Agriculture

A guide to agricultural information, with an emphasis on the United States.

Agriculture in Context

At Harvard, about 9 percent of undergrads come from rural areas. 

In the United States, farms create 0.7% of the gross domestic product. In turn, agriculture (including inputs and food-related businesses, textiles, fishing and forestry) makes up 5.6% of the economy.

About 1% of U.S. jobs are on-farm jobs, while 10.4% of jobs are related to food and agriculture.  (ag economy details).

97% of the U.S. land area is rural, and 19% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas. 

---

About Agriculture in the Harvard Library

Note that Harvard Library does not collect extensively in agriculture. Readers will want to make use of other sources beyond HOLLIS and in addition to this guide.  These include: 

• Agricola, the US Department of Agriculture library catalog. This is to find citations. Then check HOLLIS to see if Harvard has them, and if not, request by Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan. (See below.)
• Borrow Direct (search) (about) for libraries including Cornell (agriculture) Yale (forestry), and Ivy League and select research universities.
• Google Scholar, for articles. If you have a Harvard Key (PIN), use this link, or to save time logging in, Connect Google Scholar to Harvard Library.
• Interlibrary Loan for Harvard to borrow for you from many, many other libraries. 
• WorldCat, to search the catalog of thousands of libraries at once. This is for citations--then check if Harvard has it (or a library near you, if you're working remotely).