The American farmer is stereotypically white, male, and aging, a description supported by the USDA’s every-five-years Census of Agriculture. But in the broader food and ag sector, “the diversity battle is about to be won,” Kathleen Merrigan, director of the Swette Center at Arizona State University, said on Wednesday in forecasting a fundamental change in the sector’s demographic makeup.
More jobs are becoming available in the food and agriculture industry than there are farm-grown college graduates to fill them, said Merrigan, deputy agriculture secretary during the Obama administration, in a breakfast speech on the future of agriculture. She expects “a tsunami of new players” assuming innovative roles in food and ag without the farming background that traditionally was part of the biography. Interest in sustainable food production will mean more integration of environmental efficiency and food quality with farm output.
As examples of the change in the food and ag sector, Merrigan presented a diverse panel of speakers. One participant was the chief executive of a company that reduces food spoilage by applying a film of edible plant materials on produce. Another was the head of a company that uses data management to increase the efficiency of greenhouse farming. Neither of those entrepreneurs has a farm background, said Merrigan.