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In the late 19th century there
was a terrible agricultural crisis.

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Belgium was forced to import massive
quantities of grain from Russia and America

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and was in desperate need of
better production methods.

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Agricultural sciences developed
against this historic background,

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leading to the inauguration
of the first school for agriculture

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in the centre of Leuven.

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In the early days, the Faculty of Science

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wasn't very enthusiastic about
this relatively new field of science.

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In fact,

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it took until the sixties for the institute
of agriculture to be recognised

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as an autonomous faculty

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– now known as the Faculty of
Bioscience Engineering.

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But since then, the faculty has
developed at record speed.

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After the war, the institute moved to
this building on the Arenberg Campus.

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The industrialisation of agriculture
gave the programme

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a popularity boost and it was designated
an official engineering major.

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Nowadays, it's about so much more
than just agriculture.

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Biotechnology, human health,

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environmental science, you name it!