Consider a career in food and agriculture
What jobs are available to help feed and fuel the world, care for animals and sustain our environment?
What careers are available in food production beyond the farm? Help students to understand that there is more to producing food than working in the fields. See teacher background →
# Careers in food and agriculture
Students complete activities that introduce them to the categories of careers available in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and environment industries.
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Teacher background
There is estimated to be an average of 104,766 openings in job positions within the food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and environment industries from 2025-2030. 90% of these positions will require at least an associate degree, with the other ten percent open to those without a degree. Yet, only about 50,000 new graduates with bachelor’s or higher degrees in agriculture will be available annually to fill them, leaving nearly 50,000 (or 50%) of jobs available to be filled by other majors. The supply is less than the demand needed. (Source: USDA, 2025-2030.)
As a result, we need people who are not majoring in agriculture to consider rewarding and good-paying jobs related to agriculture. Fifty food and agriculture career profiles, categorized into career clusters or themes, were identified by data from seventeen different universities and prioritized by a team of agricultural professionals in Ohio. The profiles were condensed onto cards. This set of lessons present activities using the cards to introduce, and pique the interest of students to new careers.
Next gen science standards
Science and engineering practices
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
- Engaging in argument from evidence
Crosscutting concepts
- Patterns
- Cause and effect
- Systems and system models
- Energy and matter
- Stability and change
- Structure and function
- Scale, proportion, and quantity
Disciplinary core ideas/content
- ESS3A Natural resources
- ESS3C Human impacts on Earth systems
- LS1D Information processing
- LS2A Interdependent relationships in ecosystems
- LS4D Biodiversity and humans
- PS2B Types of interactions
- ETS1 Engineering Design
- ETS1B Developing possible solutions
- ETS2A Interdependence of science, engineering and technology
- ETS2B Influence of engineering, technology and science on society and the natural world
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