b"to continue to operate the business on a day-to-day basis. There were plenty of challenges that came along the way with this unprecedented surge, which again, we're very grateful for.SW: What are some ways you've had to adjust during this time period to make American Meadows a little bit more ready to face these challenges? ML: We were fortunate with our business model being a direct-to-consumer ecommerce space. From the consumer (perspec-tive) you may not have seen much of a change when it comes to the shopping experience, other than again, as I mentioned in the spring season, orders being delayed from the turnaround time standpoint.For the most part, for the consumer, you might not really notice much difference. But certainly internally from an organi-zational structure and the remote working and how we com-municate, yeah, it was certainly challenging. It forced us to think outside the box, and it forced us to learn and communicate much differently. At American Meadows, we adopted the use of Microsoft Teams as a remote way of communicating. And for us, that has worked very, very well. We then also had to institute a new phone system that would work through all the PCs, again, with all our customer service team, which is upwards of 20 to 30 people, depending on the time of the year. All had to work from home, but had to have access to phones and a better way to communicate or a con-sistent way to communicate. And so it just forced us to explore those avenues, and try to get something up and working as quickly as we could once we had to go remote, which started back in March. That was challenging. When you called in, phone calls are getting dropped and not sure where they're being routed. I think overall, we've been pleased at the way our staff has stepped up, embrace the challenges, trying to keep a positive mindset, keeping everybody safe. Being aware of everybody'sMike Lizotte.well-being mentally, certainly is something that's front and center for us. And I think overall, we've done a good job, despite some of those challenges. It's working and we've been very pleasedbefore. You have companies trying to forecast against growth with the way we've been able to navigate that. rates of 100, 200, 300%, which if you've ever done forecast-ing exercises, can be extremely challenging at 10% and 20%, let SW: What is seed demand and supply looking like foralone the growth rates we're seeing now. But again, I think it's 2021 so far? pretty much a given fact that there are going to be plenty of ML: So let me take out my crystal ball here and rub it a fewseeds, whether it's on the flower side, or whether it's on the veg-times. I am the president of the Home Garden Seed Association,etable side, that are going to be in short supply, as we roll into which is a worldwide organization of seed breeders and growerscalendar year 2021 and beyond. So for companies like American and suppliers, etc. I also sit on the board of the National GardenMeadows and myself, Im really trying the best that I can to fore-Bureau as well.cast some numbers, forecasts some demand in feeling like I am This is a topic that we've been having roundtable discussionsin a spot where and I have procured enough seed to meet my for the last six months trying to meet at least once to twice ademand as we roll into spring of 2021. month. I wish I had the answer, but I can pretty confidently say that there will be seed shortages as we roll into calendar yearSW: Do you think there will be another huge surge like 2021. Depending on how long this pandemic continues at thethere was this previous year in the spring of 2020? levels it's at, it really could roll into calendar year 2022.ML: So far, and there have been some, as you get to this time of The surge in our industry is something that we've never seenyear, there are a number of organizations that produce surveys 12/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2021"