New Growth Coming to Agriculture Thanks to Coronavirus
June 17, 2020 Everyone I know complains about meetings. They’re certainly necessary, and they’re often quite productive and even very enjoyable, it’s just that they sometimes feel like a huge waste of time, and those are the ones many people tend to remember. Though that’s probably due to the fact that the amount of time you feel you are wasting in a meeting first thing in the morning is directly proportional to the number of things you want to get accomplished that day.
So it was definitely welcome recently when a large apple grower told me he’s wasting less time during recent meetings — one of the few positive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Personally, I was really gratified to hear it, if only because just six months ago in this space I was introducing you to our new initiative, Opportunity 2020. I noted one of my favorite sayings is: “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” At the time, I had no idea how many lemons were in the world’s future.
But my opinion hasn’t changed, that there’s no sweeter feeling than taking control of a miserable situation and redeploying its components for a satisfying result. That’s what the apple grower was doing, and he made a great point. I was surveying growers around the country about what they were doing in the face of the pandemic. As you might guess, most growers said that in the fields, orchards, and vineyards, things hadn’t changed an awful lot. “Farmers are the original practitioners of social distancing,” joked one.
Most weren’t in the mood for joking, though, and, like most people in general, were having a difficult time remaining upbeat after one tough month of April. But this one grower thought that not only had his meetings improved during the pandemic, the way we think about meetings had changed forever.
First, he said he’s come to realize the value of videoconferencing and won’t be as likely to travel long distances in the future just to talk. Sure, he won’t hesitate to travel across the world to evaluate trees, and some meetings are so important they have to be held face-to-face, but he will be doing a lot more videoconferencing.
The technology lends itself to saving time. There is a lot less shooting of the breeze, for example. People tend to get right to the point when they are “on,” as all eyes and ears are generally on them, and it’s more difficult for others to interrupt.
Another advantage is growers don’t have to come in from the field to take a meeting. The grower noted he’s often in the orchard, and not only does he not have to come into the office, if the meeting does start to drag, he will just start walking around checking the trees.
Despite the new technology making meetings faster and more productive, there will still be the need for meeting in person, and when that does happen, the grower told me he expects increased productivity there, too. In talking with growers in other countries, there’s a new sense of community, a world community, that might just last long after the coronavirus is over.
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