StEL
Wageningen is renowned for its organic agriculture and in the ‘70s students were already advocating for increased publicity of this practice, which was followed by the foundation of a new chair group (Alternative Agriculture/Ecological Agriculture). The association StEL, which is an abbreviation for ‘Studentenoverleg Ecologische Landbouw’ (Studycounsel Organic Agriculture), was formed in 1988 by several students with a particular interest in organic agriculture. It wasn’t a traditional study association in that it was for everyone with an interest in organic agriculture, regardless of the study that they were doing.

In 2002 students at the Wageningen university could start a new study; ‘Bachelor Biologische Productiewetenschappen’ (Bachelor Biological Production Sciences) and the ‘Master Organic Agriculture’. Because StEL was already making themselves strong for the subject matter of these studies they decided to adopt the studies and became a more traditional study association.

During these times the students organized discussion evenings and excursions to different parties within in the biological production and retail of food. They were also a contact point for improving and maintaining the quality of the study. This was all accompanied by yearly board changes, constitution drinks and even an almanac.

Then, in 2007, Bachelor was stopped, because the study didn’t reach the ultimatum given by the university. Some argue that this was due to a lack of publicity by the university while others say that it has to do with organic agriculture becoming a more mainstream practice and therefore didn’t need a specific study. It was hard to fill the board with only the MSc students and thus the association ceased its activities. The tasks of the association were given to Semper Florens in 2010 and MOA students first started being introduced to Semper Florens from the winter-AID 2011 even though StEL was officially dismantled a few years later in 2016.