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Ag Interest Grows with Job Prospects
on November 18, 2009
Unemployment rates remain high, but across the country, more green collar and environment jobs have been sprouting in emerging industries such as biofuels. With that, universities have seen an increase in the number of students choosing to major agriculture — even if they've never stepped foot on a farm, the Associated Press reports.
Enrollment in bachelor's degree agriculture programs in the U.S. grew by 21.8 percent from 2005 to 2008, from about 58,300 students to nearly 71,000, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture surveys. Not all schools respond to the surveys, so the numbers are likely even higher.
Many of the science skills students learn in biology and chemistry classes can be used at companies that produce seeds and chemicals for farmers. And college recruiters are taking advantage.
Several recruiters from Texas A&M University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have been targetting high school students directly, and through social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. For recruiters, the job prospects provide the hook.
"Every one of our poultry science graduates, they average about five job offers per graduate," college spokesman Bill Gibbs said.
In UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, one of the country's biggest ag schools, more than 3,200 of UC-Davis' ag students — almost 60 percent — are studying so-called human sciences: nutrition and environmental sciences, such as environmental policy and landscape architecture.
"I think that young people are recognizing all of the issues that surround our society that have to do with food," Diane Ullman, the college's associate dean for undergraduate academic programs, "and I think there's a real interest in new ways of doing things and solving some of these problems."
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