Urban Agriculture

The global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2055. With productive farm land being cut in half over the last 50 years it will be a challenge to feed a growing and increasingly geographically diverse population.

Partnered with traditional agriculture, urban agriculture offers many solutions to the problems of environmental stewardship, resource conservations and continued urbanization. Urban agriculture is the field of intensive cultivation including the design of high density systems for producing food, as well as the technologies (sensors, food safety, and post-harvest equipment) associated with managing and automating these farms.

The BYU Plant and Landscape Systems major (PLS) is uniquely situated to prepare students for a growing field of high tech urban agriculture jobs. By partnering with BYU’s excellent engineering and business programs and building on a rich heritage of traditional agriculture and plant science students will leave the PLS major well rounded and prepared to instantly make a difference to global food security and sustainable food production.

Career areas in this field can be broken into 3 main categories: plant science, engineering and business. All of the listed careers below benefit from having degrees and experience working with and understanding the growth and function of plants. The Plant and Wildlife Science Department offers majors and minors targeted at preparing students to be effective and successful in all of the following jobs: