I
was surprised last week to see my email and Twitter tweets begin to light up
about an article by a blogger for Yahoo who had posted the story titled: College Majors That Are Useless.
The
author, Terence Loose, pointed to data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) 2012 Job Outlook study and other sources in his
final analysis that purported that Agriculture, Animal Science, and
Horticulture were among the five college majors to avoid if you were looking
for a post-degree job.
I
wondered how long it would take for the passionate people and agricultural
advocates who I follow on Twitter to begin to respond and rebut. Many are students or are connected through
their careers and activities to food and agriculture in various ways.
Not
more than two hours after the story had been tweeted, I was at a meeting in our college and found that our Undergraduate Programs office
at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was “all over” the story.
The following morning, I was sent a link to a well-written response appearing in the Huffington Post from my former colleague, friend, and Dean Allen Levine of
the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. Thanks Dr. Levine! From Friday through
Sunday morning, I followed the rebuttals, posts, and other writing from about
13 or 14 other sources (see end of this article).
All
who took the time to speak up and speak out did a great job of presenting
information, stories, and personal testimonials to show that opportunities in
agriculture, food, energy, the environment, and connected fields are rich with
opportunity now and in the future. Work at Purdue with USDA and described in one of the tweets actually
shows that we will have shortages of qualified people in the future to work in
these important areas of science that touch us all. This matches my experiences as a long-time
agricultural faculty member and administrator where we find that the different
industries and businesses which serve our ag and food sectors to be hungry for top-notch grads who
end up in great jobs making very good money – often with opportunities to
travel extensively throughout the world and work on a wide range of exciting projects.
When
I first read the Yahoo piece, I immediately regressed back to my teen years in
the 1970s. I remember that when someone
would diss agriculture or farming, my Dad would say “Don’t say that with your
mouth full.” In thinking about writing
this piece, I thought maybe I’d try not to go there…But, I couldn’t help but
imagine that the blogger who wrote this somehow finished up his article, folded
up his laptop, said goodbye to Starbucks and headed off to catch
up with his friends for a beer (barley from Wisconsin and hops from Washington)
and pizza (tomatoes from California, pork from Iowa, wheat from both Kansas and
North Dakota, mushrooms from Pennsylvania, corn meal from Minnesota, cheese
from Wisconsin, and olive oil from western Europe). Perhaps I am wrong. I'm guessing that my perceptions and pre-conceived notions are probably not correct. But, I will throw out the
friendly invitation to have Mr. Loose come visit us in Wisconsin and we’ll show
him some pretty cool stuff.
So
– several of us have made the food argument; the positive job outlook points;
and, we’ve expressed our feelings about our personal and professionals passions for agriculture. Let me try to add just a couple more points. Then, at the end of this post, I will include
the links that I collected from Twitter, emails, etc. over the last couple
days. It will be fun to watch and see what others say.
Agriculture, Food, and World Peace
We
all eat. Everyone in the world. Our world population is growing fast. A recent report by 12 of the Land Grant
universities in the Midwest documented that in the next 18 years, world population
will grow from 7.0 billion in 2010 to 9.3 billion (by 2030). How big is an
increase of 2.3 billion? It’s like
doubling the current population of China and India, all in less than two
decades. Further, we’ve seen developing
areas of the world become relatively more affluent and active in the global
economy. As the world becomes more able to provide basic necessities
because of growing levels of economic activity in places like China, so to do
their demands grow for protein in food products like milk, meat, cheese, eggs,
etc.
Bottom
line…Even though world population will grow by 33% (from 7.0 billion to
9.3 billion), total food needs are likely to double. All this will happen at the same time that available
land is shrinking. In the 1990s, we had
0.81 acres to feed each person on the globe.
By 2050, that number will be cut in half. So – we double production with half the
land. Mr. Loose, I’m afraid we’re going
to need agricultural science people (including people doing work with animals
and horticultural crops), or we’re in for a tough slog.
Further,
we know from periods throughout history that when food resources are
threatened, instability increases. There are more wars and conflict during
times of hunger. Entire civilizations change, often in negative ways! Having a dependable, nutritious, safe supply
of food is vital to world peace.
Children who we will expect to do well in school and grow their local
and regional economies to solve new challenges and provide leadership in the
coming years – whether they’re in Utah, Uzbekistan,
or Uganda will need to be well-nourished if we expect them do well in school. And, we need an educated global citizenry whether
those young people are working in agriculture, designing our next energy-efficient
transportation system (which will include agriculturally-sourced biofuels), or
writing blog posts for Yahoo. Our future and agriculture is intimately connected.
Energy, Climate Change, and Other
Environmental Challenges
On
the issue of world peace, we’ve seen how a dependence on non-renewable,
petroleum-based fuels adds to the complexity, instability, and fragile nature
of world peace. Throughout the world, billions
of dollars are going into the science and discovery associated with the new generations
of biofuels, biogases, and other renewable energy sources that will fuel
tomorrow’s transportation system and the power grid. Green plants do a miraculous job of harvesting “solar
energy” and current agricultural science (and agriculture graduates) are making
great advancements in figuring out how we can unlock that energy in ways that
will help wean us from other energy sources.
In
addition to the “foreign energy dependence” driver for agricultural energy
advancements, this science is also being influenced by our need to figure out
and perhaps mitigate, respond to, or slow down climate change. Producing food
and other forms of energy involves complex biological and physical cycles and relationships connected
to carbon, water, and other substances that both bless and challenge us in many
ways. People studying agriculture and related biosciences and
pursuing degrees in fields like horticulture and animal science study all of these
critical processes.
On
the issue of water, we know that producing food and renewable energy is a
water-intensive process. Growing plants
need nutrients that are carried by water (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and
a range of other substances). These nutrients must be present at the right time, in the right place, and in
appropriate amounts. Too much at the wrong time (or in the wrong place) can result in adverse impacts on ground and
surface waters (pollution and waste).
Crops that are rapidly growing to produce seeds, fruit,
and biomass consume and transpire lots of water. Similar to nutrients, water must be applied
at the right time, in the right place, and in the correct amounts. Crop “selection”
and production practices must be carefully matched to the resources that are available
to insure the long term sustainability of our precious water resources. All of this takes the cooperation of the farmer along with soil scientists, engineers, horticulturalists, and agronomists.
Economic Development
One
of the blogs cited in response to the original Yahoo blog post indicated that California produces $33 billion in direct revenue from agricultural products. But, there’s a bigger story to tell. In the state of Wisconsin, we know that
our agricultural and directly connected food sectors contribute about $60 billion to the state’s economy through direct sales and production and the
indirect and induced impacts as value is added to raw products and as dollars ripple throughout both rural and urban
economies. (so, the number in California
is actually MUCH bigger when one considers all of the interconnected ripple
effects that agriculture has on a state’s economy) Those who work in
agriculture and food in Wisconsin make up about 10% of the total
workforce.
During the economic downturn
from 2007-2010, while much of Wisconsin’s economy (including housing,
manufacturing, and finance) was mired in the mud, the agricultural and food
sectors actually prospered because of growing demands for agricultural products
for both food and fuel uses. Nationally,
while fewer than two million people are actually involved in “farming,” there
are more than 20 million who work in connected industries such as agricultural
scientists, input suppliers, processors, and the many who work in connected and
supporting food-related industries.
(Note: there are growing concerns that there will be a bit of a near-term slowdown
in the ag/food sectors in the next several months, particularly as a result of
the economic slowdown in both Europe and Asia.
See recent video segment on this issue: http://www.iptv.org/mtom/episode.cfm/3721/video
. But, the bigger and longer term needs
in agriculture over the next couple decades point to a continued bright
future).
The Opportunity to Tell the Story
I
was chatting with a couple of colleagues last Friday night who were
bemoaning having had to spend several hours during the week responding,
rebutting, and doing “damage control” after the Yahoo blog post had generated
some angst for those who work in agriculture.
It was probably a tempest in a teapot.
But, I actually think it presents a GREAT opportunity for agriculture to
tell its story. Actually…we have of thousands of stories to tell! I think that Mr. Loose did a good thing by
rallying those who are passionate. We
now have a great medium in places like Twitter and Facebook to tell the story
that we need to be telling every day.
Mr. Loose’s feelings and opinions are not unique. In fact, my guess is that the majority of our
population would have very similar perceptions.
Keep
telling the story. Keep engaging. Keep the passion and the enthusiasm. Find ways, times, and places to get others to
touch, see, hear, and experience the glory of our agricultural and food
system.
Mr. Terrence Loose – the invitation is
out. Come see us. We’ll make sure your visit includes Babcock Ice Cream and Cheese, New Glarus Beer, a visit to our Dane County Farmers’ Market, and an
opportunity to meet some really cool and important people. The ones who will be graduating in
agriculture in the next few years and insuring our future!
-John
Shutske (shutske@wisc.edu)
Extension Program Leader and Associate Dean
Extension Program Leader and Associate Dean
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