I was 6 when I first visited the family farm in India. It was a small operation where multiple branches of our family lived. I can still remember first trying fresh buffalo milk, which tasted oddly like buttered popcorn, and unfortunately the feeling I had shortly after when I fell face-first into a similarly fresh pile of manure.
That trip was the first time I was able to truly experience where my roots came from, a period of time when we had just enough. When my parents left India in the early 1980s, they came to the States with a single focus: to provide greater opportunities for the future generations of our family. My siblings and I will forever be incredibly grateful for them having the courage to start life over in a new place and say goodbye to their families, all to afford us a level of privilege that would have never been attainable had they stayed in India.
When I was 19, I was fortunate to obtain an internship at the Illinois Farm Bureau. Agriculture was never an industry I expected to find my career in. Truthfully, I did not want to based on what I thought it could offer me. Not only was it something my family intentionally left behind, it also did not seem like an industry where I would feel a sense of belonging.
I was wrong.
While being a minority in agriculture has certainly come with challenges, the industry has also provided me more opportunities than I ever imagined at this stage of my career. My passion to support the change needed to ensure agriculture is able to provide the world the necessary food, fuel and fiber has only continued to grow.
See more: Illinois Community Colleges Break New Ground in Off-Farm Careers
The changes will, of course, not be simple. Demand for innovative agriculture to support an ever-growing world will continue to rise, furthering the need for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers in the industry. By the time you finish this sentence, an additional 10 people will have been added to the world population! Agriculture needs the best and brightest minds from all walks of life to ensure we can tackle the challenges faced today and in the future.
Every challenge is an opportunity. Consider the following:
- Today’s U.S. college graduates can expect approximately 59,400 annual job opportunities aligned with agriculture, with graduates from agriculture-related programs occupying 61% of the roles.
- 80% of workers overall want to work for a company that values diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Companies that have ethnically diverse executive teams have a 36% higher likelihood of financial outperformance, a rate that has steadily increased since 2014.
- Over 10% of the U.S. population experiences food insecurity, a systemic hardship disproportionately impacting people of color, which has only been further exacerbated in recent years.
- Less than 10% of farmers nationwide are minorities, a rate that drops to less than 1% when looking at Illinois alone.
To help foster an agricultural industry that more closely represents the world it feeds and to ensure the diverse perspectives needed for innovation are accessible, I am honored to create the Sandhu Minority in Agriculture Scholarship.
Starting in 2023, this annual scholarship administered by the IAA Foundation, initially for $3,001, will be available to racial minority students from Illinois who are interested in a career in agriculture.
See more: Chicago Farm and Market Help Transform Lives
My experiences have taught me great things do not come from comfort zones, and the opportunity to help make a difference in both one’s own community and possibly even the world makes the challenges all the more worthwhile.
As I near my 10-year anniversary with IFB, I am continuously humbled to work in support of the agricultural industry. I cannot wait to see what future decades will bring, and most importantly, I look forward to seeing many new faces supporting agriculture in the years to come.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can support students going into agriculture, whether it be through this particular scholarship or other opportunities, please take a moment to learn more about the IAA Foundation and do not hesitate to contact any members of their exceptional team for possible assistance.
Simran Sandhu serves as Illinois Farm Bureau’s manager of business analytics and innovation.
