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.