Mr. Loose's Ludicrous List...A pretty useless article...

Today on the homepage of Yahoo.com you could find a Newsweek Daily article entitled College Majors That Are Useless. My attention was brought to the article by a friend and by the multitude of comments and postings on the social networking site, Facebook. I failed to notice it myself because I was too busy using my "useless" agriculture degree at work this morning...

In his article, author Terence Loose provides readers with a comprehensive list of what he calls, "Dud Degrees" and among his top five are Agriculture (#1), Animal Science (#4), and Horticulture (#5). The paper is based off U.S. Department of Labor statistics that state only 2% of the jobs in America are agriculture jobs; this couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, more than 21 million American workers, 15% of the total U.S. workforce, produce, process, and sell the nation's food and fiber ( from the American Farm Bureau Federation). The Department of Labor resources Mr. Loose used only take into account those jobs and careers associated with production agriculture, or farming, they do not take into account careers in agribusiness, agriculture sales, agriculture services, agriscience, agriculture education and a wealth of other areas directly linked to our nation's most essential industry, Agriculture.

The article is based upon the number of projected potential careers in the areas listed and the projected ability of graduates holding said degrees to find jobs. This makes me question the integrity of the article due to the fact that currently there are over 2,000 jobs posted on the website AgCareers. I graduated with my "useless" agriculture degree in 2011, and at graduation the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences had the highest job placement of graduates of any college in the university, nearly 100%.

It is mentioned in the article that 83% of employers surveyed planned to recruit students graduating with degrees in business, I wonder if this includes Agriculture Business Degrees?

It is also mentioned in the article that 60% of employers surveyed planned to recruit students graduating with degrees in science, I wonder if this includes Agriculture Science Degrees?

Mr. Loose's own ignorance toward an industry that provides for him daily is exhibited when he stated, "Still, if your idea of a good day is getting up with the sun, working till it sets as an agriculture manager, a degree in agriculture might be your calling." You see these agriculture managers he mentions, the folks we all call farmers, provide for his food, clothing, and fuel each and everyday. These agriculture managers serve him 3 times a day, each time he sets down to eat a meal. And so I ask Mr. Loose, "Where would you be without these agriculture managers?" It is quite likely that you would find yourself naked and hungry, and dare I say that is something that none of us want!... And futher more, "What is so wrong with getting up with the sun and working till it sets in a career that you passionate about? What is so wrong with dedicating your life to one of the most noble causes imaginable, the betterment of your fellowman and society?" Mr. Loose, you might be much more suited working to help your fellow man than writing useless articles.

Ranking #4 on Mr. Loose's list of useless degrees is Animal Science. According to Dr. Laurence Shatkin, who Loose references multiple times throughout the article, less than 5,000 jobs in animal science will exist by 2018... Personally I find this particularly interesting since the world population is expected to grow to over 9 billion people in the next 40 years and it is no doubt that these 9 billion people are going to want protein in their diets. It just doesn't make sense to me how if the world population is growing, which it is, we need less people to feed it. But I guess I shouldn't understand since I spend four years in college earning one of those "useless" agriculture degrees.


Finally #5 on Mr. Loose's ludicrous list is horticulture. I will spare you any more of my ramblings on the topics in Mr. Loose's list, but I can promise you that if people stopped earning "useless" degrees in agriculture, they might not seem so useless anymore.

Without doubt I am not the only one who has posted online and shared their comments about this insane article and outlandish list. Many more opinions and testimonies, wrote by people who are far more articulate than I, can be found across the web. Here are a few: A letter to Mr. Loose and Great Careers in Agriculture .

Those of us in agriculture have all heard many times that agriculture is more than sows, cows, and plows, and indeed it is. Agriculture is a highly sophisticated, extremely technology rich and dependent, essential industry, but the fact is people outside of our industry are unaware of this. Many people view agriculture has old farmers with a few cows in a picturesque, red barn, some pigs laying in the mud and a couple of acres of sweet corn out back. The vast majority of our population has no idea about agriculture, as illustrated by Mr. Loose's article. It is up to us to educate them, or they won't get educated, or worse yet be educated by the likes of Mr. Loose, who himself appears lost a goose.

Mr. Loose's Article can be found here: College Majors That Are Useless