Strangers often ask me what my major is.
"Agriculture," I reply.
"Oh, what is that? Like farming?" They ask, clearly confused.
I can't even begin to tell you how many times this has happened to me in my college career. Sometimes I even get the "Well, what do you want to do with that?" While I am a senior and I kind of need to figure out what I should be doing after I graduate, I didn't know what I wanted to specifically do or be until last year. Actually, in all honesty, more like last semester.
Through my own personal experiences, I have encountered people who think that agriculture is only farming. While farming is the base of the agriculture pyramid, it's not the only factor that plays a role in the industry. If you want to be really technical, agriculture is the process of supplying food, fuel, and fiber. Now, while agriculture supplies some of those necessities, did you also know that agriculture provides a multitude of other things? Here are a couple:
Agriculture supplies jobs.While farming is a job within the agriculture field, that is just one of the many multitudes of careers within the industry. There's agronomy, landscaping, business, marketing, management, policy, etc. The list goes on and on. Basically, agriculture promotes a multitude of opportunities for individuals to find a career, exposing some individuals to a field they never knew they loved.
Agriculture supplies education. How many of us have turned on the news at night and there is some big story about GMO's, Monsanto, or, at this time of year, harvest? I would go into depth on those, but I'll save that for another time. Back to the example, these stories we see on the news are ways that the rural communities and the agriculture industry are trying to educate us, the audience, on new and valuable information. Not to mention agriculture was probably incorporated into each of our educations as we were growing up: soybean necklace anyone?
Lastly, agriculture supplies our future. Now, I'm not trying to get super deep here (although all snaps and bongos are welcome), but truthfully, without the outcomes that agriculture creates, the fate our country and world would surely diminish. Agriculture is practiced across a variety of nations throughout the world and without it, life as we know it would be gone. It's important to remember those who came before us to acknowledge their hard work and acknowledge those, now, who supply for us on a daily basis. Whether that be through family farms, news broadcasts, or farm accountants, each of us plays a key role in making this world spin around.
While agriculture may seem like a field based off of experience, it is a field that everyone, no matter the background, can become involved in. That could be with a small garden in the backyard or doing yard work for a neighbor. Agriculture is a part of everyday life, so stop and smell the joys of the God-given earth. You may not want to smell the swine, although it's rumored that they do smell of money!
