College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

Welcome to Michigan State University – My name is Ron Hendrick. I am dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. On behalf of President Stanley, I welcome you to Michigan State University. 

Our college is different from other colleges on MSU’s campus. We are the place where the university’s land grant mission is most visible, through our academic or teaching mission; our research mission and our outreach mission. 

Our college is home to MSU AgBioResearch and MSU Extension. We work together to listen to and meet the needs of both the state’s agriculture industry and its natural resources industry. 

We are home to more than 4,800 undergraduate students, almost 700 graduate students and about 500 students in our Institute of Agricultural Technology – a certificate program coordinated at MSU in over a dozen community colleges throughout the state and on MSU’s campus. 

Welcome also to the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education. This is the space where many of guests who are here today frequently engage in outreach activities with their colleagues and families. 

The Pavilion is one of the first places that many of our students visit. It’s important as it represents a meeting place where a lot of the challenges you will hear about today are talked about and addressed. 

We are committed to helping to build a prosperous food and agriculture economy in the state of Michigan. As many of you know, Michigan is the second most diverse agricultural state in the nation. That means there are a lot of different needs – and a lot of different challenges. 

External forces this year have seemingly mounted against Michigan’s agriculture industry – from weather and climate to invasive species and diseases; to trade and labor uncertainties – these challenges make it more difficult to plan and practice agriculture here. And we’re seeing it take a drastic toll. It plays out in higher numbers of individuals dealing with mental health crises, those dealing with tough financial decisions and some even closing their operations. 

One of the best ways MSU can help is through building resilience. It’s easy to think about building mental and emotional resilience, and we build that through several of the programs MSU Extension Director Jeff Dwyer will talk about. 

We build resilience through our work in the classroom, with students. We work with students like Ashley Kuhlman, who graduated last year from the Institute of Agricultural Technology . She is bringing back drone technology to her fifth-generation family farm in Mendon, Michigan. We build resiliency through educating the next generation of agricultural scientists and educators. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently awarded seven fellowships to MSU graduate students, six of whom are studying in our college. 

We build resilience through the work of MSU AgBioResearch. Every day our scientists work on building resilience, funding solutions to combat plant and animal diseases, adapt to weather and climate change, and provide research to you and other policy makers across the state and globe to address labor, trade, food safety and food security concerns. 

MSU AgBioResearch invests across campus and the state – Director Doug Buhler and Associate Director George Smith – are here today to listen to the concerns of our agricultural producers. They lead a team of 340 scientists that help fulfill the industry’s research and development needs. 

In partnership with the College of Natural Science, the Plant Resilience Institute, was launched in 2016 as part of MSU’s Global Impact Initiative. Faculty who work in the Plant Resilience Institute are experts in microbial ecology, drought adaptation and nanotechnology. Through Project GREEEN researchers and specialists are addressing industry sustainability, disease and pest pressures, and protecting the environment. And, through the Michigan Alliance for Animal Agriculture researchers are exploring how to help producers adapt to new housing requirements by looking at animal behavior to prevent possible conflict. 

We also build resilience through the work of MSU Extension. Our educators are well-versed in mental health first aid, in fact 80% of them have been trained in it. MSU Extension helps develop resilience within agricultural and natural resources with their efforts that tie back to research and teaching. 

As I mentioned, Jeff Dwyer, is here with me today and will talk much more about our outreach presence in every county in the state. Thank you.