There will be nearly two open jobs for every qualified graduate in the agriculture, food and natural resources sector in the next few years, says Harvest Public Media in summarizing a report by Purdue and the USDA. The gap between graduates and the estimated 60,000 jobs open annually for the next five years has “left the USDA, land grant universities and private industry scrambling to try and bridge the gap.”
Kevin Pond, head of Colorado State U’s department of animal science says young people commonly don’t think of agriculture and food as a growing field, so few of them study the subjects in college. Pond says the profile of students majoring in animal science at CSU is 80 percent female and 90 percent come from the city. “Our new minority is a white male from a rural background,” says Pond.
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Krysta Harden says some of the gap between jobs and grads can be closed by better recruitment by food and agribusiness companies. College grads tend to expect to find jobs in the larger U.S. cities. “Even our mega big agribusinesses are often in smaller cities and rural locations and the jobs they have may be out in a grain elevator or a buying point or smaller city and so how do you attract young people?” Harden said.