Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Updates of individual members

Ben Campbell is working on a SRI project on LED lighting. He is looking at the economics and profitability doing LED lighting throughout the US, as well as consumer issues (externalities) associated with living around LED lighting facilities. Other projects are looking at different types of beetles. Other project is looking at people purchase of plants and landscape items during COVID-19. Results show a 4% increase in plant purchases.

Bryan Peterson is working on establishing protocols for propagation of native plants. Bryan has also been working on the invasiveness of certain plants that are not native to the US (honeysuckle). His main work is around the ecophysiology of native plants to gain insight on how to make them more adaptable to landscapes in their native habitat. He is also working on alternative propagation systems to save water. Other ideas he is developing are related to landscape horticulture and sustainability in the landscape (e.g. ground covers and the introduction of woody ground covers).

Jeff Kuehny is working on irrigation studies using tipping buckets to minimize water usage. He is also looking at phosphorus reduction in container production. He has done work with a sweet potato for ornamental and edible purposes. They have been looking at methods to prevent storage root formation in the early propagation time period.

Julie Campbell has been looking at floral marketing with references to social media. She is also working on a boxwood blight awareness grant to understand people’s knowledge and prevention on spreading.

Ariana Torres is working on the value-added technologies adopted by specialty crops farmer. She got a USDA-NIFA grant to work with ag and biological engineers and food scientists to understand the drivers and barriers to add value to specialty crops sold in local markets. She published a paper with Bridget Behe and Susan Barton looking at the adoption of online marketing and online sales in the green industry. With funding from Specialty Crops Block Grant, she is collaborating with turfgrass scientists to work on the information asymmetries found in the turfgrass industry. She hired a graduate student to understand the preferences of homeowners, HOA, and landscape contractors toward sustainable turfgrass for residential purposes. With funding from USDA-SARE, she published a paper looking at the purchase agreement and preferences of buyers of organic grains in the Midwest. She is releasing a calculator to understand the economic impact of using plant growth regulators (PGRs) for shrub maintenance. She is collecting farmer’s market prices for the 4^th consecutive year. With funding from USDA-SARE, she has published with Bridget Behe a paper characterizing melong consumers in the US. She published a paper looking at young consumers’ preferences for organic, local, sustainable and small-family farm attributes in foods.

Bridget Behe is working on eye sequencing research looking at displays panels and just got a paper accepted on the topic. She is finishing up work on stevia and another paper on water3, looking at consumer perceptions of reclaimed versus recycled water. They submitted an article to the journal of environmental psychology looking at the recycled versus reclaimed water and it seems that the poop factor is a big deal for consumers.

Bill Graves’ research appointment has decreased after taking an administrative appointment in Iowa. His research interests align with Bryan Peterson’s due to previous joint work. Bill has 2 doctoral students. One student is working on the genus Darko, looking at the reproductive biology and cold hardiness of different species and eco types of the genus that is called leather wood. The other student is working with members of the citrus family (Talia), looking at the reproductive biology and floral aromatic compounds that are emitted, as well as human interaction with them. His team is doing human subject trials to examine how people react to these odors.

Cheryl Boyer published a paper looking at how millennials perceived marketing and selling plants online. They used a 360-degree camera placed in garden centers to support the research. Cheryl is part of a transdisciplinary team called the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagements. Their team has many papers in progress on the use of social media for different horticultural products. Papers are looking at sociotechnographic and post engagement research. Another project looked at the use of angry emoji and the storytelling piece with a hypothetical CSA box. Another project is looking at content analysis of the Amazon plant store. Cheryl is heavily involved in Extension efforts.

Alicia Rihn started her faculty position in July in University of Tennessee. She has been finishing some projects that were going on with Hayk looking at sustainable landscapes and value attributes in ornamentals. They have a R&R for an article looking at communicating with the new generation of black plants, which was part of the ASHS workshop in 2019. They are also finishing a study looking at consumer and producer acceptance of alternative control measures. She has been invited in on a planning grant for the use of automation and nurseries to address labor shortages. Alicia has been looking at the paycheck protection program in the green industry and how the industry is using it.

Robin Brumfield is wrapping up the second year of an EU grant where they are training women farmers. She has collaborators in Germany, Malta, Turkey and Spain. She is also working on taking Annie’s Project to urban agriculture in areas of production and economics. Annie’s project is empowering women farmers by the creation of business plans in Turkey, Greece, Guyana, and Nicaragua. Robin obtained a grant from NRCS for a water project, in which they are looking for growers to be their ‘test’ subjects that they can collect water use data from. The NRCS project aims to develop an economic model for smaller grower to recycle water. Robin received a Small Farms grant to analyze the potential of 10 ultra-niche products. This project is helping develop online enterprise budgets for these crops. Robin also received the 2^nd biggest gift given to Rutgers to decrease youth unemployment. Robin is working on an online tool to help nurseries and producers about water recycling.

Dewayne Ingram had finished an extensive publication on water use and water footprint. This work is going through research and Extension journal outlets. Dewayne finished the whole counsel grant.

Hayk Khachatryan recently completed a project related to the economic impact of the Florida turfgrass industry, and looks forward to starting a new research project investigating economic contributions of the Florida pest management industry. He is currently preparing the Green Industry national dataset for regional and state-level analysis. 

Future meetings

Winter 2021 meeting in South Florida, potentially hosted by Hayk. Summer 2021 meeting will be held in New Jersey, hosted by Robin.

Discussion of ongoing papers from the 5-year survey

1. Update to previous paper on the economic impact led by Charlie Hall
2. Update to previous paper on production practices led by Charlie Hall
3. Update to trade flow analysis paper led Hayk Khachatryan
4. Production practices regarding native plants led by Alicia Rihn
5. Update to marketing practices paper led by Alicia Rihn
6. Update to online marketing adoption led by Ariana Torres
7. Update to impact of advertising on sales led by Ariana Torres
8. Choice of market channel paper led by Hayk Khachatryan
9. Labor use by farms paper led by Ben Campbell
10. Water usage paper led by Ben Campbell
11. Update to previous paper on importance of factors determining prices of product led by Ben Campbell