Benjamin Campbell, Hayk Khachatryan, and Alicia Rihn have amassed a substantial amount of data that they discuss in their article “Pollinator-friendly Plants: Reasons for and Barriers to Purchase” found in the current issue of HortTechnology, published by the American Society for Horticultural Science.
The study illuminates information from a consumer survey that focused on those who have purchased plants that are proven to be beneficial and attractive to pollinating bees, butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds.
Campbell suggested, “I think we often think of pollinator-friendly plants as bee and butterfly attractants, but there are consumers that want to attract other types of pollinators, so ensuring we meet their needs is essential.”
The researchers discovered an array of motivations encouraging consumers to choose these specific plants. Among consumers with home landscapes, only 46% elected pollinator-friendly plants in their purchases. Within that group, only 17% stated that attracting pollinators was their driving desire. The majority of these consumers decided on their purchases because of the look of the plants that they wished included in their personal landscapes.
The factors preventing or discouraging more than half of consumers from including plants beneficial to pollinators seem obvious and easy to address, and this is important. Pollinators contribute substantially to the global economy and food availability, and without them, roughly 70% of our food crops would be in jeopardy of failing to meet world consumption needs.
The authors point out the recent worldwide concern regarding pollinator population decline due to pesticides, parasites, and urbanization and the alarming impact it could have on human sustainability.
Inadequate labeling is responsible for 28% of the surveyed consumers choosing plants outside the pollinator-friendly category. Many within the field of landscape marketing agree that better identification would easily encourage purchasers to select plants helpful the birds and insect that benefit our own food crops.
Another major barrier to a greater distribution of pollinator-friendly plants is price. Price was considered a barrier to purchasing pollinator-friendly plants by 28% of the consumers surveyed.