Gen Z is Eyeing a Very Old Career, and AgriLife is Lending a Hand | Opinion

Photo byStijn te StrakeonUnsplash

An interesting thing is trending in the online Gen Zosphere. Gen Zers are growing up, weighing their options, and considering what they'd like their careers to be. Most aren't choosing college.

What's being called the "toolbelt generation," are increasingly choosing apprenticeship- and trade school-based trades. An increasing number — with over 30 million views on TikTok at this writing — are trying to be "Gen Z farmers."

Not a moment too soon, considering the average age among America's 3.5 million farmers is now 58, up from 56 just ten years ago. Crops aren't all that's being grown — millennials and Gen Z are increasingly going into farming. The latest Census of Agriculture found the number of US farmers younger than 35 increased by 11 percent over the last several years — no mean feat.

The Texas A&M University's AgriLife Extension Service has taken note. Their Generation Next project, designed to educate and prepare a new generation of farmers has been very successful. The program launched in 2015, and is designed "to address the growing need for an educational program aimed at first-time ranch landowners and people interested in starting a new ranch-based business," according to the agency.

The curriculum has been celebrated among agricultural educators, with participants estimated an economic benefit of $39,000 per ranch ($19.00/acre), or $7.1 million annually for all who completed the 2021 Generation Next program.

Another recurring program helps younger generations understand how ag leasing works — for hunting, grazing, and livestock leasing, and it's been another big success for AgriLife.

The Ranchers Leasing Workshop, awash in awards, is being hosted in Crockett Sept. 23. It's another way for younger farmers and ranchers to learn how to keep their farms afloat.

Preparing a younger generation for the realities of farming — and how to keep a working farm running in more ways than crops and livestock sales — are key to ensuring younger farmers don't just take an interest — they can make a success of themselves.

Out of those 3.5 million current small- and midsize farmers, nearly a third are beginning farmers, in business for under 10 years, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. NPR reported that the National Future Farmers of America's student membership is at an all-time high. A generation hasn't taken this level of interest in farming since the Dust Bowl. Just under half of Americans leading into the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s lived on farms. The Greatest Generation and their Boomer kids moved away from farms and cities and into the now-sprawling suburbs that have taken up valuable farmland.

Some 31 million acres of farmland in the U.S. have been irreparably lost to suburban sprawl since World World II — a unique challenge that Gen Zers will have to learn to deal with, in ways previous generations haven't.

With Texas' own AgriLife and their out-of-state cohorts lending a hand to Gen Z, we could well be seeing a return to farming not just being a hobby or a source of heritable wealth and glorified real estate investment.

Farming as a true American vocation can be a realistic dream again, particularly with recent boosts to antitrust law enforcement that stand to break up the same Big Farms that gutted the country of family farms, and continues to do so. A younger generation uninterested in corporate jobs and the production of shareholder value over their work that comes with it can mean a new golden age of small farms, with the proper guidance.

There was a time in America that you knew who grew your food.

There was a time that local farmers were the pillars of their communities — and not the suit-clad politicians and soft-handed businesspeople unwilling to get their hands dirty to grow something. A time when dirt under your nails was a point of pride, and a good day's work in service of your own community was the highest honor.

Perhaps Gen Z will take us back to a time when American was truly great — and a greatness not measured in stock value and golden parachutes.

Gen Z can bring back the American Dream, if we choose to help them do so. AgriLife is getting us off to a good start.

If you — or your kids — might be interested in the upcoming leasing workshop, registration is available here, and has a registration fee of $50.

Lance writes about rural life and politics, nature, and conservation at A Boy & His Dog Save America on Substack. Elsewhere, he's a freelance journalist, culture writer, and media critic.