BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Project Coordinator Lindsay Mitchell of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, who holds a degree in animal science, rebuked Terence Loose’s recent Yahoo! News article deriding agriculture-based diplomas.

She pointed to an increase in ag exports and rising farmland prices as indications that agriculture is alive and well.

“I, for one, have never had to consider losing my job, being downsized or not getting a cost-of-living raise for several years in a row like many of my counterparts in other industries,” Mitchell blogged in Illinois Corn’s Corn Scoops online newsletter.

Mitchell also said as the population continues to grow worldwide, the opportunities for agricultural technology careers increase.

“If we are really to consider the question of feeding millions more people without destroying the earth, we must study the genetic makeup of our crops to increase production per plant,” she opined. “We must study the soils, making our plants more efficient to leave the soil composition intact.

“We must study the food animals we raise, growing them more efficiently and minimizing death and illness. We must study alternative crops, alternative best management practices and alternative policies to maintain our food security.

“I hardly agree that a degree in agriculture is useless, as careers within the industry are secure and greatly needed if Americans and others around the world still want to eat,” she wrote.

Loose’s original article is online at http://education.yahoo.net/articles/most_useless_degrees.htm