Western Growers STEM

Over the past decade there has been an explosion of investments in innovation and technology across the agriculture industry.

That is the driving force behind a new Careers in Ag Job Center that Western Growers has rolled out. It's a jobs platform exclusively for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related careers within the agricultural industry.

"With innovation and technology becoming so important especially in wester agriculture where we have more labor intensive crops in the fresh fruit and vegetable sectors. It's really really important to introduce the realities and opportunities of STEM related careers in agriculture to College students who might not otherwise even think about agriculture."

Dave Puglia Executive Vice President of Western Growers says the Careers in Ag Job Center is focused on filling jobs in the specialty crop industry to help close the agricultural workforce gap.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are 60,000 job openings in agriculture annually with only 35,000 graduates to fill them – many of which are in STEM areas, such as plant and food science, water resources science, engineering and precision agriculture.

The job board found at: agjoboard.com gives employers and candidates an easy-to-use matching process.

Western Growers represents local and regional family farmers growing fresh produce in Arizona, California and Colorado and New Mexico