When I was 16, a mate asked me:

“What’s the future in Agriculture? Isn’t it just farming?”

At that time, the first iPhone had only just been released and to 16 year old Oli, my dreams in agriculture really were just that - farming.

It’s funny how those later years of high school can be so influential in forming careers aspirations and pursuits beyond high school, however for me, I knew that agriculture was an exciting sector and one that I wanted to be part of.

Despite the lack of understanding of career pathways in ag from career guidance and amongst friends in Sydney, I wasn’t deterred and left school and went jackarooing (read: working on a farm) which led to opportunities to work across grain, sheep and beef properties here in Australia and a season in Canada.

Fast forward to 2017, and the iPhone was well and truly mainstream. So mainstream that I found myself in a Tech startup working in agriculture, using a phone app to support farm management decisions and provide product traceability through the supply chain. (who woulda thought those opportunities existed to 16 year old Oli…)

By 2019 I was in a role for the Global Table, an organisation listed by Food Tank in the USA as one of 120 organisations shaping the future of Food. We hosted an event called ‘The Global Food Innovation Summit’ in Europe they’d had speakers like President Barack Obama, Howard Schultz (founder and Chairman of Starbucks) and it was here in Australia that I knew that the future for Agriculture was bright, and the conversation around the important of Food and agriculture was far bigger than what we currently had in Australia.

If I look back at where Humans of Agriculture is today, and how it has evolved, it really has grown from my own personal curiosities and passions as I try to understand how the world works through the lens of food and people.

Today, what I’m passionate about is to continue learning for myself, increasing consumer awareness about the role of agriculture has on the world we live in, and promoting and providing tangible avenues for the next generation of people to come into our sector from all types of backgrounds.

So if my friend was to ask me again about the future of Ag I would change it to a statement. I’m on a mission to find out the role Agriculture plays in shaping a world that is happier, healthier and more prosperous. So my statement is:

Why the future is in agriculture.

I genuinely love what I do, I enjoy the challenge and the opportunity to sit down with so many amazing people and learn from their perspectives of the ‘why and how’ of their involvement in agriculture.

Thanks for coming on this journey!