Agriculture and Natural Resources in Unexpected, *Magical* Places

In spring of 2020 when many U.S. households are usually in the thick of planning summer vacations, traveling to see family and taking family trips to iconic destinations such as national parks or theme parks, travel stopped entirely. If we learned anything during the stay-at-home orders in 2020 in response to COVID-19, it is that we do not stay put in one place without significant cost. In our increasingly global lives with business and personal travel soaring and becoming mainstream events, the sudden halt to travel was a significant departure from the norm. In early 2021, the urge to reduce unnecessary trips continues and the societal toll continues to mount, even though vaccines offer hope of a “return to normal” in the foreseeable (albeit still distant) future; however, reduced travel still remains a key lifestyle change for many people globally.

Travel, tourism and entertainment are engrained in our lives — life’s milestones often focus on or around such events. Honeymoon cruise vacation complete with snorkeling in the Virgin Islands? Yes, please. High school graduation coming up for your oldest child means you should probably take a Disney World vacation to reminisce on past family travels, right? Of course. Or perhaps you prefer the polar opposite of childhood reminiscing. Need a trip to Sin City where you can party with your friends on the Las Vegas Strip while visiting The Venetian and the Eiffel Tower in the span of an hour while holding a margarita? Count me in!

Without doubt, travel is going to remain impacted for quite a while. Some countries are in a race to vaccinate, others had reasonable control of outbreaks for some segments of time while others experienced raging community spread, and many countries won’t have the resources to undertake vaccination campaigns in the immediate future. The timeline remains fuzzy, but massive increases in travel and movement among our families has been a driving force in forming opinions, experiencing cultures and how we take in the outside world for decades. While travel domestically and abroad may be reshaped due to the COVID-19 era (including the pandemic era and recovery era, which is yet to be experienced), the impact that travel has on us as consumers cannot be denied.

Tourism for many of us is more than wandering around — it’s exposure to cultures, information and/or experiences otherwise foreign or underappreciated in our busy everyday lives.

Part of the complexity of consumers is their constant moving about. But how often do we stop to think about the learning through experiences taking place constantly around us and in which we are participating? For example, seeing marketing about natural food production being conveyed in an airport advertisement, or learning about animal agriculture from an upscale restaurant’s menu. Conservation lessons at the local zoo are fitting for an organization with a stated intent to conserve species around the globe.

As consumers, we are inundated with information in various forms wherever we go. Increasingly, we spend our money on immersive experiences, trips dedicated to learning about faraway lands yet to be explored, natural wonders and testaments to human’s ingenuity with architecture, arts and culture on display. Regardless of your particular tastes and interests, the increasingly connected nature of our global community and our (until recently) ease of travel and movement fed a culture that valued exploration and learning, including with young children in tow.

For example, Disney World features an entire park devoted to the natural world — Animal Kingdom marries the natural world with real animals on safari for viewing and appreciating by guests, and is it just one ‘land’ over from Pandora – The World of Avatar. Pandora is perhaps the most unnatural of natural worlds to be experienced. A story based on valuing the natural world presented in a man-made land for us to take in first-hand. It’s captivating, both as an immersive entertainment experience and as a question about consumers’ willingness to pay to experience an unnatural depiction of nature.

Just as past Consumer Corner writings have drawn inspiration from Disney World, including studying consumer perceptions via online media and looking back at how childhood attachments to beloved animal characters may shape our perceptions, we continue our Disney-inspired theme with a trio of collaborators (Dr. Nicole Olynk Widmar, Dr. Courtney Bir and McKenna Clifford) teaming up to tackle the question of whether members of the public who had visited Walt Disney World (WDW) or SeaWorld Orlando had differing views on 1) agricultural and food production systems, and 2) the keeping of animals, including livestock animals and those for educational or entertainment purposes. In addition to the basic question of whether residents had visited one of these two destinations, in-depth evaluation of specific attractions — in particular those focused on food production — were completed.

A sample of 833 U.S. residents were asked about their perceptions of natural resources. This analysis focused on Epcot and Animal Kingdom, which were visited by 84% and 72% of WDW attendees in the sample, respectively, at some point in the past 5 years. In particular, Living with the Land, located in Future World at Epcot is self-described as a place to, “Cruise past greenhouses on a gentle boat tour and discover the surprising history of farming”, and was thus a main focal point of our analyses. Other attractions which intrigued us as researchers were The Circle of Life “An Environmental Fable” (since closed, but having run since 1995), Habitat Habit (Animal Kingdom), The Seas with Nemo and Friends (Epcot) and Kilimanjaro Safaris (Animal Kingdom), which has explicit anti-poaching and among the most comprehensive preservation messaging associated.

In order to gauge interest in and popularity of key attractions of interest, respondents were asked to report on Epcot and Animal Kingdom attractions. The most popular attractions were The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Kilimanjaro Safaris. Interestingly, Pandora – The World of Avatar was not as frequently visited as we hypothesized. However, it was reasonably new at the time of data collection, so perhaps wait times or crowds were a deterrent to visiting the entire land, or even the Animal Kingdom park.

Table from Bir, Clifford and Widmar (2019). Published full-length paper available here.

Results indicated that entertainment and education scores often differed from whether an attraction changed a visitor’s viewpoint. “Living with the Land had the lowest level of agreement from respondents that the attraction was entertaining. However, Living with the Land received relatively high agreement compared to other attractions for its educational value and changing visitors’ views on agricultural techniques and sustainability,” (Bir, Clifford and Widmar, 2019).

Table from Bir, Clifford and Widmar (2019). Published full-length paper available here.

USDA scientists conduct experiments in aquaculture, aeroponics and greenhouse techniques inside the Living with the Land attraction. While on a gentle, narrated boat ride, visitors to the attraction can learn about these new advancements while being entertained by living Mickey Mouse art and a variety of impeccably groomed and labeled landscapes.

People have generally enjoyed witnessing agricultural advancements and idyllic farming. “Until 1996, WDW’s Magic Kingdom was home to Grandma Duck’s Petting Farm (Korkis, 2015). The beloved farmyard animals of Grandma Duck were available for people to interact with through petting and feeding. The star of the barnyard was the famous Minnie Moo, a Holstein with a very clear Mickey Mouse spot pattern on her side. After her death at 15 years old, a plaque commemorating her service as a “cast member” was installed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, and her smaller barnyard companions were moved to Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Affection Section. The secrecy surrounding her death, even though 15 is quite old for a cow, demonstrates that although people enjoy seeing farm animals and may claim they want to increase their knowledge regarding food production, there are mixed feelings regarding their lifespan, and potentially their uses” (Bir, Clifford and Widmar, 2019). Published full-length paper available here.

Those having visited either SeaWorld Orlando or Walt Disney World had higher levels of agreement than non-visitors that marine and wild mammals can be ethically kept but lower levels of agreement that livestock animals could be ethically raised for meat, sparking questions about self-selection biases and/or associations with visiting/viewing versus consuming animals.

Given the widespread interest in travel for entertainment, leisure and education — often combined into edutainment or free choice learning-type activities — and the future public support for research, education and engagement on natural resource use and agriculture, there are likely to be continued movements to engage the public in interactive ways that combine knowledge gathering and leisure experiences. Thus, we continue research that seeks to understand how consumers interact in various industries to better understand how agriculture and food industries can communicate effectively and make sound, data-driven decisions.

If you haven’t experienced it (or wish to experience it again), you are invited to peruse Dr. Widmar’s inappropriately large personal collection of Living with the Land photos here. 

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