The story of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) begins with Ohio’s commitment to accessible education and practical discovery.
In 1870, the Ohio General Assembly established the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, made possible by the Morrill Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln. This landmark legislation transformed higher education across the nation, creating land-grant universities to make a college degree attainable for every American and to connect learning with the needs of the people.
The Morrill Act laid the foundation for two more pivotal laws — the Hatch Act of 1887 and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 — which built agricultural experiment stations and a cooperative Extension system. In Ohio, those programs grew into today’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) our statewide research enterprise and Ohio State University Extension, forming the three pillars of CFAES in teaching, research and extension.
More than 150 years later, our mission remains the same: to teach, discover and share knowledge that improves lives. Through world-class education, innovative research and outreach in all 88 counties, CFAES continues to advance Ohio’s communities and contribute solutions to global challenges in food, agriculture and the environment.
