Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is a system of farming that meets the needs of both today and tomorrow, while reducing environmental impact, maintaining profitability, and promoting social and economic equity.  Usually, these practices work with natural cycles to protect the air, water, and soil as well as biodiversity.

This page gathers general sustainability resources found in the library and out on the web.  It is not comprehensive--thousands of sources for information on sustainable agriculture exist and it would be impossible to include them all.  Additionally, some of these sources may be on other pages--sustainable agricultural sources relevant to crop production may be listed on the AGR 105 page, and there may be some unique sources on these pages that aren't listed here.  As always, the sources listed here are suggestions and are provided as a potential place to get research sources but should not be considered the only possible sources for any given assignment or project.

Databases aren't actually sources themselves, but they are used to find sources such as books, journal articles, even videos.  They make it easier for you to search for articles on specific topics.  These library databases and BrowZine journal collections are the most likely to provide research articles pertinent to your topics in this class.

Journal articles are usually considered scholarly when they have gone through a process known as peer-review.  Peer-review means that experts in the field have looked at the research, provided feedback to the author and publisher, and made recommendations or requests for additional information, clarifications, and other suggestions for improvements before the article was actually published.  This is supposed to catch mistakes, unethical or poor research, and other problems before an article is released for others to read.  Magazine and newspaper (and journals that don't peer-review) are not considered scholarly since they don't go through this quality control process.  Usually, instructors will specify they want peer-reviewed articles.

Databases

Databases allow you to search hundreds of thousands of journals for articles specific to your search topic.  These databases are your top choices for agriculture and veterinary topics.

BrowZine Journal Collections

BrowZine provides access to individual journals but it also allows you to search its extensive collection by topic.  These collections are the most likely to provide journals with articles relevant to zoonoses, agriculture, and public safety.

Journals

While databases make finding articles in journals easier, sometimes it's good to go straight to a journal.  These journals focus on various aspects of crop production, soil management, and agronomy.  

Books provide in-depth information on a topic; it may be a broad topic like zoonoses or it might be specific like Lyme disease treatment in domestic dogs.  Most scholarly books take a while to research, write, and publish, so watch out for older copyright and publication dates--a book published in 2024 could be pulling its information from before 2020, so if you need more up-to-date information, journals or trusted web sources may be a better choice.

Websites can be useful but they should always be from trusted sources.  Taking the first website listed on a Google search isn't always a good idea, and it can be difficult to sometimes tell if a site is reputable.  Look for sources that are from legitimate veterinary, health, or agricultural institutions or organizations, or from trusted government sites, as well as keeping an eye on the dates that the information was posted.  For some general or historical topics, the date may not be very important, but when talking about the latest treatments, you'll want to find more recent updates.