Agriculture Subject Headings

Tracked down the right subject headings for books on:

economics of agriculture

farm management

and organic farming

Agricultural and Livestock Links

I've been searching on the USDA website, looking for agricultural, livestock and other commodity information. Here's what I found.

These are all .gov links:

Economic analyses of US farm output and trends. You must read this if you are involved in agricultural economics.

Search numbers by state and livestock/crop/commodity

2016 Census of Agriculture Report 

RAND Database

RAND Database has a lot of economic statistics about the state of Texas. I've used it to find average wages by industry and the state, exports out of Texas's ports, average prices of various products, bankruptcies and more,

There's also farm data in there like the value and changing inventory of crops, as well as net income and a lot more things.

In addition, there is a lot of information about health, demographics, traffic, pollution, quality of life, the environment and crime - among many other variables.

Countrywatch Has Good International Agricultural Data

Countrywatch Database has good agricultural import and export data for all countries.

After selecting your country, click agricultural data on left side of screen.



You will see consumption, production, imports and exports for major agricultural products. Plus prices. 
Example:

Value of Land

Some cool land value stats for ya.

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has information on the following:

• The ratio of rents to prices for the stock of all owner-occupied housing;
• Values and price indexes for all land, structures, and housing in residential use;
• Values of homes, structures, and land in residential use, and land and home price indexes for 50 states and the District of Columbia; and
• Values and price indexes for land, structures, and housing for single-family owner-occupied housing units in 46 major U.S. metropolitan areas.

Now Here's some Texas-centric land value information (from Texas A&M):

Find out trends of value in average Texas farmland/acreage.

USDA Agricultural Data

Here's a list of food and agricultural data stats from the USDA.

Topics covered includes: Crop outlook and productivity, prices, supplies, organic, commodities and more.

Sample screen shot below.

What is Fair Trade and Does it Work?

Here's an introduction to the concept of "fair trade" - the icon you've seen (most likely) on coffee bags. It usually refers to handicrafts and agricultural products from the developing world.

What is it? Among other things, a way for individual producers to remain individually employed and earn higher wages (good or bad? effective or not? read up and make up your own mind).

Quick and dirty link to our holdings on "fair trade" books.

The relevant subject heading is Consumption (Economics)

Organic Crops

Organic food and other crops (like cotton) is big business.

Some government prepackaged (but good) facts about organic production in us.

Do your own search for detailed percentages and totals for organic crops here (use keyword organic). note: right now I can find only data for all organic crops here (although it does break it down by county), but i will keep looking.

If you are looking for reports on organic food, Marketline Advantage industry reports are a good source.

You may have to search the internet for trade association publications, like this report on organic cotton.

Commodities Information

Here, I mean commodities as being agricultural and some gold. Information on oil and energy is in a different post.

Here's our commodities links page from our delicious account.

A good database is FAOSTAT. It has world wide agricultural price and production stats.

Finally, here is the Commodities Yearbook, which has extensive current and historical information about production and price of commodities.