Farming jobs have been declining since the advent of manufacturing, while bureaucratic jobs in agriculture, such as USDA agent jobs, have continued to grow. The FFA across the world and at Davis High responds to these trends.

The FFA(or Future Farmers of America) is a club at Davis High school and many other schools, which prepares students for a future career in agriculture.

“It’s an agricultural leadership group, that is student-run,” explains the advisor of the FFA.

Students in the FFA learn a multitude of skills that will help them in a future agriculture career.

“Students learn to grade animals and plants,” they further explain.

The careers that these FFA club members go into however may not be what you think. You would think that the FFA would be all about creating future farmers, but unknown to others is the various careers in agriculture besides farming.

“It’s more than just farming, students go onto careers in agricultural science, the USDA, veterinarians, and others. Agricultural jobs will continue to increase for this reason even though farmers will decrease,” remarks the advisor to the FFA when asked about future careers for students in the FFA and whether agricultural jobs will increase.

Farming has been a decreasing job market ever since large industrial farms were created, with more efficient farming than the need for small farmers has decreased exponentially.

This trend has led to the number of farmers in the population decreasing from 50% in 1870 to less than 2% in 2008 and into today.

While farmers have decreased bureaucratic jobs in the farming industry have increased such as in the USDA, which is why the number of agricultural workers in the U.S. is 10.9% of the population.

This number has alarmed some who are not big fans of big industry(Monsanto) and big government(USDA).

Either way, the FFA will continue to train students for agricultural jobs within many industries and will continue to grow.

“we’ve grown from one member when I first got here, to 25 members”

Said the advisor of the FFA when asked about his club’s growth

Bureaucratic agricultural jobs will continue to grow for the foreseeable future for better or for worse, you decide after all.