Digging Deeper...
/In December 2011, internet web service provider Yahoo released an article describing an agricultural college degree as “useless.” The story was based on a survey of 1,000 employers who revealed their hiring plans at that time. The story, published by Yahoo’s Education Division and written by Terence Loose, relied on statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor and details from the National Association of Colleges & Employers’ “2012 Job Outlook Report” to make its claim. Mr. Loose reviewed the data to come up with a list of “useless degrees” that students “might want to avoid.” At the top of the list he placed a diploma from an agricultural institution. The backlash was immediate. Dozens of farm publications filed stories disputing the supposition, and deans of agriculture schools at universities around the country roundly refuted the assertion. But something else took place.
By: Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC – Sources/References: Wallaces Farmer, February 15, 2012; Recruiting Trends 2010-2011, Collegiate Employment Research Institute, Michigan State University; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections Program; Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Agriculture, Renewable Natural Resources and the Environment, United Sates 2020 to 2025, USDA, Purdue University; Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education – Missouri Agricultural Education; University of Missouri’s College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources.
Agriculture Education: Cultivating the Future
If the ag industry/academic complex hadn’t been so incredulous about someone actually declaring agriculture studies a useless major, it might have been hopping mad. But that’s just not the nature of farmers, livestock producers and ag folk in general. While their indignation over Yahoo‘s insulting assessment of ag degrees was justified, ag industry professors, producers and processors didn’t dwell on it. Instead ag educators, in particular, seemed to have taken the slight as motivation to review its educational mission and update its mandate to make agriculture more relevant and attractive to students from all backgrounds – not just for students with a rural upbringing.
If anything, aggies were puzzled by the Yahoo article that was published on January 19, 2012. The assertion just didn’t fit the facts. For instance, Wallaces Farmer (February 15, 2012) reported that Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture had just recorded its highest career placement percentages ever at 98.2% in 2011. At the same time, Phil Gardner, Ph.D., Director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University published Recruiting Trends 2010-2011, in which he stated, “No sector [of the economy] appears stronger than agriculture/food processing [based on] an increase in hires of approximately 14%.”
Moving closer to the present, a report published in 2021 by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and Purdue University shows a strong job demand for new college graduates with degrees in agricultural programs. U.S. college graduates can expect approximately 59,400 job opportunities annually through 2025. This reflects a 2.6% growth from the previous five years. Employer demand will exceed the supply of available graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher in agriculture-related fields.
“Future development of our complex global food system requires the brightest minds from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and disciplines working together to solve the challenges before us,” said Parag Chitnis, acting director of NIFA at the time. “This report shows that students across America who are studying food, agriculture and related sciences to take on these challenges have made a sound career choice and will graduate into a strong and growing job market in the years ahead.” (Dr. Chitnis is currently associated with the University of Wyoming and was an assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University).
Graduates earning degrees with emphasis in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and the environment (FARNRE) will account for 61% of the annual supply pool. Most of the employment opportunities will be in business and management at 42% and another 31% in science and engineering. Openings anticipated in education, communication and government will make up 14%, and 13% will be in food and biomaterials production with nearly 92% of those jobs going to FARNRE majors.
The report – Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Agriculture, Renewable Natural Resources and the Environment, United Sates 2020 to 2025 – is available here. It is the ninth in a series of five-year projections initiated by USDA in 1980.
Ag Goes Back To School
Something’s been in the air lately, signaling significant changes in the stereotype of ag students. In early August the National FFA Organization announced a record-high student membership of 945,988, an increase of 11 percent from last year. In addition, the number of FFA chapters increased by 168 this year, resulting in 9,163 chapters in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “It’s exciting to see our numbers grow and know we continue to influence the next generation of leaders,” said National FFA president/CEO Scott Stump. “This generation is making a difference in their communities and agriculture. We’re excited to see the enthusiasm for agricultural education reflected in our membership.”
But the new aggies are not necessarily like the old ones. For more than a decade, the number of ag school students who actually grew up on a farm is dwindling. That cohort represents only 27% of FFA membership. For another, close to half (40%) live in rural nonfarm regions, while a significant 34% hail from urban and suburban areas. “These membership numbers help prove what we already knew,” said Dr. Larry Case, former National FFA Advisor, in 2008. Ag education is relevant for students from various backgrounds and locations, with varying interests and talents. “It helps them prepare them for more than 300 diverse plentiful career opportunities in agriculture, food, fuel and fiber industries,” Dr. Case said.
“Agriculture plays a key role in everyday life,” FFA’s Stump said, “and it’s evident that students today understand the important role they can play in agriculture.”
Jim Morgan, an ag educator at Louisburg (Kansas) High School, was honored last month by the Kansas City Agricultural Business Council for his 42-year teaching career and his participation in FFA and with the Kansas and National Associations of Agriculture Educators. He currently has about 120 students enrolled in his classes, but remarked that if his sole focus was on production ag his students would number around 10. He has adapted his curriculum to current circumstances and his class offerings touch on food science, vet tech, and so forth.
“I found this pretty fascinating,” noted AgBiz Council executive director Bob Petersen. “I grew up in an era where the secondary program was called vocational agriculture and very much geared toward production ag. Today vo-ag teachers are called ag educators to reflect their broader role.”
Petersen added that agriculture needs suburban youngsters in the workforce and needs to demonstrate to them there are many cool careers in the sector. “I am guessing the transformation in the student population is borne out by a look at who now participates in FFA.”
So What’s Happening?
Whether the Yahoo article was an impetus for the recent overhaul of agriculture education in the last 12 years or was simply the catalyst is debatable. It certainly can be considered an accelerant. Actually, the ag industry and ag educators got serious about reinventing agricultural education in the aftermath of the 1980s Farm Crisis.
Unlike situations in which nature played a heavy role in affecting productivity and income, this farm crisis was mostly caused by negative institutional finance and market factors. Record production caused a decline in commodity prices. The 1980 grain embargo against the Soviet Union precipitated steep export trade losses. The Farm Credit System experienced large losses, which were the first losses since the Great Depression. Credit availability and inflation had contributed to an increase in the price of farm land. Agricultural banks felt the impact of the crisis. In 1981 there were ten bank failures, only one of which was an agricultural bank. In 1985, the number had climbed to 62, of which agricultural banks accounted for over half, according the FDIC’s History of the 1980s: An Examination of the Banking Crisis of the 1980s and Early 1990s, Chapter 8 (updated June 12, 2024).
Addressing these conditions created by the 1980s Farm Crisis, ag educators were in agreement that ag school curricula had to encompass more than courses about ag production. And ag schools would have to attract more students from demographics other than the historical group whose families were deeply rooted in farming and ranching. A study at Kansas State University (2013) identified factors that influenced urban students to enroll in K-State’s College of Agriculture.
The study showed that having a family member who worked in an agriculture-related field was the most important factor in influencing students’ choice of major. But it also identified a variety of secondary factors, including career opportunities and hands-on learning experience that influenced KSU students when choosing to enroll in an agriculture-related program. Interestingly, only 11% of the agriculture students in the KSU study reported having traditional farm or ranch experience.
At Iowa State University (ISU), the agronomy student population largely consisted of men from rural or farm backgrounds from the early 1970s through 2006. Based on the results of its study, the university began a marketing campaign in 2006 to reach out to nontraditional students. By early 2010, the agronomy program at ISU had recorded a 91% increase in enrollment, largely due to the effects of the new marketing campaign. More women and students from the suburbs and cities comprised the student body.
How’s It Happening?
Attracting and recruiting students from non-farm/non-rural backgrounds is one thing. Keeping them engaged and enrolled in agriculture education programs is another. But thought-leaders in elementary, secondary and college ag education are making further inroads in the creation of stimulating, relevant courses of study and degree programs. Kristie Larson, strategic relations manager, DeBruce Foundation, says that introducing and emphasizing STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) programs into the ag curriculum shows students from non-farm backgrounds that there are plenty of jobs and career opportunities in the ag industry in which STEM disciplines and skills can be applied – indeed, in which, more and more, they are required.
Keith Dietzschold, Director of Agricultural Education for Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MODESE-AG Ed) agrees that emphasizing STEM programs in agriculture education is essential to achieving priorities and goals set forth in the Department’s recently released Five Year Strategic Plan 2024-2029. “But you have to consider that STEM is nothing new to us,” he says, “agriculture was the original adapter and implementer of STEM discipline millenniums ago.”
“Agriculture and the food, fiber and natural resource system is America’s most creative, productive and foundational industry,” MODESE-AG Ed claims. “Much of this country’s success in agriculture can be attributed to a sound program of education. To advance a dynamic and efficient agriculture, food, fiber & natural resource system and to assure the continued well- being of our society, exceptional, well-rounded education must continue to be a high priority. A cooperative effort among educational institutions, government agencies and food, fiber and natural resource-related businesses will help Missouri provide leadership for the future through enhanced education.”
It Starts In the First Grade
Missouri Agricultural Education’s
Five Year Strategic Plan
2024-2025
In the mid-1990s, national agricultural education leaders determined that agricultural education was becoming more complex. Internet technology and online access for just about anyone who wanted it was rapidly changing schools, businesses and societies. Developments and advances in information collection and processing required new ways of thinking, working and interacting. On January 1, 1996, in the U.S.’s National Council for Agricultural Education inaugurated Reinventing Agricultural Education for the Year 2020. It was an initiative to strengthen agricultural and food systems education for the 21st Century.
The project has been a national effort on behalf of agricultural education to create a vision and develop a strategic plan for agricultural education going forward. Conceptually it was an effort to bring together key stakeholders at the local, state, regional and national levels. These groups shared their thoughts and ideas while developing consensus on what agricultural education should be in the 21st century. But time flies.
In an interview last month with the Kansas City AgBiz Council, Keith Dietzschold, Director of Agricultural Education for Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MODESE-AG Ed), asked rhetorically, “Does Missouri agriculture education need to be looking at updating the initiative?” Yes, he emphasized.
Here’s The Plan
Agricultural education is an integral aspect of the success of the Missouri agriculture, food, and natural resources industry. Investment in this area of education is unique and is meant to:
Grow wise and informed consumers
Assist with workforce development
Meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional agricultural education students
Help students develop practical and leadership skills
Representatives from education government agencies, industry, and other key stakeholders were brought together in a multi-stage initiative to uncover the key issues facing agricultural education in Missouri and determine the vision to lead agricultural education into the future. Seeking input from all voices was a driving force behind the development of the plan, thus, creating a resource for all connected to education and agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) in the state.
Among those offering input and insight toward Missouri Agricultural Education’s of Five Year Strategic Plan is Doug Kueker, Ph.D., co-founder of Vivayic and a KC AgBiz Council member. Over the last 17 years, he and his colleagues have worked on more than 2,000 projects in the agriculture sector of the U.S. economy to prepare and develop human capital. Working with Vivayic, others education development groups such as the DeBruce Foundation and numerous stakeholders in Missouri Agriculture, MODESE-AG Ed identified four key priorities:
Comprehensive Reach of Agricultural Education Programs
Quality Curriculum and Resources
Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Literacy
Quality Instructors and Instruction
Comprehensive Reach of Agricultural Education Programs – Agricultural education should strive to be a comprehensive school-based agricultural education program for kindergarten through adult learners. The education model should include a focus on equitably balancing all parts of the school-based agricultural education model (experiential learning experiences, classroom, and leadership development) and incorporating a community-based model.
All students, from kindergarten to adults, will have access to agricultural education in Missouri. The focus will be placed on programs where state standards can be incorporated into the curriculum. Elementary programs can lean on a ‘ready to use’ curriculum developed through groups like Ag Ed on the Move and Ag in the Classroom. All levels should focus on building partnerships with other disciplines and administrators to include agriculture topics in other courses and/or allow agriculture courses to fill core education requirements, especially at the secondary and postsecondary levels.
Agricultural education systems at the secondary level should have an equitable emphasis on all three pieces of the school-based agricultural education program. State staff should assist with emphasizing the need for balance without taking autonomy away from instructors.
Quality Curriculum and Resources – The success of all agricultural education hinges, in part, on quality curriculum and access to appropriate resources. Curriculum should be industry-relevant and focused on career readiness. Instructors should have the support and information at their disposal to acquire and use resources appropriate for the experiential nature of the agricultural industry.
All levels of education (kindergarten through adult) will have access to a high-quality and affordable agriculture curriculum that meets all appropriate state standards. The curriculum should be developed in cooperation with instructors, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and industry professionals; and evaluated for appropriate updates every five years.
Continued emphasis on accessible resources and supplies should be available to all instructors. These resources should include: Directory of industry contacts and connections for technical advice for instructors to reference Enhanced availability and affordability of equipment to use in the classroom, including a list of suppliers for educational resources in Missouri. A defined list of funding and grant opportunities available to instructors, specifically at the secondary level, to help provide increased access to funds for resources for students.
Increased focus on programming in secondary programs to ensure student readiness for post-graduation – whether their program of choice is agriculture or non-agriculture. Develop stronger articulation program relationships between secondary and post-secondary programs Develop stronger career readiness programming in secondary programs.
Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Literacy – There is a clear need to increase AFNR literacy from kindergarten to adulthood. This is a vast responsibility that should be addressed by all stakeholders of agricultural education. The focus on literacy will inform consumers, tell the story of agriculture, and connect agriculture with other disciplines in the education system.
The idea of agriculture literacy is simple, yet the ability to define it is challenging. Agricultural education must concisely define AFNR literacy, with the involvement of industry partners and stakeholders.
Once AFNR literacy is defined, a process must be created to establish an agricultural knowledge baseline for key groups.
The key groups to address when creating and deploying literacy efforts include: School personnel/ Elementary students; Middle School students; High School students; Post-secondary stakeholders; Local community members; Agriculture, food, and natural resources industry members; Local and state leadership and policy decision-makers.
Quality Instructors and Instruction – Sustaining a successful agricultural education program requires recruiting, developing, supporting, and retaining dynamic instructors who deliver quality instruction to students of all ages, abilities, and experiences.
Recruitment: Identify ways to provide early exposure to agricultural education-specific work experience; Create learning and leadership opportunities for future agricultural education instructors in each district.
Development: Curate a list of subject matter experts (SMEs) and guidelines for quality instruction for each topic area in agricultural education, specifically at the secondary level; Establish a culture of collaboration between instructors and industry professionals early; Establish an expectation of professional development for all instructors;
Support and Retention: Develop seamless and consistent curriculum updates and make supplies and resources accessible to all instructors; Incorporate industry leaders in the classroom to provide curriculum guidance and support; Continue facilitating experiences (i.e., professional development and mentorship programs) that foster a strong community atmosphere for instructors at all levels.
Source/References: Adapted from Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education – Missouri Agricultural Education’s Five Year Strategic Plan 2024-2029.