In 1987, Congress recognized the University of Arkansas School of Law for its "unique expertise in the area of agricultural law" and called for the creation of the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information at the Law School. Since then, the National AgLaw Center has been funded with federal appropriations through the National Agricultural Library, an entity within the USDA Agricultural Research Service of the USDA.

The National AgLaw Center is the only agricultural and food law research and information facility that is independent, national in scope, and directly connected to the national agricultural information network. The Center conducts objective legal research and provides timely, accurate, and non-partisan agricultural and food law information to those in the agricultural community. The Center is staffed by a team of law and research professors, lawyers, other specialists, and research fellows from the University of Arkansas School of Law Graduate Program in Agricultural Law.

The National AgLaw Center conducts legal research into the most critical issues facing agriculture and food today. Based on this research, the Center publishes online, objective, authoritative, and scholarly articles, notes, case summaries and other publications by leading agricultural law scholars and attorneys throughout the contry. These writings are also now being included in online Reading Rooms organized by agricultural and food law topics.

The National AgLaw Center serves as an agricultural and food law information center affiliated with the National Agricultural Library. Its website provides access to Center publications and serves as a gateway to agricultural law resources on the Internet. The Center maintains an agricultural and food law collection in the Young Law Library at the University of Arkansas School of Law, adds cataloging to the agricultural database, AGRICOLA, and prepares and disseminates research bibliographies. In addition, the Center participates in the online agricultural reference network AgNIC.

The National AgLaw Center's Research Fellowship Program allows the Center to use the valuable research and writing skills of the students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Agricultural Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law while providing those students with both financial assistance and excellent work experience. Center staff occasionally teach courses in the Graduate Program, sharing their expertise and the knowledge gained through their specialized agricultural and food law research. AgLaw Graduate Program

The Center works closely with the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, by partially funding its research and publication activities as a component of its mission. Drake AgLaw Center