(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Future jobs is made possible by BNY Mellon of Southwestern, Pennsylvania and with these major funders, (bright instrumental music) and these generous supporters.

(bright instrumental music) Thank you.

(bright instrumental music) Picture a farmer and you may think of a worker like this.

(bright guitar music) We always will need farmers who work with their hands in the soil and their boots in a corn row.

(bright instrumental music) - It's always gonna be a hands on the deal.

- [Narrator] But in the 21st century economy, an agricultural worker is just as likely to look like this, (bright upbeat music) building robots that will pick apples.

(bright instrumental music) - We can look at a cluster of fruit and we can say we wanna move these exact four.

- [Narrator] Or a biochemist nudging salad greens in vertical farms that need no soil or sunshine.

- These people are really more lab workers than they are field workers.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] And although automation is at the leading edge, even traditional workers are learning new skills.

- You need people that can deal with a computer, can deal with diagnostics.

- We can make sure that there's no fungus developing.

- [Narrator] And educators are opening the field to a more diverse workforce.

- And I was put on this earth to get more people of color into this space.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] In Pennsylvania, 67 percent of the economy touches agriculture.

- I am a product manager for tractors.

- As the dough comes down the line, I do scales, production scales.

- 25 years ago we were milking with buckets, now everything's automated.

- [Narrator] If it takes care of animals or creates beauty or helps the planet and most of all, if it ends up on our tables, we will need agricultural workers to do it.

- They're gonna find out how hungry they might get someday if the farmer vanishes.

- [Narrator] What are these life-sustaining careers?

What education and skills are needed to work them and what are the rewards of jobs in this growing field?

- Every day, you're helping somebody eat, just being a part of the planet and growing things.

(bright upbeat music) (wind whooshing and birds chirping) (bright instrumental music) - I grew up on this farm.

My father farmed this land, my grandfather farmed this land.

- [Narrator] The sun has been rising on the Linden Creek farm for going on 100 years.

Ed Martin is a third-generation dairy farmer.

- My grandfather purchased a farm in 1928.

He immigrated in 1911 from Eastern Europe and worked at a can factory, saved his money and paid $8,700 for the farm.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] George Martin bought some cows and started selling the milk in their little village of Linden in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

By the 1950s, his son Joseph would take over at first milking the cows by hand, until later when milking machines made the job a bit easier.

- I would get down like so, check the cow, put each one of these on the cow individually.

You'll see a lot of farmers walk bent over or limp for milking this way.

- [Narrator] Life is less strenuous for Ed now, his son Andrew runs the farm managing 120 cows and twice as many acres of land, keeping pace with changing times.

- Everything's automated.

We go from planting 25 acres of corn in a week to, I do 30 in a day.

It's been life changing for us.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Linden Creek is one of 52,000 family farms in Pennsylvania.

A number that's been declining a bit every year.

Just 15 years ago there were 63,000 family farms.

Although about a quarter of all the land in Pennsylvania is used for farming, that number is shrinking too.

As the population grows, land is being developed for housing and industry, making acreage more expensive to own, less land could mean less food.

(bright instrumental music) - The rate at which the population is growing outpaces the rate at which we are increasing our production of food, and if you map that out a couple of decades, it's gonna be a big problem.

(sheep bleats) - [Narrator] Across the rolling hills in Washington County, George Werry is in lambing season.

He has been raising sheep here all his life, selling the lambs for meat in late summer.

It's a way of life, but can be dramatic.

(soft instrumental music) (sheep bleating) On this late spring afternoon, a ewe was ready to give birth and she was in distress.

Workers chased the mother sheep across the pasture, finally catching her in time to help deliver the lamb.

They work hard to save every baby and every mother.

There it is, there it is there it is.

- [Man] Go, go.

Oh, come on bud.

(bright instrumental music) - They're my keepers and they'll be here with me for at least seven years, maybe eight.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] But during those years, each sheep must be shorn.

The work is highly skilled and rigorous and something of a lost art.

- Get her head through your legs and then get her up a little bit further so that her body is balanced, so you don't have to work too hard.

- It's high stress, high energy, competitive type work and most of the people today aren't set for that kind of meaner work.

(shearing sound) We're finding a tough time to find young people that are gonna come in and do it.

- It takes an extreme amount of physical activity.

If we let them feel like they're falling or they have an opportunity to get away, they'll exploit that.

You let 'em up once, you're gonna fight with them the rest of the time.

- There's a lot more, I'm gonna call it a dance (laughs), where footwork and whatnot, placing the sheep in the correct position to get a good shearing angle seems to be very critical.

(sheep bleats) - [Narrator] The market is so flat these days that wool is worth almost nothing.

But each sheep must be shorn twice a year for hygiene and health.

These students own very small sheep farms and hiring professional shearers would be expensive, so they are learning to do the job themselves.

(sheering machine sound) Just one of the challenges that always have faced smaller farms.

- [Woman] This is a blessing to have this.

- My dad's biggest fear 'cause she's from Hermitage, it's up near Sharon PA, and he was afraid she was gonna take me away from the place.

(bright instrumental music) I brought her up here and she was like, "Now I understand."

And that was it, and we got married.

(bright instrumental music) (indistinct chatter) - It's a lifestyle and it's a heritage.

- Tough business, but it's very rewarding.

'Cause I get to spend all day, my family, my grandkids, I get to see them, grow up every day.

It's a more of a lifestyle than a job.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] This is agriculture at its most basic and essential, working to feed people.

Progress has lightened the labor but human survival still is carried on the backs of farmers.

The workers who bend to the seasons touch the soil and walk the land.

(bright instrumental music) - What better way to be one with nature than to have a farm and do your own farming?

It is a lot of work, but there's more rewards to it.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] Down in the Linden Creek milking barn, this cow is taking her turn at the milking robot.

(milking robot sound) - It'll identify the cow.

it'll get a little bit of feed to keep her calm, it'll clean her teats off, then it'll attach to each quarter.

So we milk each quarter individually based off of flow.

And then after she's done, it'll spray her with a disinfectant and she's back out here to eating or sleeping.

- [Narrator] The Martins invested in the robot several years ago.

A significant expense that has allowed the business to save time and labor costs and increased production while tracking the output of each cow.

The animals know when they need milking and they walk to the robots on their own.

- They catch on a lot quicker than we did, that's for sure.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Farm bots have become standard across many parts of agriculture.

At Carnegie Mellon University, workers are developing prototypes for farm bots that will track the growth and health of plants, this one works with grape vines.

Abhi Silwal never expected to work in agriculture, but building robots for farmers suits him.

- So I guess me as a kid, I'm the kid in that block who loves taking toys apart and seeing what's inside of there.

So for me, I guess, the curiosity of how things work mechanically, electrically.

- [Interviewer] Do you have to be good at Math?

- Math is core to any science, any stem field, but in agriculture there are lots of operational jobs that are more management and running these systems that don't require as much math.

- [Narrator] Workers who build the farm bots are highly skilled with advanced technical degrees, but every robot needs workers to sell and service it.

- I think of agricultural robotics like Formula One racing car that requires a lot of pit crew before it goes out in the track and does that fancy racing.

(bright instrumental music) - I would make a pitch for people to get a little bit of training and it doesn't have to be a four-year bachelor's degree at college.

There are lots of associates programs and certificate programs where people can get a little bit of the knowledge they need.

- [Narrator] Other workers at CMU are building a drone that prevents forest fires.

Elsewhere, silos are processing corn for ethanol.

It's technology that is opening new opportunities.

(machine roaring sound) Halfway across Pennsylvania, in an orchard just north of Gettysburg, students are testing a farm bot that will prune baby fruit.

- During the months of May to June, there will be a lot of excess fruits on the tree.

(leaves rattling) - [Narrator] For the apples to grow big enough to sell, the clusters must be thinned.

For generations, that has been done by hand.

Labor is starting to get very expensive and there aren't people that are interested in doing this kind of work.

It's very hard work.

(leaves rattling) - [Narrator] The farm bot uses a camera to identify the extraneous fruit and then removes it.

This is a prototype (cutting sound) and the team here is perfecting it for wider use.

- It's probably about 10 years, I should say, or sometimes even longer.

So it depends like how the progress is and also how the acceptance to the growers on those kind of machine.

- If you look at the cost of raising fruit, it's about 66 percent of the total cost is labor.

It's a very valuable crop, if you don't have adequate labor, you could have a very big economic catastrophe on your hands.

So, it's very important that we look into these technologies for the future and test them here in the real world conditions.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] Automation is already working in Braddock, Pennsylvania at the fifth season hydroponic facility.

This is a vertical farm where salad greens are grown indoors by computer software without the need for soil or outdoor sunlight.

(bright upbeat music) - It's the smart manufacturing facility that's instead of cranking out widgets.

It's cranking out crops.

All the jobs that we create here are new and different kind of job for plant science, horticulture, engineering, mechanical engineering, software engineering, farm ware and robotics, all of those elements where you create new and different jobs, that might not have otherwise existed before.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] This indoor farm is bringing jobs to a struggling community.

(bright upbeat music) - A number of our jobs do not require a high school GED.

We're able to provide on the job training as it relates to the different areas of production.

- [Narrator] As robots move farther into barns and fields, the role of people will not so much fade as change, from hot and hard physical labor that relies on strong hands to work that is more skilled in other ways.

- What is up gardening friends.

My name's Jason, Jayson Garlands and welcome to my garden.

- [Narrator] Jason Garland is a high school student from Pittsburgh's North Side.

He's known for his YouTube channel about gardening.

- Let's get into it.

- [Narrator] And although he loves the hands-on part of growing food, he's just as eager to tell his farm bot to do the work.

- Oh, we're working to get it to seed and weed itself.

And when the first time it started working, it was just woo!

Man, it was an exhilarating feeling, big mind blow, a big, really, really exciting moment.

And it's definitely gonna go down in the history.

(water pouring sound) - That Jason is young and African American makes him an outlier in agriculture.

- Nationally, the average age is about 65 years of age and it's about over 80 to 90 White.

- [Narrator] Stefan Fitzpatrick leads Pennsylvania's statewide effort to educate students about careers in ag, a space in need of diversity.

For generations, farming has largely been done by older White men.

(harvesting machine sound) but before that, black and brown people were showing them how to do it and therein lies the disconnect for people of color.

- When it came to the perception of black people in agriculture, they immediately go to slavery.

They equated, "Well, if I'm in agriculture, that means that I was owned by someone."

And I think because of that negative connotation, they've been unable to expand their framework of what their history truly is in this industry.

- [Narrator] Stephon was a city kid who never expected to work in agriculture.

- So when people see me, they see a linebacker.

I'm black, so they automatically think that I wanna be a rapper or I wanna.

- [Narrator] But he had other plans that led to scholarships through farming organizations for teens to leadership studies in college.

- My family in the beginning didn't understand it, so they didn't truly support it.

- [Narrator] Only later did he learn his family does have roots in farming.

- I found out that my grandmother has 10 acres of land in South Carolina.

Again, I thought I was the first-generation person in agriculture in my family.

And I always wondered, "Stephon, where did you get that bug from?

Where'd your green thumb come from?

- Don't you guys know what your immune system is?

- We know.

- [Narrator] Green thumbs can be cultivated.

These young students took a field trip to the Vail Wood Dairy Farm in Loretto, Pennsylvania to learn the basics.

- I means cows can walk around and socialize.

- [Narrator] And Stephon was there to encourage young people to consider farming careers.

- Not just with people of color, but cultures, races, these kids are here and kids are inspired by everything.

And when they go back home, all they're gonna talk about is, "I got to see cows."

"I got to milk a cow."

"I got to see where my ice cream comes from."

And now subconsciously they're making these connections.

- [Narrator] And the work for diversity reaches out to adults too.

- Two people over here, one person on each side.

- [Narrator] At Pittsburgh's Bidwell Training Center, students are learning to grow seedlings in a greenhouse.

Dalezsa Regan likes the idea of growing healthy food and then passing along what she's learned.

- Whenever I plant things, it makes me feel actually warm and gooey on the inside, because I actually get to see it.

It makes you very proud, I mean, kinda like having a child.

You raise it from a child to an adult and it makes you feel accomplished, so it's the same way with the plants.

- [Narrator] This is horticulture, a sector of ag that's fertile ground for entrepreneurs in commercial vegetable and flower sales and landscaping.

- You start our program, for example, you come out and you're an experienced horticulture technician.

You can go in and start and make your way through the company, start your own business and make a career out of it very easily, in all different sectors of the industry.

Seeing in Pittsburgh itself, we actually have a really nice diversity of students with African American, different ages, female.

We're trending really nicely diversity wise, and that gives me some hope for how we will diversify the industry in the future.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] Urban Gardens provide grassroots opportunities to provide fresh food to neighborhoods with no grocery stores while inspiring residents to consider this work as a career and the man leading the effort hopes his story will provide a spark.

- A lot of people are scared because those industries don't have many people that look like them, and so it's really trying to inspire them to get over that fear and to take a chance on their selves.

- Gardening friends, My name's Jason, Jason Garlands and welcome to my garden.

- This needs to be something that all school districts, all organizations, everyone needs to consider as they're developing these curriculums to inspire the next generation.

(bright guitar music) - [Narrator] Come late summer, the county fairs spring off around Pennsylvania.

(cow mows) (bright instrumental music) Families come for the rides and the excitement of the midway and to see the animals.

- She wants to go back in with her friends.

- [Narrator] Megan Smith was here to show her miniature horses.

- This Fair is 224 years old.

- [Narrator] Her grandfather, Wayne Hunnel, oversees the Washington County Fair and says the event is about family fun, but it serves a wider purpose.

- So although it's a carnival and we have the rides and the games and so forth, it really is to promote the agriculture.

- [Narrator] He's hoping that young people will see past the rides and the food and notice that agriculture is rich with career opportunities.

(bright instrumental music) In order to keep ag working and growing in Pennsylvania, the field will need as many as 150,000 workers in the next 10 years.

- Agriculture's not exempt even from the pressures of attracting people into the business.

So we have the challenge of both replacing those folks who are retiring and attracting a new generation.

- [Narrator] He's casting a wide net because jobs are plentiful and varied.

Let's begin in the barn.

(sheep bleating) There always will be a need for those who take care of animals, including veterinarians, ranch workers, and those who raise livestock.

- A career in ag can be anything that you are interested in.

- [Narrator] On the crop side, ag will need workers to plant the fields, process the crops, and move them to market.

- This isn't a job for somebody that likes to sit behind a computer all day and space out, this is for somebody who loves to work hard and use their body.

- [Narrator] Farms need tractors and combines.

Jobs there include those who operate the machines, repair them and sell them.

(bright instrumental music) - It takes a person who likes to be precise, likes to get things done right.

- [Narrator] And what about the farm bots?

They'll need people to design and build them, sell them, operate them and repair them.

- People need to understand how to use the tools.

- [Narrator] Agriculture also needs food production.

Jobs there include workers who process the food package it, make sure it's safe to eat and deliver it.

- The earning potential is good and also, it doesn't require four-year degree.

- [Narrator] And then there are the environmental jobs, including forestry, bio fuels such as ethanol from corn and soil and water conservation.

(bright instrumental music) - We've gotta figure out, what we're doing is good from an economic standpoint, but it also has to be good from an environmental standpoint.

- And as in every other industry, ag always will need educators and journalists.

- We live in a world of social media, so being able to educate the public on the truth.

- [Narrator] People work, tech work, animal work, working outdoors or inside, agriculture has all of it.

- All of those things, like you would see in any other industry, we have them in agriculture and the jobs are plentiful.

(bright instrumental music) (machine sounds) - [Narrator] It's almost lunchtime at five-generation bakers in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania and Teonna Green is making bread.

- Basically, as the dough comes down the line, I'm putting it on the scale.

- [Narrator] Bakery work and food production always have been a vital part of agriculture.

- We have opportunities for machine operators, people that wanna learn how to mix dough and be department leads.

- [Narrator] Automation and technology have brought some changes to the way the bakery makes its famous cinnamon swirl bread, but these are long established jobs that come with full pay and benefits.

- I am making really good living, I make enough, more than enough to go on vacations(chuckling) and stuff like that, so.

- You're not gonna have student debt to pay down when you come here.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] For every bit of technology that is replacing human labor, there are many traditional jobs in ag that are done more or less the way they've been done for generations.

Tractors will always need selling.

- So, the first implement would be a disc bind that's going to cut the hay.

- [Narrator] And they'll need fixing.

- We always have a slot that we need somebody for.

- David Watson has been selling and repairing farm equipment all his life.

The engines have changed some, but he'll always pay good salaries to workers who can service them.

- Years ago you were dealing with a person that could do most of what they had to do with a set of wrenches, a hammer, a chisel, and a screwdriver.

- [Narrator] Now a worker will use those tools but must also understand motors run by computers.

Still, parts of this job will never change.

- When the weather gets good, you could spend 60 hours a week at it if you wanted to.

You need to learn to adjust your life to the weather and the demand of of the season and I guess.

- [Narrator] For all its high tech advances, agriculture still rests on the shoulders of the ones who work in the sun kneeling to the earth.

- It takes a lot of dedication, but the rewards in growing food are enormous.

(tractor roaring sound) - [Narrator] Blackberry Meadows Farm in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania is one of few organic farms in the area.

They raise pigs, chickens, and turkeys.

The produce is sold directly to consumers at their farm stand and farm markets by workers who are part-time.

What the work lacks in pay, it makes up for in the connection to the land and each other.

- They get passionate about it, they get excited about it.

So this idea that the farm is integral with the community, it's such a rewarding and fulfilling, a soul-satisfying career that I've (laughs) wound up in.

(soft guitar music) - [Narrator] There has always been something beautifully lyrical and maybe poetic about farms.

- It's a way of like cycle, everything goes around.

(soft instrumental music) - [Narrator] But now it's time to look beyond the fields to the places where technology is working to improve the way we protect and beautify the planet and grow food.

(bright instrumental music) - I do keep in mind that the work that I am doing is helping to feed people.

- But it's not a responsibility that weights me down, it's a responsibility that fills me.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] In the coming years, that will be the task of those who use not only their hands, but also their minds in new ways to be part of something bigger than we are, something life affirming.

- We respect the land, we treat the animals well.

- [Narrator] There is space out here in agriculture for everyone, wide open fields where there's room to grow.

(bright instrumental music) - I can't really see myself doing anything more fulfilling than this.

- [Woman] And you should think about agriculture as a career because this is worth saving.

(bright instrumental music) ♪ When life gets heavy again, light as feather ♪ ♪ Changing my mind like the Indiana weather say prayer ♪ ♪ For me tonight ♪ ♪ Maybe I'm doing better ♪ (bright instrumental music) ♪ When 25 arrived and then a blink of an eye ♪ ♪ And I'm still just trying to figure out ♪ ♪ How to walk that five mile if life's just too short ♪ ♪ Not to try the best you can ♪ ♪ So I'm gonna let go who I was and find out who I am ♪ ♪ And I can hear the lonely night sing ♪ ♪ I can hear the lonely night sing ♪ (bright instrumental sound)