as well. We see younger consumers that they entered gardening and then some are sticking around, but some are already stopping a year in. So I think that's the big thing here is that we are seeing that we're moving back towards that pre-pandemic norm. The question is, will it be exactly there? Probably not. We'll pick up some gardeners, but the big thing here is that we are sort of reverting back to that pre-pandemic levels.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 12:46

So, if I'm understanding correctly, the market aka growers, retailers, anyone in the supply chain of gardening should not be relying on the 2020 levels of purchasing, because millennials are gardening just because they had more time on their hands during that period. Is that correct?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 13:06

Yeah, we saw 2020, people had time on their hands they didn't have, as the expenditures were going down because they weren't having to drive for work and they weren't eating out as much, so you had extra disposable income. 2021, we still saw increased sales. 2022, from what I've heard, we've had sales decline a little bit, and I think some of the stuff I've heard is that we've. I guess would be that you are seeing less consumers come through your bigger sales more dollars per consumer that comes in, but less consumers come through your bigger sales more dollars per consumer that comes in, but less consumers. So you know we're going to see a drop off.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 13:43

I mean, as people are turning, normal, dropping off is going to take place, and I think millennials are one of those segments that there's things they want to do they couldn't do, so they got into gardening and now they're getting out because they can do those things they couldn't do. So they got into gardening and now they're getting out because they can do those things they couldn't do before. Um, you know, does that mean that? I mean, if a new variant comes about that sort of slows things down again, then yeah, we could see it higher sales and people return to gardening. But I mean, as it is, people are turning their normal lifestyles.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 14:10

We go back to that norm yeah, so age was one of the most important takeaways from my understanding of the paper. But you also mentioned how race and household income can explain the household's decision to garden or not garden Can you talk a little bit more about that.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 14:30

You're seeing that that they are more likely to garden and they are more likely to be in gardening, which makes sense. They have this buzz winds come to do it. They may have the time to do it, the resources to do it and the space you know. So you see those things. You do see a myriad of things, such as even so, males were more likely to be in gardening than women were. So we see that you know different races. Generally, caucasians were a little bit more likely to be gardeners and remain in gardening than non-Caucasians. So there are these different things. I don't think these things are anything new. I think we've seen that over time. It just sort of reiterates, sort of, where that pre-pandemic norm is going to be. We're going to return to it to some form or fashion. We're moving back that way and people who didn't garden before are not going to garden after.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 15:34

Just sort of the way we deal with events. We always sort of move back to the norm. Yeah, I know I'm certainly dropping a lot of my COVID hobbies that I've picked up, but when I have more space I'll surely get back into gardening.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 15:42

Yeah, I mean that's the way we do it. I mean you're at home, you have time, so you had time to garden, and then, once your time goes back, you go back to doing those things that you were doing, whether it be going back to work, eating out, whatever time goes away. And then you know, thereby, I know, we had a little bit more time. Summer sports sort of slowed down for our kids, so thereby we had time to really guard in the back. And so you know, with those summer sports returning spring and summer sports returning, now we have a garden that's not near as big and it's not nearly as maintained as it was in 2020. So I mean you have this sort of I mean it doesn't mean people are going to go out and completely stop gardening, it just maybe the size of your garden goes down because you don't have that time.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 16:25

But again, if you're thinking about a business and you're thinking about expanding, you know great, you may have the same number of consumers or customers out there, but they may be gardening less space, right? So again, I know I've done some work with the Georgia Green Industry Association, helping give not advice, but giving things to consider on when you think about expanding, because some of these firms or businesses are looking to expand and, you know, is that demand going to be there? Are you going to have those consumers that are going to be in the market, that are going to buy product, I mean, if you put more on the market? So those are some things we're looking at here. Why I think it's important is to help firms make decisions on what they should consider when they go about deciding should they expand or should they do certain things no-transcript.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 17:26

Yeah, so my appointment is 60% extension, 40% teaching, and so I, you know, a lot of time I do is working on issues for the industry. I do talks and I do presentations and fact sheets, write pieces in trade press to give information. Right, I can't make a decision for someone. My job, my goal and I think I am successful if I can help someone get more information to make a decision. So if a business is thinking about expanding and I can do some kind of informational piece to help them think about the issues they need to consider, and that I think that's a success. And so I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out and trying to come up with ways to communicate results to the industry so that they can make better decisions.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 18:19

Is that where your future research is going? Can you give us any tidbits on what you're working on now?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 18:25

Well, we've got some on the COVID front. We're looking at regulations to see how much did the regulations by state impact the green industry. So we divided out the regulations by, say, low, medium and high being high being very restrictive and low being something like Georgia who was basically shut down for a very short amount of time, then reopened really quickly Something like Georgia who was basically shut down for a very short amount of time, then reopened really quickly and looking at, did those regulations impact the grain industry sales? So we're doing that. That's sort of look at some stuff we're doing on the COVID front. I think there's there's more research to be done on COVID, looking at what are the impacts of using plants during COVID. Did it help with mental issues and helping reduce stress? Those are some interesting things that I'm not doing but I think would be really cool to do. So those are things on the COVID front. I think would be sort of where I'm headed in that area to look at.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 19:25

It must be a very interesting time to be an ag economist. This sounds really exciting. I'm curious what do you find drives you in this? Like, where do you find your excitement to keep going with this work?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 19:40

So it's always a fun time to be an ag economist, and so we don't need a pandemic for that. It's always exciting. You know where do I find it? I look at just looking at things happening in the real world is one of the big places to find motivation to do research or extension activities. There's I'm doing stuff on labor right now, looking at labor issues. There's consumer preferences, product introductions All of those are very interesting to me and things that are very worthwhile for on the supply side and production side for them to have answers to.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 20:16

Whether it be what products or what should we be concentrating on or what attributes do consumers like, and that not only helps on the production side but also the breeding side. What attributes should we be breeding for? Should it be a certain color, size, shape? We just wrapped up a product with the World Marketing Fund looking at flowers and what type of flowers people are buying. What are the attributes that are driving roses, the people buying roses. So again, those are things that are interesting to me and I think that keep me going on that respect. There's a lot of interesting issues out there that can help producers, consumers, academics doing breeding or whatever, that are fun to look at. So that's what keeps me going.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 21:06

Great. Can you elaborate on that example with the roses or on an example that illustrates the connection between breeders and research and what's sold?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 21:15

flowers. When do people buy? Why are they buying? What are they buying and for what occasion? And we looked at roses as sort of a subset and looked at what are the attributes that are driving people's purchasing decision, whether it be origin, is it flower size, is it how long it lasts and we found segments. There are different segments out there that are people are looking for different things. So I'm a breeder and I'm looking at I mean, should I be trying to increase the how long this rose is going to last once it's cut, or the, or the practices that will help make it last longer, or should I be concentrated on bloom size? Those are some issues there that we can look at. How many consumers value these different things and then what now drives them to as a breeder, what should I focus on? You can't focus on everything, so what should you focus on?

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 22:19

Very cool. Do you have any advice for anyone who might be interested in studying these types of topics, whether doing something like you do or making these connections?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 22:30

Advice. Well, I guess you gotta have to me you have fun with it, with respect to be willing to be creative and realize there's a lot of things out there and, you know, pick something that's going to be important to not only you but also to the industry as a whole. I mean, I can find a bunch of projects that aren't going to mean anything, that are going to be worthless to the outside world but I love doing them, but it doesn't mean anything. So the big thing there is look on the issues.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 23:00

What are some issues?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 23:01

you can contribute to that will make a difference, whether it be on a small difference on the breeding size or a big difference in industry where it was labor or pandemic expansion, those type of things right. So big thing is find areas that you can contribute, especially in areas that will make a big difference to some group or of the industry.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 23:25

Right, especially because something like economics and horticultural agricultural economics is a very applied field close to basic exploratory science Right.

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 23:36

Yeah, it's very applied, I mean, and again, could we do theoretical stuff? Probably. But to me at this point for me in my career, I like the applied aspect. I like to say, hey, my research, someone's reading it and it's making a difference. Right, and so you know, if I write an article and it's no one contacts me on or I don't, it doesn't have applications to help someone or to help them make better decisions, then sort of OK, why do it? Then? Sort of like okay, why did I do it? So the big focus for me is to find things that I can actually hopefully help someone make a better decision and better business decision or production decision or something like that, so they can be more successful.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 24:21

That's fantastic. You've worked in a lot of different fields. It's really exciting to see all the broad ways that you've approach agriculture in your economics research. So if anyone wants to find your work or reach out to you, how would you suggest they do that?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 24:40

Basically, email is the best way. I don't really do social media that much, so, as far as you know, email is probably the easiest way and the best way to make that connection, whether it be to discuss something that we need to be looking at as a horticultural ag economist, or whether we need something that I mean a person to collaborate on. Something and that's the easiest way is email.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 25:04

Great, and is there anything else that you want to mention but didn't get the chance to say yet?

Dr. Benjamin Campbell: 25:08

Not that I know of. I mean it's a fun time to be an agricultural economist dealing with, you know, the grain industry. There's not a lot of us, so it's sort of a tight-knit group that work on these things, and so you know it's a fun time because there's a lot of issues there that not many people are working on. I mean, if you think about other issues where you go about overall labor or the economy, things like that a lot of people working on them, even fruits and vegetables a lot of people working on it. Greenhouse nursery plants very few people. And so there's a lot of room for growth and to do different things and doing in the green industry different things and doing in the green industry.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 25:55

Great, always exciting to discover new niche fields for everyone out there interested in horticulture but not sure where they quite fit in yet. Well, I think that brings us to the end of this discussion. Thank you so, so much for joining us, dr Campbell. So, going into this conversation, lara, what did you expect, like did you? Did you expect something very different from what the paper talked about? You know, I guess it's not so much that I had different expectations. I guess I didn't think about how some businesses might actually be consistently increasing in their revenue. I mean, I noticed it in a certain way, right, like when I ordered seeds. My seed was backlogged for months before I could actually get it in the mail. So I was like, oh, this is weird. I guess all these new hobby growers are getting into this industry. So it makes sense, right, it makes sense.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 26:59

I guess hearing about how consumer interest in gardening increased during COVID-19 didn't exactly surprise me, but it surprised me that we're not seeing some of that renewed interest stick around. I would have expected people to be getting more in touch with nature and kind of getting really excited by it, but it seems like people are getting back to the hustle and bustle after the COVID-19 pandemic is subsiding in its intensity. Yeah, that was really interesting, especially, I think it was the younger population of people, like a younger generation said like they were looking into the future and they've said I'm less likely to garden next year, which like blew my mind, like I wouldn't say that and and the people I'm around you know aren't saying those things, and so it's really interesting to hear that people are actually expecting that of themselves as they go back and forth. Right, I can imagine it with going back to work, though, and picking up a busy schedule and not being home as much, and then finding out how much work gardening takes up. When you start gardening for the first time, I could definitely see it, but then again, maybe I just get too attached to my plants because I'm like I could definitely see it, but then again, like maybe I just get too attached to my plants because I'm like I never want it to die, like I'll just keep propagating it for years, trying to keep it alive. So maybe I have that bias in my head. Yeah, and of course, there are many, many, many tragedies of COVID-19. But if there is one small shining light in there. It's that more people got the opportunity to get a feel for plants, maybe gain a new appreciation for how much work it takes to garden and to grow things from scratch. It's rewarding. More people should do it. And, yeah, it's very, very cool takeaway from COVID and, who knows, maybe some people will pick it back up that had tried it in COVID-19 and they'll try it again later. We'll see.

Sam Humphrey/Lara Brindisi: 29:04

The paper from today's article was published in Hort Technology in the May 2022 issue. You can find it and other articles published through ASHS's three open access journals at journalsashsorg. Sam, if people want to follow your work, what's the best way? You can find me by searching my name on LinkedIn. That is, samson Humphrey and Lara. What about you? You can follow me on Instagram, at ThePlantPhD, or on LinkedIn with the tag Lara Brindisi. You can find these links and other links in my link tree in the show notes. I mainly use Instagram to show some pictures of what my research actually looks like, and my LinkedIn to share professional resources. Ashs podcasts are made possible by member dues and volunteerism. Please go to ashsorg to learn more. If you are not already a member of ASHS, we invite you to join us. Ashs is a not-for-profit and your donations are tax deductible. This episode was hosted by Sam Humphrey and Lara Brindisi. Special thanks to our audio engineer, Alex Fraser, our research team, lena Wilson and Andrew Komatz, our ASHS support team, sarah Powell and Sally Murphy, and our musician, john Clark.