As a major in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, you will have a number of career opportunities from which to choose. Career opportunities in the agribusiness industry are illustrated in Figure 3. Potential career areas include managers and financial specialists, resource and environmental assessment, communication and information specialists, merchandising, marketing and sales, education and research, and agricultural production management.

Agribusiness Management.  The combination of training in business and agriculture can open the door to agribusiness management career opportunities. As a cooperative manager, processing manager, food service manager, or business manager, you can use your skills in agribusiness management to begin a career with opportunities that include processing, wholesaling, and/or distribution of food and fiber products. A career in agricultural finance will allow you to address some of the critical financial issues of the changing agricultural business environment. With your training, you can assist farmers and other agribusinesses in important credit decisions as a financial analyst, credit analyst, or bank loan officer.

Resource and Environmental Assessment.  Resource and environmental assessment will become more important in the years ahead. Policy makers, consumers, and farmers are becoming increasingly concerned with conservation and environmental issues. As an agricultural economist working in the area of environmental management, you can help farm firms remain profitable while farmers reduce soil erosion or eliminate pesticide contamination of water supplies. Specialists in community development, commodity grading and inspection, environmental audits, conservation management, food inspection, and regional planning are only a few of the potential career opportunities available in this area.

Marketing and Merchandising.  The development of new food and fiber consumer products from established commodities and new agricultural specialty crops will expand your career opportunities in marketing and merchandising. As a market analyst, commodity specialist, or price analyst you may find yourself developing new marketing strategies that promote the sale of new agricultural products or expand the market for existing products. Sales of agricultural inputs like fertilizer or agricultural chemicals are important to the food and fiber system. Your training in agribusiness will give you the background for a sales representative position with a major agribusiness firm anywhere in the country. Sales also offers you career opportunities as a commodity broker, grain merchandiser, timber buyer, or livestock buyer.

Agricultural Production Management.  Today, farming is a business. Managing a farm requires not only technical knowledge of production but also business skills. Business skills will allow you to evaluate the risk and profitability of a farm business. Careers in production agriculture include such opportunities as professional management of farm, aquaculture, feedlot, nursery, and poultry firms. Should you choose production agriculture as a career, your training in production farm management will provide the economic and business skills you need to successfully produce and market your crops in a world economy.

Education and Extension.  Your degree in agribusiness or food and resource economics also offers exciting career opportunities in education and agricultural extension. Extension specialists with training in agribusiness provide valuable information to producers, processors, and distributors at the local level. Senior scientists in universities, federal and state agencies, and many private organizations also need trained agricultural economists to assist them in their research.

Information Specialist.  We are living in a sophisticated age where communication and information are becoming increasingly important. Expanding world markets, as well as new information systems and new computer networked systems, create the need for improved information. Agribusinesses, including farms, will need accurate and timely information for planning and decision-making. Similarly, other public and private groups will need improved information for analyzing various policy issues. Opportunities identified in Figure 3 include such careers as a policy analyst, broadcaster, or computer analyst.

Career Examples

LSU graduates in food and resource economics and agribusiness fill a wide variety of occupations throughout the United States. Some examples of positions held by departmental graduates are:

• county supervisor, Farmers Home Administration;
• attorney at law; economist, U.S. Corps of Engineers;
• credit examiner, Farm Credit Administration;
• sales representative, Allied Chemical Company;
• vice-president, Citicorp Real Estate, Inc;
• area field services director, Louisiana Farm Bureau;
• agent/appraiser; county agent, LSU Cooperative Extension Service;
• subrogation specialist, Farm Bureau Insurance Co.;
• deputy commissioner, Louisiana Department of Agriculture;
• senior vice-president, Dairymen Incorporated;
• agricultural statistician, U.S. Department of Agriculture;
• territory manager, International Harvester Co.;
• assistant state conservationist, Soil Conservation Service;
• investment broker; vice-president, Cameron State Bank;
• president, Federal Land Bank;
• agricultural environmental specialist, Louisiana Department of Agriculture;
• senior salesman, Monsanto Company;
• merchandising manager, Cargill Inc.;
• quality control manager, MARTCO;
• beef products manager, John Morrell and Co.;
• president and CEO, U.S. Sugar Corporation.