“If you think you’ll like it, just try it”

Nicholas Clark has been a farm advisor with University of California Cooperative Extension for about 12 years. He spent most of that time in the southern San Joaquin Valley working with field crops like dry beans, wheat, corn and alfalfa, and recently moved to the Salinas Valley to work with vegetable growers. We asked him how he got there, what teens can do right now, and whether professionals actually want to hear from students.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

“I had no idea that I would be doing this”

Back in high school, did you know you wanted to go into agriculture? How did you end up as a farm advisor, and who made the biggest impact on getting you here?

“When I was in high school, I had no idea that I would be doing this. Nothing about my surroundings indicated to me that this would be a part of my future. I was really into music. I was in several punk rock bands. I liked traveling around California and the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest. I was really into the arts, and I have been interested in fine art photography.”

That changed when he met a retired iron worker who had hurt his back after years of hard labor and needed help on his small ranch in West Fresno. Clark did a work trade: very cheap rent in exchange for helping around the ranch.

“He taught me all kinds of stuff. A big part of that was horticulture and care for small livestock and poultry. I got into raising chickens for eggs, raising sheep for wool, vegetable gardening, and land management for weeds and irrigation. He taught me all of these things on a small scale, and it was just so interesting to me. It really did change the type of stuff that I was interested in.”

His path still wasn’t a straight line. He studied cultural anthropology at Fresno City College and UC Santa Cruz, then came home to Fresno and couldn’t find work in that field. He worked for his uncle raising poultry in Springville and sold honey and beeswax for a beekeeper, which was his first professional connection to production agriculture. Still feeling aimless, he went to graduate school in plant science at Fresno State.

“It was probably one of the best and most informed decisions I had made in my life up to that point.”

During his master’s program he interned with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Parlier. Before he graduated, someone at UC Cooperative Extension reached out looking for help with research projects. His first job there was pulling weeds and picking cotton by hand for a cotton breeding program.

“It’s very hard work. But it felt very rewarding, because I was all of a sudden next to the scientists who were gathering new information that I could see was immediately being used to improve agriculture and improve the quality of the environment around us.”

He kept working as a technician, kept applying for higher positions, and eventually a farm advisor position opened up in his region. He applied and got it.

One conversation changed how he looked at opportunities. Feeling stuck, he asked an old friend from school why he seemed so happy with what he was doing.

“He said, ‘I don’t know. Anytime an opportunity comes up for me, I just say yes, because I have no idea what I want to do.’ That changed the way that I thought. I had been trying to be very selective, which is not a bad approach, it just wasn’t working for me. So I changed my mindset and started going with anything that presented itself as a positive opportunity. Some things worked, some things didn’t.”

Something you’re good at, or something you love?

Should teens go into a field they’re good at, or one they love?

“It’s worth the mental and emotional challenge to follow something that is interesting, even if you don’t have the immediate confidence that you’re good at it. If you think you’ll like it, just try it. And if you don’t like it, so what? There’s not a better time to do that than when somebody’s young.”

He also pointed out that passion can grow over time. “You can develop a passion about something in life. Sometimes just doing something that you’re good at, you might find later on that it’s really rewarding in ways that you didn’t understand until later. Keep doing the things that you’re good at, but break out of that comfort zone and try something new if it’s interesting. And if you don’t like it, so what? Fail fast and move on to something else.”

Something you can start this month

A lot of teens who live near farms never think of agriculture as something they can make an impact in. What’s one thing they could do this month, without a lab or professional supervision?

Clark started with safety. Agricultural fields can be dangerous for people who don’t know what’s happening there, so he would not encourage anyone to go out to a farm uninvited. Instead:

“Probably the most important thing that someone could do for agriculture right now is try to inform themselves about local agricultural production, and be very proactive about that.”

His example: every California county agriculture commissioner has a website with contact information for the commissioner and their staff, and each one posts an annual report on the county’s agricultural production.

“Get informed by reading those reports. They can be kind of boring, it’s just statistics, but it’s probably going to be something that you didn’t know. Learn what is being produced locally, and reach out to the ag commissioner and ask if there’s something that you can get involved in. Ask the question that you just asked me. I think it can be surprising, and I think it might be inspiring too.”

He also suggested getting involved through school:

• FFA (Future Farmers of America). “If there is a chapter at the high school, get involved in it. It’s an incredibly intense learning experience. There’s a lot of interaction with agriculture professionals through that club, and there are travel opportunities.”
• 4-H. A youth development program focused on community involvement, where agriculture can be part of it depending on where you live.
• Ag science pathways. “Talk to a guidance counselor or vice principal and ask them if there are coursework tracks or extra study opportunities.”

Will professionals actually talk to you?

A lot of teens feel like they don’t know enough to reach out to experts. How willing are professionals to talk with a student who just wants to learn what the field is really like?

“In my experience, the professionals in ag production and in the sciences are very willing to talk to anybody about it. There’s a general consensus that the public is not informed enough, and we spend a lot of time trying to keep the public informed. We want people to understand how agriculture affects the environment and vice versa, and we want people to know where their food comes from.”

“I understand the struggle of being young and inexperienced and nervous about reaching out to people who know more. Do not be afraid to reach out to these professionals. If they don’t get back to you, it’s because they’re busy. It’s not because they don’t like you, and it’s not because they don’t want to share. They simply don’t have time. And if they don’t, try somebody else. And if they don’t, try somebody else, and just try until you reach someone. When you reach someone who reaches back out to you, you’re going to find someone who’s very willing and very eager to share information with you.”

What kept him going

It’s easy to assume someone’s path was smooth. When you were frustrated or discouraged, what kept you going?

Clark said one of his biggest sympathies for young people today is how common the “curated good life” is on social media. “As interesting as it is, it’s just false. Nobody’s life is that good, ever, and it can be very discouraging if somebody doesn’t understand that.”

For him, it came down to willpower. “If I found myself unhappy, whether it was a job or where I was living, I just had a deep will to change it.”

He remembers the moment it clicked. He was working at a fast food restaurant, and a manager came in upset and yelled at him over something small, like getting the chili ready an hour late. “I realized, I’ve hit that point. I need to do something else.” That pushed him to stop taking one or two classes at a time at Fresno City College, talk to a guidance counselor, and transfer.

Look for what’s interesting

Clark came back to music and photography, the things he loved before agriculture. People told him he’d never make money doing them. “I just didn’t care. I loved that stuff. I wasn’t doing it to become rich. I did it because I loved it.” The people he met through art taught him to look for beauty in the world that was unconventional. Instead of taking the bus across town, he’d walk, even if it took three hours.

“Just step out, be a little bit uncomfortable, challenge yourself to try and find things that are interesting that people are not feeding to you. Go look for something interesting.”

He was also honest that his job isn’t always exciting. “There’s no Instagram front page version of my job. There’s definitely a lot of stuff that’s really boring. But the great stuff of my job, in my opinion, very strongly outweighs having to do stuff that I find boring.”

His advice to teens

Is there anything else you’d want teens watching this to know?

“Relax. Happiness is so important. There’s nothing wrong with not being happy right now. But pursuing happiness is key. When somebody pursues happiness, no matter how difficult the struggle is to do so, you’re very likely to end up where you’re supposed to be. There was nothing along my path that told me I would end up here. I just did not want to be unhappy, and I tried really hard at every opportunity I could to make myself happier. And this is where I happened to end up.”

Thank you to Nicholas Clark for taking the time to talk with thirdauthor.

More interviews