Urban women in Denmark want to reform agriculture

Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial have a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources and are about to complete a master’s programme in Agriculture – Production and Environment.

They grew up in Copenhagen but both moved to the countryside and want to become consultants for farmers and work with the sustainable production of healthier foods. 

Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial sorting seeds for their specialisation in the master's program Agriculture – Production and Environment..

“I have always been interested in fighting for the environment and food production is extremely important for the green transition. So it made sense to me to study plant production and I can definitely see myself getting a job afterwards at a consultancy firm advising farmers,” says Maia Vial.

Andrea Topsøe Sloth nods in agreement:

“It is not entirely easy to see myself in a job afterwards because agriculture is so chemistry-based, but I can also see myself in a job as an agricultural consultant. I would like to get my hands dirty and meet farmers to advise them on topics like soil health.”

Low unemployment 

Both emphasise that they do not want to spend their days filling in questionnaires, fertilisation plans and EU applications for farmers, which are some of the services that farmers pay agricultural consultants to do.

Several of Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial's fellow students have quit because they found chemistry too hard.

“Plans and questionnaires will probably be part of the job as an agricultural consultant, but the important thing for me is to spread new knowledge about sustainable cultivation methods and to get a personal relationship with the farmer,” says Andrea Topsøe Sloth.

Both are 30 and grew up in Copenhagen. They are part of a new group of students studying agricultural topics, explains Kristian Holst Laursen, associate professor at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at KU Science and head of the bachelor's program in Natural Resources – which nearly 20 years ago changed its name from the Agronomy program.

“This used to be a programme that attracted many students with links to the farming occupation. I am myself a trained agronomist and grew up in the countryside working on a farm from the age of ten. Now, most of the students come from cities, and there are far more female students than before.”

Right now, there are more spaces than students on this programme. Kristian Holst Laursen believes this is due to a lack of knowledge about what the course entails.

“A course like biology is far more popular because young people know biology from school and upper secondary education. However, unemployment is often higher among newly graduated biologists than among those graduating from programmes that prepare students more directly to work with the green transition, such as Agriculture."

Kristian Holst Laursen heads the bachelor's programme Natrual Resources at KU Science. It now has more female students than earlier.

His students can almost pick and choose between jobs when they graduate.

“All sectors are honing in on the green transition and this has created a lot of new job opportunities in forestry and agriculture both in the public and private sectors. Unemployment is therefore extremely low, students find it easy to get part-time jobs during their studies and some have job offers before finishing their education.”

Want to make a difference

Another challenge for KU Science is that young people today have high expectations for being able to make a difference in their studies and working life while also having time for family life, friends and spare time activities, explains Kristian Holst Laursen.

“Young people no longer identify with work like I and my generation used to. They want to work with something meaningful, but work is not necessarily the most important thing in their life.”

This is something the education system and the labour market must adapt to.

“That’s why KU Science has started a dialogue with employers of graduates about how we can adapt to the expectations that young people today have to working life.”

The young people’s desire for meaningful work makes them impatient with their studies, says Kristian Holst Laursen.

“It is a real challenge that our students today are so keen to make a difference in society that they struggle to see the purpose of learning basic maths and chemistry which they must study during their first year at Natural Resources.

“They want to find solutions immediately to challenges surrounding the climate, environment, biodiversity and food production, but their basic knowledge must be in place first, of course.”

This impatience is something Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial know well.

Contributing to healthier food production is an important motivation for the two master's students.

“We are both a bit nerdy, so chemistry comes easy to us. But some of our fellow students left early because they found chemistry difficult and boring even though they were passionate about the green transition,” says Maia Vial. 

The good life in the countryside

The last stop before working life is their ongoing master's thesis, where they are using plant trials to see whether the yield in crop production increases when the farmer plants certain crops after harvest – so-called 'catch crops’.

Both Andrea Topsøe Sloth and Maia Vial have moved out of the capital city and to a farmer’s life in the countryside while studying at KU Science. They each live in separate cohousing communities around one hour from Copenhagen.

There, they grow their own food that is healthy for both people and the planet, explains Andrea Topsøe Sloth, who studied organic agriculture for three years before starting at KU Science.

Both their choice of studies and their rural communal living arrangements help to keep climate anxiety in check, they explain.

Plant experiments aim to determine whether the yield increases with the use of 'cover crops'.

“I don’t lose sleep over the state of the planet, but I do feel sad about it. It also helps that, through my studies, I now know a lot is happening in agriculture – even if progress is slow – and that I am part of pushing that development forward,” says Andrea Topsøe Sloth.

Maia Vial adds:

“There is a lot that we can do to improve diversity in food and agricultural production, and that gives me hope. On a more practical level, we can also do a lot where we live, focusing less on consumption. For example, we grow our own vegetables and make juice from surplus apples with our children.”

They both make sure their working lives are compatible with their family life. They also dream about having time to run a hobby farm and contribute to local rural communities.