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Food Production

Knowledge · O*NET work requirement

Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.

In the O*NET occupational database, Food Production is an area of knowledge that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 35 of 894 occupations.

Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this area of knowledge as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.

Occupations that rely most on Food Production

Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the area of knowledge the job needs (0–7).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Food Batchmakers 4.3 4.2
Food Scientists and Technologists 4.1 4.4
Chefs and Head Cooks 4.1 4.3
Cooks, Private Household 4.1 3.5
Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers 4.0 5.1
Cooks, Short Order 4.0 4.0
Food Service Managers 4.0 4.0
Dietetic Technicians 3.9 3.4
Butchers and Meat Cutters 3.9 4.1
Farm and Home Management Educators 3.9 4.7
Animal Scientists 3.8 4.6
Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders 3.8 3.4
Food Science Technicians 3.8 3.7
Driver/Sales Workers 3.6 2.6
Agricultural Engineers 3.6 4.7
Agricultural Technicians 3.6 4.2
Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria 3.6 3.7
Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 3.5 4.0
First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 3.5 3.6
Farm Labor Contractors 3.5 4.5
Buyers and Purchasing Agents, Farm Products 3.4 3.8
Slaughterers and Meat Packers 3.4 4.0
Bakers 3.4 4.0
Cooks, Restaurant 3.4 3.0
Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers 3.4 3.8
Fast Food and Counter Workers 3.4 2.7
Precision Agriculture Technicians 3.4 4.3
Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders 3.3 3.8
Demonstrators and Product Promoters 3.3 3.3
Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers 3.3 3.0
Dietitians and Nutritionists 3.2 3.2
Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals 3.0 3.1
Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders 3.0 2.8
First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers 3.0 3.1
Food Servers, Nonrestaurant 3.0 2.7
Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop 3.0 2.2
Personal Care Aides 3.0 2.6
Soil and Plant Scientists 3.0 3.6
Food Preparation Workers 2.9 2.2
Agricultural Inspectors 2.9 3.4

How AI is used by roles that need Food Production

This area of knowledge is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 54.3% of the 35 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (19 roles).

Across those roles, 37.4% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 31.8% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.81 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 31.1% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 21.6% you and AI go back and forth
learning 14.6% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 1.2% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 0.8% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The roles where this area of knowledge is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Importance Works with AI Autonomy
Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 3.5 65.5% 4.0/5
Dietitians and Nutritionists 3.2 70.2% 4.0/5
Demonstrators and Product Promoters 3.3 48.2% 4.0/5
Dietetic Technicians 3.9 48.8% 4.0/5
Food Scientists and Technologists 4.1 50.1% 3.5/5
Cooks, Restaurant 3.4 36.7% 4.0/5
Chefs and Head Cooks 4.1 38.5% 4.0/5
Farm and Home Management Advisors 3.9 30.1% 4.0/5
First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 3.5 50.0% 4.0/5
Driver/Sales Workers 3.6 46.4% 3.5/5
Bakers 3.4 45.4% 4.0/5
Agricultural Engineers 3.6 55.3% 4.0/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this area of knowledge is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Food Production matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Food Production (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.

Nationally, about 6.7% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Food Production (measured across 44 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Accommodation and Food Services 7,009,870 49.2%
Retail Trade 575,420 3.7%
Manufacturing 556,470 4.4%
Health Care and Social Assistance 520,670 2.3%
Educational Services 364,800 2.7%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 176,230 6.7%
Wholesale Trade 150,160 2.5%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 72,690 0.8%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 54,310 1.2%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 42,890 0.4%
Transportation and Warehousing 39,810 0.5%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 33,410 7.9%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Accommodation and Food Services Sector 7.34× 49.2%
Full-Service Restaurants National industry 5.75× 38.5%
Casino Hotels National industry 1.85× 12.4%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting Sector 1.18× 7.9%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Sector 6.7%
Manufacturing Sector 0.66× 4.4%
Retail Trade Sector 0.55× 3.7%
Educational Services Sector 0.4× 2.7%
Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities National industry 0.39× 2.6%
Wholesale Trade Sector 0.37× 2.5%
Health Care and Social Assistance Sector 0.34× 2.3%
Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers National industry 0.31× 2.1%

Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.

Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.

Capability Type Shared occupations
Production and Processing Knowledge 23
Biology Knowledge 12
Sales and Marketing Knowledge 10
Chemistry Knowledge 8
Trunk Strength Ability 14
Management of Material Resources Cross-functional skill 3
Personnel and Human Resources Knowledge 8
Number Facility Ability 12
Manual Dexterity Ability 18
Administration and Management Knowledge 21
Management of Personnel Resources Cross-functional skill 10
Arm-Hand Steadiness Ability 19

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Food Production." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/knowledge/food-production

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Food Production. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/knowledge/food-production

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-food-production,
  title  = {Food Production},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/knowledge/food-production}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.