Agriculture

Resources in this guide are intended to support the study and teaching for the interdisciplinary Agriculture and Natural Resources major. Included here are catalogs, databases, and web resources for finding information in a variety of formats (books and encyclopedias, articles and journals, film and video). 

Additionally, the research guides listed below will be useful when learning about the various subjects that make up the field of agriculture and natural resources.

Choose a research topic that interests you. Once you have thought of a topic, try stating it in the form of a question. This will help to narrow your topic and focus upon the aspect of the topic that you are going to research. So if you first thought of writing about the sustainable food systems and healthy eating, try stating it in the form of a question: "How can sustainable food systems lead to improved nutrition?"

Reading an overview of your topic from a general source such as an encyclopedia provides background information, key words, and often a list of books and articles for further reading. Use the background information you located to determine key words or phrases that might be used to describe your topic. You may want to focus on a particular farm animal (egg laying hens) or a particular aspect of production (chicken coop design). You can use these keywords to search for books or articles in magazines, journals or newspapers.