For decades we have been telling young people that a job in agriculture was an undesirable thing. It’s dirty, long, gruelling work that doesn’t pay. Young people have been much better off pursuing high paying, competitive jobs in Law, Medicine, heaven forbid… Marketing!

Well the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost and we are beginning to reap what we have sown.

As we see the impacts of this social movement away from food production, access to labour is fast becoming the most limiting factor in many production systems, particularly in the high quality horticulture space of fruits and vegetables.

Agriculture has a lot of headwinds at the moment.

• Climate change is impacting production systems now
• Supply chains are broken
• Input costs are exploding
• Energy costs are out of control
• Consumer spending is constricting

But finding more skilled people to run agricultural businesses has no on/off switch. There is no real way to invest our way out of the problem. This is a real, looming production issue.

It will take years and targeted effort to identify, engage and train competent, talented people, and we need to start now.

Industry needs to better articulate and spread the message of the opportunities in agriculture, improve the perception of roles in agriculture and show how important and impactful these careers are.

It is up to industry to control the narrative, to tell the story and to bring the public along on the journey of how their food is produced and the rewarding opportunities that abound in ag.

-ST