Home Gardening Boom in COVID Leads To Possible Seed Shortages
Store shelves are starting to empty as 2020’s new home gardeners are buying out seeds.
2020’s home gardening boom brought many new gardeners into retailers across the U.S. This has had consequences, however, as NPR Reporter Dana Cronin reports, retailers and shoppers are reporting low stock of their favorite varieties of produce.
While this mainly affects the new at-home gardeners, some commercial farmers have had to deal with the consequences as well.
“While there’s currently no threat of an overall seed shortage,” Cronin says, “the run on seeds is causing shortages of certain produce varieties. And that’s causing problems for commercial farmers, who carefully plan their yearly crop based on specific factors, like climate, irrigation needs, harvest timing, and yield.”
Despite the shortages on store shelves of some varieties, other varieties that keep up with demand are available.
Some are calling this shortage less of a seed shortage and more of a labor shortage, however.
Cronin says, “seed company Baker Creek Seeds, based in Missouri, is seeing more demand than ever before. Their seed packing machines can’t keep up with the orders coming in, so managers have had to bring in additional human hands to help sort and package seeds. The company is also in the process of constructing a larger warehouse to expand their operations.”
To learn more about this story, check out the original on NPR.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
