In 1998 some 350 students at Ontario's University of Guelph took a novel approach to signing up for a class: They circulated a petition demanding its creation.

Their effort was a success, and Introduction to Organic Agriculture was added to the curriculum. But the grassroots push for organic agriculture education at Guelph didn't stop there. Thanks to the persistent efforts of agriculture professor E. Ann Clark-the David to a well-heeled Goliath on a campus where biotech agribusiness money flows into research-April 2006 saw students complete the first of four years in a bachelor of science program with a major in organic agriculture.

Given the mainstreaming of certified organic products and the rapid growth in their popularity, it may come as a surprise to some that no other school in North America offered an organic major until Guelph came along.

It was even a surprise to Clark, until she and a graduate student started investigating how organic agriculture was being addressed in North American education. The two surveyed 25 programs (15 in Canada and 10 in the United States), as well as 10 experiential programs that they thought were likely to have at least some organic focus. In 2002 they presented their results to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements conference in Victoria, British Columbia. There were courses in organics, and in sustainable or ecological agriculture. There were even some specializations in organics at a diploma level, some liberal arts degrees focusing on organics, and some majors in things like human ecology where organics is a central topic.

But at the time, no other school had a major in organic agriculture. (In the fall of 2006, Washington State University enrolled students in its newly launched major degree program, Organic Agriculture Systems.)

'Other places just have some wing nut faculty member like me who is willing to buck the trend and offer organics against all odds,' Clark says. 'But it's always on the periphery, it is always tangential, it has never been done intentionally from the inside. So that's what distinguishes this degree of ours.'

In addition to the introductory course, students who sign up for the major will take five classes designed for the program: Organic Marketing, Design of Organic Production Systems, Social Issues in Organic Agriculture, and two tutorials. They also will have to go out and get practical, hands-on experience in the organic industry.

While Clark's focus is in the classroom, she says that experiential learning in organics is essential. Because organic agriculture is not about manipulating genes or spraying chemicals, success can be very site-specific. Plus, many of those who go into organic agriculture don't have a traditional farming or gardening background.

This new breed of would-be organic farmers poses a practical challenge for agriculture professors, who now find themselves having to teach the ABCs of the field. 'The way agriculture has traditionally been, you didn't worry [about teaching] how to lube a tractor or birth a calf because the students already knew it,' Clark says. 'Now they don't.'