My Worthless Degree

The tools of my trade! 

Last Thursday an article appeared on the Yahoo! webpage entitled "College Majors That Are Useless." Right at the top of their list was agriculture.  The funny thing is that on most lists about less than desirable majors, journalism takes the top spot.  The most laughable matter though, was the explanation for agriculture's position. The author explained that because farms are consolidating, the need for farm managers was decreasing and would continue to do so, because everybody knows the only thing you can do with and Ag degree is manage a farm.

This isn't the first time I've had to defend my major.  When I was a junior in high school, I began contemplating what I wanted to do after graduation.  For the past two summers, I had worked on a publication at the National Jr. Angus Show entitled "The Scoop."  This was essentially a newspaper for the young people who were involved in showing cattle.  Through that experience, I began to consider agricultural journalism as a major.  When I chatted with my parents about it, they were less than enthused.  I didn't blame them, as realists, they wanted me to get an education that would lead to a viable career.  Their initial thoughts were that agricultural journalism was the college of agriculture's "study of ancient literature" degree.  It was great for passionate folks, but didn't hold much potential in the real world, unless paired with something they deemed more viable.  

That summer I set out to prove them wrong.  "The Scoop" staff met twice daily and at each meeting professionals in some typeof agriculture communications area spoke.  I brought out my notebook at each meeting and asked each guest the same question.  "Is the job field for agricultural journalism students growing?" Each one had a positive response.  While they cautioned that students needed to be flexible, they assured me that more opportunities were opening up as agriculture continued to grow.  Armed with this information, I headed back to my parents and convinced them that agriculture communications was not only my passion, but could be my career as well.

I study advertising/PR combined with agricultural journalism, not because I want to make a lot of money.  I'd venture to guess that's not why most people study anything ag related.  (Though there are stellar opportunities for people in the field).  Instead, I love the culture part of the word.  I love working among the people, and sharing the stories of the industry.  We feed the world, and there is nothing worthless about that.

'till the cows come home,

Ellie