Agriculture

Here are some core databases to get started in agricultural research.  For more detailed resources, see the specific subjects listed later in this guide.

• CAB Abstracts - articles in all aspects of agriculture.
• Biological Abstracts - articles in basic biology and agriculture.
• Agricola - core articles in all aspects of agriculture, good coverage of USDA publications.
• PubMed - articles in biomedicine, which includes animal biology.
• Web of Science - core articles in all subject areas.

Some basic statistical sources are listed here.  Contact a librarian for more detailed assistance if these sources are insufficient. 

• Agriculture Fact Book (USDA) general facts on agriculture.
• Agricultural Statistics (USDA) contains statistics on agricultural production, supplies, consumption, facilities, costs, and returns.
• The CRB commodity yearbook This book includes production, supply, exports, imports, price and futures information for agricultural and other commodities.
• Census of Agriculture is now taken every five years, and provides statistics by state, county and zip code.  Optional access for Older years (courtesy of Cornell University).
• National Agricultural Statistics Service provides access to some basic statistics and also links to their full text publications (mounted at Cornell University).
• Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service also provides full text versions of their publications, including the annual statistical summary.
• The Economic Research Service of the USDA conducts research on trends in the agriculture and food sector. Many of their publications are now available online.
• FAOSTAT provides access to international data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
• Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal agency government publications. The University Library owns most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. ASK for assistance locating information at any University Library Service Desk.
• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) archive of computerized social science data.

• Agropedia a compilation of agriculture encyclopedias.
• Access Science is the online equivalent of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library - a large number of encyclopedias available online.
• Encyclopedia of Agricultural Science is a print publication edited by Chalres J. Arntzen and Ellen M. Ritter.
• Oxford Reference - a large number of dictionaries available online.
• Technical terms may be found in printed dictionaries of agricultural science.
• Practical handbook of agricultural science. is a print publiation edited by A.A. Hanson. This publication is a quick reference, primarily in table format, to a variety of topics pertaining to soils and to the production and use of plants and animals.

• Associations Unlimited contains detailed descriptions of some 142,000 organizations in all subject areas.
• National Commodity and Agricultural Organization Sites available from the Ag Marketing Resource Center
• CAST (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology) provides information about this organization of agricultural organizations. It also provides links to its member organizations.
• The National Academies: Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine. Information and publications from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.
• Voice of Agriculture: the American Farm Bureau includes online issues of the weekly Farm Bureau News, press releases, information on the Bureau's views, facts on agriculture, connections to state farm bureaus and other agriculturally related organizations.
• Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is a general farm and rural organization working to promote and represent the interests of its over 25,000 farm and rural families in Pennsylvania.
• The National Agricultural Library provides access to their collections and some full text publications through their information centers.

• AgNIC, the Agriculture Network Information Center, contains sources of agricultural information arranged by subject. It also includes a listing of agricultural conferences, agricultural databases, and assorted directories.
• The AgriGator from the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Science, is a massive listing of agricultural resources, arranged geographically.
• Biological, Agricultural, Medical Sciences INFOMINE is a comprehensive, searchable collection of Internet resources in the life sciences.
• The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Agriculture is a subject listing of agricultural resources on the WWW.
• Yahoo! - Science:Agriculture is a hierarchical listing of agricultural WWW resources.
• AgriSurf is a searchable agriculture industry site directory