Yahoo Education, a news division of the search engine, listed agriculture as the most useless college degree in a Jan. 19 article. The assumption was based on Department of Labor data about available positions for farm managers, animal scientists, farmers and ranchers. This created immediate backlash from farmers, agriculture publications and educators. Western Farm Press reports the article not only revealed a divide between those who work in agriculture and those who don't, but didn't consider agriculture-related jobs that aren't on farms: "The result was a very narrow view of an industry that encompasses 21 million U.S. jobs."
The Yahoo piece did not mention that agriculture is one of few "bright spots" in a U.S. economy that's been stagnant for almost four years, Western Farm Press noted. While other industries struggle with global exports, agriculture is thriving, accounting for $137 billion last year. Farm Press says the "greater irony" of the article is that many supporting industries, including agricultural research, need more young people to fill positions. Wheat researchers, for instance, are in high demand.
The article was still generating Twitter traffic last week, and a Facebook page created in response to it, "I Studied Agriculture & I Have A Job," had 4,500 likes. Farm Press reports that "longtime aggies" can be heartened by one happy consequence of backlash to the Yahoo article, "showing their urban friends the rich opportunities available in one of our country’s most fundamental industries." (Read more)
The Yahoo piece did not mention that agriculture is one of few "bright spots" in a U.S. economy that's been stagnant for almost four years, Western Farm Press noted. While other industries struggle with global exports, agriculture is thriving, accounting for $137 billion last year. Farm Press says the "greater irony" of the article is that many supporting industries, including agricultural research, need more young people to fill positions. Wheat researchers, for instance, are in high demand.
The article was still generating Twitter traffic last week, and a Facebook page created in response to it, "I Studied Agriculture & I Have A Job," had 4,500 likes. Farm Press reports that "longtime aggies" can be heartened by one happy consequence of backlash to the Yahoo article, "showing their urban friends the rich opportunities available in one of our country’s most fundamental industries." (Read more)
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