9781422274903

The people responsible for growing the plants and raising the animals that eventually become food and other products work in the agriculture industry. Whether you realize it or not, these men and women have a huge impact on your life! CAREERS IN AGRICULTURE The vast majority of the men and women in agriculture today work in careers that do not require a college education. More than half of these people earn on average more than $50,000 a year! “While this is beginning to change, very few farmers and ranchers are college educated,” says James McBride, a former agricultural manager who has owned a farm for only five years—a very short amount of time considering that the average age of farmers in America is fifty-eight. “If you have no experience with farming and ranching,” he says, “there are a lot of skills that you will need to learn—and learning these traits today can be difficult. Whether you acquire these skills from experience or from college, there is no agricultural career that does not require hard work and a lot of knowledge.” A farmer is someone who grows crops and raises livestock in order to sell these resources as food or “raw materials”—the basic material from which a product is manufactured or made. For example, wheat is harvested and turned into breads, cereals, pasta, crackers, cookies, pretzels, and other products. A rancher is very similar to a farmer; however, they exclusively raise grazing livestock, such as cattle or sheep, for meat or wool. About 80 percent of farmers and ranchers own their own farms, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (USDL). However, on large farms or those that

8 CAREERS WITH EARNING POTENTIAL: CHEF FARMER