This subject covers: the science or art of cultivating the soil, growing and harvesting crops, and raising livestock. (From Britannica Online)
Table of Contents
Article Databases and Indexes
* Premier Resources *
Search here to find citations and abstracts for articles from over 600 periodicals, as well as USDA and state experiment station and extension publications, and selected books on agriculture, animal husbandry, animal and human nutrition, forestry, plant pathology, plant science, human ecology, agricultural economics, rural sociology.
CAB Abstracts covers agriculture in its broadest sense, including crop production, forestry, environment, animal health and nutrition, veterinary science, agricultural engineering, biotechnology, soil and water, agricultural economics, recreation and tourism, rural sociology, and human nutrition and health. Indexes journal articles, monographs, conferences, and other primary literature.
Academic or Scholarly Articles Subject Indexes
Information for international agricultural research, from 1975 to the present.
NO LONGER CURRENT. Due to budget pressures, we have canceled our subscription to BIOSIS Previews. Although you will continue to be able to access the database, no new articles will be added after January 2011.
Covers the biological and medical sciences, including biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, botany, environment, microbiology, and zoology. Provides citations and abstracts to articles, conference papers, technical reports and chapters of books from over 5000 publications.The Libraries' subscription to this resource allows for 10 users at any one time. If you get a busy signal, please wait a few minutes and try accessing the site again.
Provides extensive indexing of scholarly and technical periodicals, conference proceedings, and report literature in all engineering disciplines including applied physics, electronics, materials science, and related fields such as agriculture. Indexes nearly 3000 sources worldwide.
Contains bibliographic citations and selected abstracts to the professional and scholarly literature in the field of economics and allied disciplines, including journals, books, chapters in books, conference proceedings and dissertations.
This database provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary coverage of the environmental sciences. Abstracts and citations are drawn from over 6000 sources including scientific journals, conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books and government publications. Incorporates Pollution Abstracts, Water Resources Abstracts, and other specialized databases.Areas of coverage include agricultural and environmental biotechnology, ecology, energy resources, environmental engineering, environmental impact statements (U.S.), pollution, toxicology & toxic emissions, and water resource issues.
Connect to Google Scholar through the Libraries' web site to gain off-campus access to all the articles and journals in full text in the Libraries. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. To connect to the full text, click "FindIt@U of M Twin Cities" in your Google Scholar search results. Then click the "Find It" link to get a menu of full text and Library services. Learn more: Google Scholar FAQ
Organic Eprints is an international open access archive for papers related to research in organic agriculture. The archive contains full-text papers in electronic form together with bibliographic information, abstracts and other metadata.
An abstract and citation database with a single search platform searching content from ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciTopics, and relevant Web content.
General Indexes to Magazine, Journal & Newspaper Articles
This resource is licensed by the MINITEX Library Information Network with state appropriations from the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (MHESO) and the Minnesota Department of Education.
The world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for over 4,600 scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications from 1975 to the present.
LexisNexis Academic is a full text databases of business, legal, news, magazines, and wire services. It includes sources for accounting, environmental studies, health and medical care, government and politics, people, and consumer information. Legal publications include law journals, federal and state statutes, codes, cases, agency rules & regulations, patents and legal reference materials.
A database of the names
and associated basic bibliographical details of all seed plants. Its goal is to
eliminate the need for repeated reference to primary sources for basic
bibliographic information about plant names. The data in the IPNI comes from three sources: the Index Kewensis (IK), the Gray Card Index (GCI) and the Australian Plant
Names Index (APNI).The data are freely available.
Includes current sources in North American nurseries for over 70,000 plants; over 200,000 citations to current plant science literature, listings for more than 1300 North American seed and nursery firms, and an evaluative review of 75 CD-ROMs and web sites of plant images.
This resource is free and open to the public.
Catalogs and Bibliographies
MNCAT Catalog searches for books, e-books, e-journals, maps, music scores, films, sound recordings, government publications, archival materials etc, owned by or accessible via the University of Minnesota.
Find books, journals, articles, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, theses/dissertations, machine-readable data files, and any other materials available in libraries worldwide. This covers all subject areas. Request items through Interlibrary Loan using the ILLiad link on each item's record. WorldCat is produced by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.)
The Libraries' subscription to this resource allows for 65 users at any one time. If you get a busy signal, please wait a few minutes and try accessing the site again.
General Reference Sources
Atlases & Maps
For data on the worldwide distribution of plant diseases of economic or quarantine importance. Created in association with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), over 1000 Disease Maps can be browsed, searched and used via this site.
For data on the worldwide distribution of plant pests of economic or quarantine importance. Created in association with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), over 700 Pest Maps can be browsed, searched and used via this site.
Dissertations and Theses
Dissertations and theses from over 1000 universities. Doctoral dissertations are indexed for almost all North American graduate schools and many European universities. Masters theses from selected schools only. Provides bibliographic citations for older titles. Abstracts are included for dissertations since 1980 and for masters theses since 1988. Some dissertations, beginning with 1997 publication dates, are available digitally. These include the University of Minnesota and other CIC member universities.
ASAE/ASABE standards: standards, engineering practices and data adopted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Primary Source Materials
NALDC includes historical publications, U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research, and more. The scope of the NALDC includes the following: • Items published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and clearly intended for public consumption; • Scholarly and peer-reviewed research outcomes authored by USDA employees while working for USDA; and • Other items selected in accordance with the subjects identified in the NAL Collection Development Policy.
Societies, Agencies, and Organizations
Official Agency & Organization Websites
AgNIC is a voluntary partnership between land grant institutions, libraries, departments within colleges and universities, states, extension programs, etc.,to provide selected, quality agricultural information. AgNIC provides information on animal science, animal products, farms and farming, food and nutrition, insects, forest science, plant diseases, rural and agricultural sociology, and a host of other topics.
The Alternative Farming Systems Information Center (AFSIC) specializes in identifying resources about sustainable food systems and practices in support of USDA's effort to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture and farmers worldwide.
The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded in 1945 and is the lead agency for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development. An intergovernmental organization, FAO has 180 member countries plus one member organization, the European Community.
NOTE: FAO publications are found in Magrath Library on the St. Paul Campus.
IFOAM is the worldwide umbrella organization for the organic movement, uniting more than 750 member organizations in 116 countries.
The mission of the MDA is to enhance Minnesotans' quality of life by ensuring the integrity of the food supply, the health of the environment, and the strength of the state's agricultural economy.
Are you looking for the latest in sustainable agriculture and organic farming news, events and funding opportunities? The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service covers these topics, plus offers in-depth publications on production practices, alternative crop and livestock enterprises, innovative marketing, organic certification, and highlights of local, regional, USDA and other federal sustainable agriculture activities.
Statistics and Data
Provides links to collections of data are maintained by the Agricultural Research Service or by ARS in cooperation with other organizations. Organized by broad topic: Chemistry and Biochemistry, Food and Nutrition, Genetics, Germplasm, Natural Resources, Systematics(Taxonomic Classification)
Reports from the USDA AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service) Market News include information on prices, volume, quality, condition, and other market data on farm products in specific markets and marketing areas. Reports cover both domestic and international markets. Click on the new 'Reference Room' for helpful video tutorials and a glossary of terms.
Provides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository. Data-Planet Statistical Datasets offers powerful capabilities to compare & contrast multiple data series, perform statistical calculations on the data, and customize output views.
Many of the data sets are available for download as GIS data -- look for the "Map" icon to identify this functionality.
More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. This site provides easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service provides timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.
OECD iLibrary International Trade by Commodities Statistics provides trade statistics for 34 OECD member reporter countries crossed with much larger list of partner countries/entities. Harmonized system allows refining on several parameters: reporter countries partner countries, commodities, measure, flow, time. Related interactive statistical databases available under OECD.Stat cross-database query. See Getting Started -- User Guide for OECD iLibrary for help using OECD iLibrary.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Use the Abstract as a convenient volume for statistical reference, and as a guide to sources of more information both in print and on the Web. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations. The online version has full text from 1995-, although the series as a whole starts in 1878.
This database provides international statistics on all major social and economic subjects. It replaces the older database "UN Common Database" which will be discontinued in mid-2008.
The Economic Research Service is a primary source of economic information and research in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ERS conducts a research program to inform public and private decision making on economic and policy issues involving food, farming, natural resources, and rural development.
Style Manuals and Writing Guides
RefWorks is a web-based citation manager that allows you to create your own databases of citations by importing references from MNCAT and other databases, and then in seconds automatically generate bibliographies in all major styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago, etc.).
University of Minnesota
Related U of M Web Sites
CFANS is a college devoted to solution-driven science; we use critical and innovative thinking plus all the tools of the arts and sciences to make our planet a productive, friendly, and sustainable environment"”to solve everyday problems. We study the health of the land and the health of the living.
The MAES funds research at the University of Minnesota to improve and support Minnesota's families and communities, food, natural resources and agriculture.
The Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) is a unique partnership between the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, University of Minnesota Extension, and the Sustainers' Coalition, a group of individuals and community-based nonprofit organizations. The purpose of MISA is to bring together the diverse interests of the agricultural community with interests from across the University community in a cooperative effort to develop and promote sustainable agriculture in Minnesota and beyond.