The contradiction is difficult for Andrea De Roo to comprehend: everyone on the planet has to eat, yet few people want a career in the agriculture and food industry.
“I think it’s upsetting, especially in Saskatchewan, where we’re such an agriculture province,” said De Roo, a third year agriculture student at the University of Saskatchewan.
“People don’t care (about ag). (It’s) just taken for granted. Food is always going to be around.”
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Instead of griping about agricultural apathy in Canada, De Roo is doing something about it. She has become a campus ambassador for the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), with the mission of encouraging U of S students to pursue a career in the seed business.
The CSTA launched its campus ambassador program this fall at the U of S, the University of Guelph and McGill University.
“We’ve got members saying we can’t hire somebody to operate a forklift to move seed pallets around, right up to we need skilled trait developers, scientists, plant breeders and lawyers who can do international trade law and patent law,” said CSTA chief executive officer Patty Townsend.
Townsend said the organization, which represents 130 seed companies in Canada, already knew it had a labour problem when it hired U of S professor emeritus Brian Harvey to study the human resource needs of Canada’s seed industry.
Harvey concluded that Canadian seed companies would need 600 new employees a year just to keep up with retirements and attrition.
“We thought, how are we going to do this? We’re already bringing people in from all over the world. Most of the researchers now are not even from Canada,” said Townsend.
As CSTA employees searched for solutions, they discovered Agcareers.com., which uses campus ambassadors to promote its job board. The service inspired the CSTA to hire students to promote the diversity of career opportunities in the seed business.
“The overall goal is to convince students that this is an industry that they should definitely consider,” said De Roo, who grew up on a cattle and grain farm near Moosomin, Sask.
De Roo has talked to students at career fairs and made presentations to U of S agriculture students about CSTA and the seed industry.
De Roo argues that the seed business offers tremendous opportunities in marketing, international trade and research.
“It’s not just agronomy or retail,” she said. “(Students) don’t know about these big and exciting jobs, where people are travelling everywhere … and doing things that matter not just to Canada, but the world.”
Curtis Van Laecke, CSTA campus ambassador at the U of G, said part of his role is to dispel the myth that agriculture is only farming and tractors.
De Roo said most students have responded positively to the information because many had no idea about the cornucopia of careers available.
Van Laecke would also like to share agriculture’s story with high school students in Ontario.
“I think you have a better influence on their career path at a younger age,” said Van Laecke, whose family owns a company in southern Ontario that produces seed corn.
The CSTA plans to add campus ambassadors at the universities of Manitoba and Alberta.
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