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Food and ag sectors looking to attract young talent

The director of an organization promoting the food and ag industries in southern Minnesota encourages young people to consider a career in agriculture.

Sam Ziegler with GreenSeam tells Brownfield fewer people are growing up on the farm, so it’s important for students to look beyond their direct surroundings.

“So how do we get to these students who are going through school and (wondering) what they want to be when they grow up, and we can explain to them that if they’re interested in accounting (for example), have you thought about going to the college of business area but thinking about agriculture as where you want to get into?”

For that to happen, he says agriculture needs to have a larger profile at high schools, colleges, and universities.

“To talk to those students and say ‘hey, do you know there are opportunities for data analytics in agriculture? And by the way, here’s ten different websites or apps or programs from companies globally that we need people like you to be a part of.”

Ziegler says GreenSeam is working to attract talent to food and ag at a time when both sectors are struggling to find adequate labor.