Seed Our Future

Chris Beytes

There’s a movement afoot that hopes to make future career hunters aware of our little corner of the world, and if you ask me, it couldn’t come at a better time.

Called “Seed Your Future,” this educational effort, launched by Longwood Gardens, the American Society for Horticultural Science and some 150 other industry partners, hopes to educate school-aged youth about horticulture, in its myriad forms, as a career. The goal: Meet the future employment needs of our industry (and agriculture in general)—where there’s an estimated shortfall of 22,500 college-trained workers each year.

It’s a big task, with a big budget of $10 million (of which $750,000 has thus far been raised). But we won’t get Generation Z interested in horticulture as a career by simply wishing for workers and talking about it amongst ourselves. Somebody’s got to do the heavy lifting and that effort has started.

I mentioned that I like the timing of this. Why? Because not since America’s first environmental movement in the early 1970s has the citizenry of our planet been more open to the idea of growing plants, nor for a wider variety of reasons.

Of course, today’s broad interest in the environment owes much to the original eco-movement pioneers, who did some seriously important work. Pollution was destroying our planet. Heck, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire at least 13 times between 1868 and 1969! It was hard to deny the problem with evidence like that.

Rachel Carsen’s book “Silent Spring” put the focus on the overuse and hazards of chemicals like DDT. Earth Day was founded in 1970 in reaction to an oil spill off the coast of California. Green Peace was founded in 1971 in reaction to nuclear testing in Alaska. And remember the commercial featuring a Native American paddling a canoe down a junk-filled river with the tear in his eye? Produced by Keep America Beautiful, the “crying Indian” anti-pollution ad has been called one of the 50 greatest commercials of all time.*

Compared to all that, environmentalists in the 21st Century have it easy. Our water and air is much cleaner, everybody knows it’s wrong to toss trash from a speeding car and, while we’re always dealing with chemical issues of one type or another, today’s pest management products are vastly safer than their
predecessors.

Back then, the environmental movement was stuck doing the basic heavy duty cleaning up of the planet. Today’s environmentalists can be much more specialized and selective.

There’s organic food. “Healthier” food. GMO-free food. Local food. Hyper-local food. The desire to “fix” our “broken” agricultural system. The desire to feed the additional two billion residents of the planet expected by 2050. The desire to save the pollinators. There’s green infrastructure and green roofs, gourmet greens and microgreens. Farmaceuticals. Nutriceuticals. Medical cannabis, industrial hemp and recreational weed.

Then add in all the cool technology we have today. Fifty years ago, cutting-edge agricultural technology was a new John Deere tractor. Today, it’s aquaponics, robotics, LEDs, RFIDs, vertical farming, open-source software, apps, algorithms, Big Data, the Internet of Things, the Cloud … . And the desire to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, the person to “disrupt” agriculture, and maybe make a few billion dollars in the process.

Of course, you and I know that, where the rubber meets the road (or the soil meets the pot) horticulture is a hot and dirty, feast or famine business. Yes, there are white-collar jobs in horticulture, but we don’t need more account executives and sales reps. We need growers and retailers—folks willing to man hoses and cash registers and work up to management positions. To that end, we can’t sugarcoat the realities of our industry. I’m sure every one of you has hired an enthusiastic youth who quit the first week because they didn’t like schlepping bales of frozen Canadian peat or having to work Saturdays.

Still, let’s be positive! Folks are open to what we do. Let’s welcome them in for a visit, show them our cool flowers and vegetables and try not to scare them away. Because as we all know first-hand, once you get your hands in the soil you’re hooked—hard work, long hours and all. GT