Salary
Average Salary: $60,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,504,880
It'd be pretty ironic if the people trying to solve the world's food production and supply issues were starving, wouldn't it? Thankfully, that's not the case here. Biosystems engineers make an average salary of $60,000 per year (source).
Those fresh out of school will make slightly less, around $40,000 (if you think that sounds low, talk to the theater majors), but still enough to avoid eating watery lentils every day.
You might even be able to eat out every once in a while.
Since biosystems engineers can do almost anything in the engineering rainbow (and in nearly any sector), there can be a wide range of salaries. Want to be a maize product developer? First, why? Second, you should know that their salaries are the lowest around (roughly $45,000) (source). The government offers salaries at right around the average of $60,000 per year.
Then there's bioenergy. If you'd rather maximize your earning potential, it may be the way to go. Jobs in that sector are pulling closer to the high end of the salary range, or about $75,000 per year (source).