Agriculture/Food resources research

CARGILL

CARGILL

CARGILL

Also, ADM, maybe a major food processor like ConAgra or General Mills, and I think there was a major European trading firm that went public in the past year. Midas or Eddie might remember.

Thanks Illini, I'll look into those. Are there any consulting firms that deal with this industry specifically?

I'm not aware of any. I'd imagine some of the consulting work is covered by economic consulting firms; some of it's covered by government agencies like the USDA; some of it's covered by state land grant schools.

If you want to consult on agriculture, you may want to pursue a PhD in Agricultural Science/Economics and land a professorship at a Big Ten/Big Twelve school. A lot of these guys spend their summers doing consulting work on everything from soil science to drought mitigation to developing world nutrition.

It's a nice, low-key life. Everybody needs food and it tends to be grown far away from the hustle and bustle of complicated urban living.

I've thought about doing that very thing, my concern being the high-level math required for a PhD. Most of the schools I'm looking at are SEC/Big Twleve/Big Ten, so I'd most likely end up in the midwest or southeast.

I've thought about a government job like the USDA too.

I would encourage you to stick to the private sector or academic institutions if you can, though. You don't want to get caught up in the bureaucracy. My Mom worked for the USDA as a Nutritionist in the '70s and her job wound up being to hand out WIC coupons.

I would strongly prefer academic life with consulting on the side. One of my professors does that and does quite well money wise.

You can be an academic at the World Bank or U.N. You could get private sector jobs at ADM, Cargill, Monsanto, or a bunch of other smaller companies.

I think IlliniProgrammer is thinking of Glencore, which is the biggest trading firm in the world, but not in ag as far as I know.

I'll start looking into those. The big worry I have is getting an internship, my university doesn't offer any degrees in the field I want and none of those firms recruit here.

Would it be bad to try and intern the summer in between the first and second semesters of grad school?

If you know what you want to do and who you want to work for, you can usually overcome a non-traditional background. Obviously network, but I found my firm was enamored by the fact that I knew a lot about the business and the requisite skills than I should have known. It showed initiative, and put me ahead of people with much more relevant experience.

If you can get an internship between the 1st and 2nd semesters, I don't see how that could be a negative.

Bump for any other opinions

Resurrecting this agin for any other opinions.