S09 - Session O3 - Growing horticultural food produce at home during the pandemic ' who does it and how many are there?

Authors: Mira Lehberger *, Kai Sparke

Lockdowns as well as a sharp intensification of home office use have drastically increased the time spend at home during the pandemic. At the same time, empirical evidence indicates an ever-growing interest in fresh and local food produce. This study aims to understand drivers to self-cultivate horticultural food during the pandemic in Germany. The data derives from an online-survey conducted in 2021 with n= 510 study participants living in Germany. We used quotas for gender, household income, age and region. Among respondents with a home garden or those who are members of a community garden, the proportion of producers is around 65%. Also almost 21% of people without gardens produced edibles, mostly herbs in balcony boxes and pots. Overall, cultivation has increased for one-third of respondents in the Corona pandemic. Results from a logistic regression indicate that socio-demographic statistics, as well as psychological factors in terms of personality traits are important to understand cultivating behavior: People, who are more open and less neurotic, were more likely to have grown horticultural food during the pandemic. Further, women, people between 40 and 49 of age, and those with access to a home garden or community garden were more likely to self-cultivate food produce. Our findings have valuable for decision makers who wish to foster private and small-scale food production, as well as for retails, who wish to target their consumers more effectively.