Agribusiness & Food Industry Management/Agricultural Science
Welcome to the Department of Agribusiness & Food Industry Management and Agricultural Science!
California’s agricultural industry is the nation’s largest, generating more than $50 billion in annual revenue. It produces more than 400 commodities; nearly three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. It employs more than 420,000 people and presents many opportunities for study and careers.
Our department, which is the only one of its kind in Southern California, encompasses two separate, but related, fields of study that prepare students to work within that industry.
Our Majors
Imagine being able to combine a passion for growing crops or raising animals with the skills need to run a family business, a startup, or a global conglomerate.
That’s what the agribusiness and food industry management program is all about. The major provides a STEM-related curriculum that prepares students to assume leadership positions in the management, marketing, and production of all kinds of agricultural goods. It’s the only program of its kind in California.
In this major, you can get hands-on, practical experience growing crops on the campus farm and working with livestock in our animal units, or with our prized horses at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center.
But you’ll also learn to create business and marketing plans, how to understand financial statements, and how to use business analytics.
Intercollegiate competitions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Grocers Association, National Agri-Marketing Association, and the Food Distribution Research Society challenge students to develop and present plans for new agri-food products or solutions to industry problems.
Career opportunities are abundant, both locally and internationally and in the public and private sectors.
You can become a trained farm advisor to help local farmers and ranchers improve their practices and productivity or work for a county agricultural commissioner’s department. Many graduates work on commodity boards and trade commissions that represent products from almonds to zucchini.
The public sector also offers careers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management, working on habitat restoration, resource conservation, and stopping smuggling.
Our alumni also work in different capacities throughout the industry, from agricultural finance and loans to pest control advisors, marketing and sales of farm equipment and agricultural commodities, and food safety and quality control.
Other careers are available in pharmaceutical sales; managing animal hospitals or rescues; overseeing farms, ranches, packing houses, dairy and livestock operations, retail supermarkets, and specialty stores.
Homesteading. Teaching. Forestry and natural resources. Sustainability. Veterinary medicine. Marketing and selling agricultural products.
When it comes to potential careers, the agricultural science major gives students both variety and versatility. Coursework in the major covers all areas of agriculture, preparing students for many different career tracks.
Like our other majors, agricultural science will provide you with a STEM-based education and lots of hands-on experience on our farm and animal units. You’ll put theory into practice.
Students also can combine the major’s general-purpose curriculum with the specific focus of one of our many minors.
If you’re interested in becoming an agricultural teacher and sharing your passion for plants or animals with high school students, you can also earn your agricultural specialist teaching credential.
Our alumni have gone onto careers in veterinary medicine, teaching agriculture in high schools, and natural resource management.
