Agriculture Careers

Ever hear of this Old McDonald guy? Well, apparently, he had a farm. Had a farm.

Things were going just fine for him for a while there. He’d rise with the roosters, go outside and feed his chicks, ducks and turkeys (in that order, of course), then plough a field or two and he’d be off and running.

But then times got hard. Old McDonald couldn’t do on his dinky little farm what the big guys were doing with their big, fancy, expensive broadcast seeders, balers and combines. He was falling deeper and deeper into debt – even going so far as having to write a number of E-I-E-IOU’s.

As long as human beings want to keep putting food in their mouths, there will be an obvious need for farms and farmers. But agriculture ain’t what it used to be. The technology has gotten more advanced, and if you’re a small-scale or beginning farmer and you can’t keep up with capitalized farmers and large farming corporations, you may have to…well, sell the farm.

Farmers and ranchers won’t have the easiest time of it in the coming years – employment’s expected to decline 20-ish percent in the next decade. That’s the Catch-22 about this whole technology thing. Sure, it moves us forward, and progress is dandy…but when we’re suddenly able to produce more, better and faster—and with much less manpower—it necessarily leaves some folks in the lurch.

Agricultural managers and others higher up the agricultural ladder should fare a bit better. They’re employing fewer workers, so more of the dough will be…rising to the top, so to speak. But if you’re starting from square one, this isn’t the easiest field to get into and find much success. Which is ironic, considering all of the…fields.

That said, the more we learn about what horrific things we’ve been doing to our bodies for the past century, the more interested we’re becoming in eating stuff from the ground rather than stuff from…vacuum-sealed Little Debbie’s packaging. In other words, people are starting to clamor for fresh fruits and vegetables, and farm-raised poultry and livestock, rather than focusing on getting their recommended daily doses of butylated hydroxyanisole.

So if getting into the natural food biz interests you, it could be a fulfilling and rewarding venture…even if it doesn’t turn out to be a lucrative one. You might have a hand in changing the way the American/world population eats (in a good way).

And hey, if it doesn’t work out…you could always take your John Deere and try your luck in a local tractor pull.

Careers In This Field