Dud Degrees? Think again.....

Very rarely does something that I read on the Internet, outside of the Facebook gossip/rumor-mill, leave me speechless with my face resembling the 'scream mask'.  Today though, an article on yahoo.com did. Its title? "College Majors That Are Useless"  (http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm)  Being a senior in high school, about ready to embark on the next stage of my life which includes deciding on a college major, I figured I would give the article a look. I was flat out flabbergasted as I read the #1 so-called "Useless Degree": Agriculture. Animal science and horticulture rounded out the top five.  Now, just curious...do the people who did this outlook study like to eat, live in a house, drive, wear clothes, or breathe?! If they keep discouraging ag-related degrees, they're going to have quite a difficult time trying to do those tasks. With the world population set to reach 9 billion by 2050, how do these people expect to feed, clothe, and transport everyone without agriculture?  The average age of a farmer is 57.  In a study done by the USDA in 2007 (a little outdated, I know, but the information is still extremely relevant) the number of farm operators over the age of 45 is 2,549,212, compared to only 732,322 under the age of 45. In the next few decades, a vast majority of our farmers will be getting too old to carry out the day-to-day tasks that agricultural life demands. In addition, with the advancements in technology, the older generations of farmers will be left in the dust because of their inability to master the use of this technology.  You would think one would see the need for a large and strong younger generation of agriculturalists that will help account for this loss. 

Now, let's take a quick look at another article in Yahoo's Guide to College Majors series: "What Are The Most Effective Degrees?". (http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_effective_degrees.htm?kid=1KWNT&svkid=EZPJ&partner=1946&usid=15673d90-42ef-11e1-b6ab-002219651dc9) Alright, so the top 5 most effective degrees are business administration, psychology, accounting, information technology, and health care administration.  Unless individuals with degrees in business administration or accounting can grow a field of corn from their cubicles and individuals with degrees in psychology are now learning to read the minds of cattle and swine, none of them will be able to produce enough food to sustain this rapidly growing population.  Now, don't get me wrong, two of these definitely earn their position on this list in my opinion: information technology and health care administration.  We all know we are now living in the information age. Smart phones, iPads, GPS...without these tools, our lives would be almost unthinkable.  Agriculture itself would not be able to sustain 9 billion people's existence without these forms of technology.  By the same token, if there weren't farmers and ranchers to utilize these forms of technology, thousands of employees in the IT field who work on components of agricultural technology would be out of jobs.  Looking at the big picture, if agriculture means as little as people say it does, then the world's population will all go hungry and no one will be left to fill the positions these jobs provide. 

No matter how you look at it, agriculture has and always will be an extremely important industry in today's world. The food on your table, roof over your head, clothes on your body, and fuel in your vehicle all are made possible by God and agriculture. I am proud to say that I have picked one of these so-called "dud degrees".