Society needs technicians and researchers to make the best use of natural resources for agriculture and in the transformation of foods, plant fibres, and other useful plant and animal products. Historically, technicians have had to perform all the farming operations necessary to obtain new plants varieties or animal breeds, produce higher yields, and transform products obtained directly from nature. They had to process new products through various agricultural industries for the purpose of obtaining higher productivity and financial profits. However, based on the conclusions to modernise and diversify the curricula and the research programmes of the European Community reached in 2001at the Fifth Inter-university Conference for Agriculture and Related Sciences in Europe (Weinestepham, Germany) in its final report—Perspectives for Higher Education in the Sciences Applied to Agriculture, Food and Nature—a change is absolutely necessary to maintain the paradigm of the role of agriculture in the development of the humanity. We must change from high-production agriculture to maintenance agriculture, whereby food safety and the protection of the environment play a central role. This change requires new, more in-depth agricultural training and research in the following principle fields:

• The food chain, from the gene pool to production.
• Food technology for improved human nutrition.
• Rural development, conserving and respecting nature.