Vernon Cardwell retired (2012) from the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). He specialized in education, crop physiology, crop management, seed technology, and hand-powered post-harvest tools.

A Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor, he taught for 45 years, teaching 28 different courses and developing 14 new courses while advising 25 to 30 undergraduates per year and serving on 55 graduate committees. He was actively involved in ag-literacy efforts with Minnesota Ag-In-The-Classroom and nationally with Food, Land and People (FLP), and used topics of food, land, water and climate to enhance science for K-8 teachers in summer workshops.

He was president of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and American Society of Agronomy (ASA). He began volunteer work with Compatible Technology International in August 2011 where he developed a prototype peanut lifter that is animal powered, a peanut stripper, peanut sheller, and pearl millet/sorghum thresher for use in Africa, devices that are now being manufactured in Africa.