Planting Seeds"Why Agriculture?"
While at an event recently, I was asked by a teacher, “Why agriculture?” She asked the question wanting to know why agriculture is relevant in the modern world and how it could pertain to everyday life, especially everyday life in an urban area like Cook County.
I sat a little bit straighter in my chair, cleared my throat, and told her the truth: from brushing your teeth in the morning to laying your head on your pillow at night, there are a million connections to agriculture in our daily lives. The cornstarch, sorbitol, and xanthan gum in toothpaste are made from corn. Cotton bedsheets are made from the cotton plant, linen is made from flaxseed, and pillow down is duck or goose feathers.
For example, when you pour yourself a bowl of cereal, it’s easy to see the agricultural connection to Lucky Charms in the sugar, wheat, and milk (whether it’s dairy, oat, or soy milk). But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that trees had to be farmed to make the cardboard box, pork collagen is in the marshmallows, and corn syrup sweetens the cereal.
Agricultural jobs tied to the cereal include the nutritionists and dieticians that work on the food label, the artist that drew Lucky the Leprechaun, and the musician that created the jingle, reminding you that the cereal is “magically delicious.”
Agriculture is connected not only to the creation and movement of the items, but it can be seen in behind-the-scenes ag careers: scientists, engineers, managers, technicians, foremen, consultants, tax auditors, accountants, analysts, stock traders, sales specialists, website designers, IT configurators, programmers, software developers, web developers, and more.
According to the USDA, in 2022, there were 22.1 million jobs in the U.S. related to agriculture, food, and related industries, which made up 10.4% of U.S. employment. Only 1.2% of those 10.4% jobs were farm related.
Since Cook County Farm Bureau’s Agriculture in the Classroom began in 1987, we have brought agricultural education to 658,990 students in 27,684 classrooms. Without our AITC program, hundreds of thousands of Cook County students would not know that their food comes from a farm, not a grocery store. They would not know that Illinois’ top crops are corn, soybeans, and pumpkins. They would not know that agriculture is more than just farming, it is food, fiber, and fuel. They would not know that they might one day have a job in agriculture, whether as a farmer, soil scientist, pilot, graphic designer, or mechanic.
With the countless agricultural connections to our daily lives, all of the uses of ag, the number of ag-related jobs, and the importance of knowing where your food comes from, the question should not be “Why ag?”, it should be “Why NOT ag?”