LibGuides: Organic, Sustainable, and Alternative Farming Systems: Notable Resources, Statistics

Notable Resources

These are works that can be checked out from the library or are fully available online.

Implications of U.S. and Global Organic Dairy, Livestock and Poultry Production for International Trade (IV part series, link goes to part I)

Organic Fruit and Vegetables from the Tropics: Market, Certification and Production Information for Producers and International Trading Companies
UNCTAD, 2003, Bestellnr. 230 pages, in pdf format [Alt title: Marketing Organic Tropical Produce]
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has published a compendium on “Marketing Organic Tropical Produce” with major substantive input from FiBL on a broad range of themes. The book covers the production, certification and conditions for market access of organically produced fruit and vegetables in the tropics.

Organic Action Plans. Development, implementation and evaluation
by von Otto Schmid, Christopher Stopes, Nicolas Lampkin, Victor Gonzálvez. FiBL, 1st Edition, 2008, 105 Seiten, Bestellnr. ISBN 978-03736-022-4. 114 pages, in pdf format
In 2004, the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming was launched. Many European countries have also developed national Organic Action Plans to promote and support organic agriculture. As part of the EU funded ORGAP project (European Action Plan of Organic Food and Farming - Development of criteria and procedures for the evaluation of the EU Action Plan for Organic Agriculture) a toolbox to evaluate and monitor the implementation of national and European Action Plans was developed. In order to communicate the results of this project as widely as possible, a practical manual for initiating and evaluating Organic Action Plans has been produced. The manual was created to inspire the people, organisations and institutions involved, or with an interest in the organic food and farming sector to engage in the initiation, review, revision and renewal of regional, national and European Organic Action Plans.

Organic Agricultural Products: Marketing and Trade Resources - a series of seven guides
About this Series - This series is comprised of seven Guides. Each guide is a subject-oriented compilation that focuses on a separate type of information or research source. Sources cited in each guide were selected based on their applicability to U.S. organic production and enterprises; ready availability, especially those that are free and online; and timeliness - most sources were created or updated within the past five years.

Guide to U.S. Organic Marketing: Laws and Regulations - U.S. Federal laws and regulations; state laws and regulations pertinent to marketing organic products; other organic-related certification programs; selected background documents about U.S. standards; general Federal food-related labeling and regulatory programs and information; general state food-related labeling and regulatory programs and information; related food safety resources.
Guide to International Trade in Organics: Laws and Regulations - Exporting and importing organic products - U.S. regulations and information sources; selected international organic-specific law and policy sites; general U.S. export and import regulations, certifications and information; selected international general food law and policy sites
Guide to Organic Marketing and Trade How-to Publications - Organic-specific marketing publications; related alternative farm marketing publications; publications about international trade; selected business guides and enterprise budgets
Guide to Organic Marketing and Trade Research Tools Online - Internet portals, cyberguides and news services; business directories and commodity trading sites; organic price indexes; literature guides: catalogs, bibliographies and bibliographic databases
Guide to Organic Marketing and Trade Periodicals, Calendars and Trade Shows - Trade and marketing magazines and e-zines; market research journals; selected events calendars and organic food trade shows
Guide to Organic Market, Industry and Consumer Studies (2004-2008) - Bibliography of publications with links to abstracts or full text
Guide to Organic Marketing Support Organizations - Selected national support groups and resources; where and how to find additional support
Series Combined Title and Author Indexes: Guides 1-7

Glossary on Organic Agriculture / FAO 2009

Organically Produced Foods: Nutritive Content / A Bibliography
From the Introduction:
This bibliography focuses specifically on the nutritive value of organically produced foods: vitamin and mineral content, as well as related chemical constituents. With the exception of a handful of references to publications that deal with the general relationship of soil qualities and crop composition, each document cited contains at least some information about nutrients found in food as related to organic production. Most items deal with research results; several are overviews of literature or research, or are opinion pieces. Many compare organic foods with those conventionally produced.

Supermarket Study 2002. Organic Products in European Supermarkets
by von Toralf Richter, Gabriele Hempfling. FiBL, FiBL-Studie, 2003, 180 Seiten, Bestellnr. ISBN 978-3-906081-37-3.
The study describes the current situation of the organic markets in 11 European countries and the main development paths of retail chains with regard to organic products. Particulary it should focus the role of the retail chains within the national organic markets. National case studies on the main retailing sellers of organic products point out the currently used marketing approaches and measures to sell organic products as well as the structure of marketing organisation for organic product line within the companies.

World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics and Emerging Trends
The following editions are available online (in pdf format):

Acta Horticulturae
Acta Horticulturae (ISSN 0567-7572) is a series of scientific technical publications, mainly the proceedings of International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Symposia and the ISHS International Horticultural Congress.
They are in the online catalog by number and individual title. To easily locate a subject, search as a KEYWORD the terms: Acta Horticulturae .
Shelf location: MSU Main Library, Basement center, SB13 .A25 [volume number]
We now have access to the full text of all the proceedings online. To get to the electronic access point, go to E-Resources and search for Acta Hort in the Electronic Journals box (NOT Other E-Resources). Click on the link, Single Journals.

Springerlink
SpringerLink is the platform for access to almost 1,200 journals in the scientific, technical, and medical fields, with content from 1997 and onward. A search engine is included, as well as the ability to set up table of contents alerts and other personalized features.
Many books are now accesible online through Springlerlink.

Data and Statistics

MSU Data & Statistics Research Guide: Agriculture
Michigan and Federal Census of Agriculture
Links to the in-depth page "Ag Census and Historic Research."

FAOSTAT
FAOSTAT is an on-line and multilingual database currently containing over 1 million time-series records covering international statistics in the following areas: Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets, Food Aid Shipments, Fertilizer and Pesticides, Land Use and Irrigation, Forest Products, Fishery Products, Population, Agricultural Machinery.

Ag Data Commons, USDA
Ag Data Commons (ADC) provides access to a wide variety of open data relevant to agricultural research. It is a centralized registry for data already on the web, as well as a repository for new data being published for the first time. Ag Data Commons hosts datasets, databases, software, and multimedia, as well as the documentation explaining these data products...

more... less...

These data are open, meaning they can be re-used free of charge and with few or no restrictions. If there are any restrictions on a dataset’s re-use (such as a requirement for attribution), these will be made explicit in the “License” and “Public Access Level” fields of the ADC record.
A wide range of research domains related to agriculture are covered. Some examples are agronomy, genomics, hydrology, soils, veterinary and animal sciences, agroecosystems, sustainability, and economic statistics.
Data files on ADC are made available via direct download, or as a pointer to an external link. Data is hosted in the form in which it is submitted to ADC. Most of the data on ADC was generated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and university researchers with USDA funding support. Datasets and tools are often associated with scholarly publications, but association with scholarly publications is also not a requirement for submitting to ADC.

STATSnetBASE
From Frequentist to Bayesian, biostatistics to finance, this fully searchable collection is the perfect tool for any size analysis on all sorts of data. To search STATSnetBASE titles, choose “Advanced Search” upon connecting to CRCnetBASE and limit your search to the “Statistics” Subject collection.
UN Comtrade
A searchable database of import and export data from over 130 countries that provide the United Nations Statistics Division with their annual international trade statistics, detailed by commodity and partner country. For many countries the data coverage starts as far back as 1962 and goes up to the most recent completed year.
OECD Science, Technology R&D Statistics
Provides statistics and government forecasts covering such topics as resources devoted to research and development, patent families, the technology balance of payments, international trade in highly R&D intensive industries, and research and development (R-D) expenditures. Select "Browse by Theme" and select 'Agriculture and Food'.

Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA)
International agricultural market, production and trade data and reports. See also the Global Agricultural Trade System. GATS includes international agricultural, fish, forest and textile products trade statistics dating from the inception of the Harmonized coding system in 1989 to present.
HarvestChoice
HarvestChoice generates knowledge products to help guide strategic investments to improve the well-being of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through more productive and profitable farming. Products include publications, numeric and GIS datasets on households, markets and production. Includes a Data Rescue Initiative to digitize agricultural census reports and data files from Sub-Saharan Africa.
HarvestChoice - Datasets
HarvestChoice mines the latest data sources from global databases, literature, national household surveys and agriculture censuses; using a variety of techniques, cropping system and economic models, statistical analyses, and geospatial tools, HarvestChoice harmonizes data into a standardized, geo-tagged database, informally dubbed the “CELL5M” (a matrix of 5 arc-minute grid cells). Through the newly released HarvestChoice data API, programmers can access our data and methods to describe, query, and aggregate data to suit their own purposes.
Michigan Agricultural Statistics
USDA's NASS Michigan Field Office is operated in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD).

World of organic agriculture [electronic resource] : statistics and future prospects. by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)
Call Number: online
Publication Date: 2000-current

The Yearbook "World of organic agriculture" documents recent developments in global organic agriculture. The book has been published annually since 2000. A central part of the book are the organic agricultural statistics, which are collected annually in the frame of the annual survey on organic agriculture worldwide. The project is currently funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), and NürnbergMesse.

MSU Libraries

Research Guides

Organic, Sustainable, and Alternative Farming Systems: Notable Resources, Statistics

Notable Resources

Data and Statistics