Dozens of Aggies and community members came together on New Mexico State University’s Las Cruces campus Friday, Nov. 3, as the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences opened the doors to two new cutting-edge facilities that will benefit the state’s agriculture industry and modernize education at NMSU.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the completion of the Food Science, Security and Safety Center and the Animal Nutrition and Feed Manufacturing Facility. The event drew several dignitaries, elected officials and industry partners. Speakers included New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, state Rep. Jack Chatfield and Acting Deputy Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department Gerald Hoehne.
“The buildings themselves are a great moment in the history of agriculture in New Mexico,” College of ACES Dean Rolando A. Flores Galarza said. “They are two buildings, but the areas they’ll work on are very extensive. It connects from the farm to the table and picks up all the byproducts to make an efficient system. We’ve never had something like this in New Mexico.”
Construction on the buildings began in 2021 as part of a project funded by general obligation bonds approved by New Mexico voters in 2018 and 2020. A biomedical research building remains under construction as part of the same project.
The Food Science, Security and Safety Center will serve as an international hub for food safety and security along the United States-Mexico border. It houses six state-of-the-art laboratories for research in functional foods, nutraceuticals, food processing, dairy science, fermentation, minimizing water usage in food production and other areas. The facility will also support value-added agriculture, one of New Mexico’s nine targeted industries.
The Animal Nutrition and Feed Manufacturing Facility consolidates NMSU’s livestock education and research enterprise into a single feed mill, giving students, researchers and stakeholders ample space to investigate novel feedstuffs and processing methods to improve livestock health and productivity.
More than 80% of the courses offered in the Department of Animal and Range Sciences will use the new feed mill. Students will receive opportunities to work in the facility and obtain hands-on experience in feed milling, preparing them for careers in the feedlot and feed manufacturing industries. Researchers, meanwhile, will use the space to formulate supplements and rations for livestock experiments to improve health, reproduction and meat quality.
“The Animal Nutrition and Feed Manufacturing Facility is ideally suited for byproduct utilization,’ Flores Galarza said. “This is crucial because it will allow us to study not only the development of feed products for animals but also utilization of byproducts, including hemp, pecans and chile.”
He added: “When you look at the two buildings and consider all these components, this is something very different that we’re accomplishing here by combining these efforts. These facilities allow us to move forward with three major components of our strategic plan.”
Those components include hiring additional faculty to lead new research, develop new patents and launch new business opportunities; a recently approved Ph.D. program in food science; and the Center of Excellence Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems.
“Therefore, these buildings are part of the largest value-added agricultural research system in the U.S. Southwest – welcome to them,” Flores Galarza said.
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Cutline 1: Rolando A. Flores Galarza, dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Food Science, Security and Safety Center and the Animal Nutrition and Feed Manufacturing Facility Nov. 3 on the Las Cruces campus. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
Cutline 2: Dozens of Aggies and community members attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of two new cutting-edge facilities that will benefit the state’s agriculture industry and modernize education at NMSU. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)
Cutline 3: Attendees, including New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, tour the new Food Science, Security and Safety Center on the Las Cruces campus during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 3. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)