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The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) was established in 1952 on AUB’s main campus in Beirut and was modeled on the US land-grant college system. It owns and operates a 100 hectare research and outreach center located 80 kilometers east of Beirut in the Beqa’a Valley known as the Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC). FAFS has transformed its position from the land-grant model to a leading Faculty with the mission to enhance the nutritional health and wellbeing of the peoples of the Middle East by tackling issues of international focus and regional impact.
Researchers and students are involved in international collaborations that span the globe. Much of the region’s pioneering work in nutrition and dietetics, landscape, environment and natural resource management, and community and rural development has been conducted by FAFS faculty and students in fields and laboratories.
Its diverse strengths across the multiple disciplines make FAFS a regional center of excellence that integrates education, research, and outreach activities and develops leaders to address the global challenges of the 21st century.
Since it was founded, FAFS has graduated 4,019 students: 2,682 undergraduates and 1,337 graduate students. In addition to its 35.88 full time equivalent faculty members, FAFS leverages the expertise and assistance of a select group of national and international experts to manage an annual average of 35 research and development projects and service contracts.
- FAFS’s academic programs and curricula set the standard for colleges in Lebanon and many countries in the MENA region.
- It was the first to introduce the dietetics profession in Lebanon and the region and to coordinate dietetic internships in internationally accredited medical centers.
- FAFS published the first food composition tables for the MENA region which document nutrient and vitamin content of local foods and remains the only reliable and comprehensive reference for the population of the MENA region.
- It was the first in the MENA region to introduce integrative and multidisciplinary programs such as agribusiness and landscape design and ecosystem management. In these programs, concepts of agriculture, business, management, and sustainability are incorporated in the curricula.
- FAFS has championed the first country profile on nutrition in 1992 and in 2007. This is in addition to instating important policy changes in Lebanon (such as promoting the use of iodized salt). FAFS’s faculty members are routinely called upon to act as consultants and advisors for many governments in the region.
- It introduced genetically improved cereals (wheat, barley, and sweet corn) as well as local sheep breeds and large livestock through artificial insemination to the region.
- FAFS was the first nongovernmental institution to reach out and work directly with farmers.
- It developed farm machinery and implements adapted for Lebanon’s terraced small farm holdings and specialized crops.
- FAFS launched in 2002 the “Healthy Basket” project a community supported agriculture program that assists Lebanese organic farmers sustainably grow and sell their produce.
- It helped transition the poultry sector in Lebanon from a local industry to one that exports to the region.
- FAFS was a pioneer in developing LAUBINA a nutritionally complete infant formula early in the 60's.
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