Agriculture: Agriculture at Madison College

We also have titles on the topics of gardening herbs, vegetables and flowers, permaculture, vegan cooking and more! Search our catalog to find what's available. Books and videos may be sent to your campus via our interlibrary loan service. 

Community gardening allows people without access to land to learn about agriculture, grow their own food and provide for themselves and others. 

A few participating organizations in our area include:

The Gardens Network-Madison/Dane County

Hearty Gardens Community Garden Project- Fort Atkinson, WI

Columbia County Community Gardens

Wisconsin Master Gardener Program

The purpose of this guide is to share information about resources of use to agriculture program students. Looking for something you don't see here? Have suggestions for materials? Let us know! 

Check out this video on careers in agriculture and natural resources.
Many more films are available in our Films On Demand database! 

Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service: Nonprofit organization based in Spring Valley, WI which promotes "organic and sustainable agriculture by providing the education, resources and expertise farmers need to succeed."

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): The USDA's far-reaching website includes details on the farm bill, food safety, rural development and much more. 

Ag Risk and Farm Management Library: Provides documents related to farm management, budgeting, insurance, livestock and other topics. 

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE): A grants and education program which "promotes profitability, stewardship of the land, air and water, and quality of life for farmers, ranchers and their communities."

Urban Agriculture and Improving Local, Sustainable Food Systems: EPA website with information for people pursuing agricultural projects as part of brownfield development and reuse. 

Mother Earth News: The classic magazine's website which hosts a wealth of information on gardening, organic practices, livestock, food, energy and more. 

American Beekeeping Federation: A national organization which "works in the interest of all beekeepers, large or small." 

Agri-View: Website for Wisconsin's "leading agricultural newspaper." Based in Madison. Print version available at the Reedsburg campus library. 

E: The Environmental Magazine: Articles on energy, sustainability, the environment and science. Print version available at the Truax campus library. 

Grit Magazine: Articles on farming, homesteading, gardening and other topics. 

Modern Farmer: Blog on sustainability and farming topics. 

Writing a paper on agriculture? Here are some keywords you might consider using in your database searches. It's helpful to do several searches with different keywords in order to find more resources. Although many of the keywords may seem very similar, they will often give you different results. In any of our EBSCO databases, click "Subject Terms" in the blue bar at the top of the screen to find some appropriate subject terms to start your searches with. 

A few ideas include:

• For farming, use "Agriculture"
• For farming as a profession, use "Agriculture -- Vocational guidance"
• Farms -- Finance
• Agriculture -- Energy conservation
• Agriculture -- Energy consumption
• Agriculture -- Environmental aspects

• For GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, try "genetically modified foods" (narrower) or "Transgenic organisms" (broader)
• For GMO seed banks, try "Transgenic seed banks" or "Transgenic seeds" 
• For GMO industry, try "Transgenic organisms industry"

• Organic farming (as well as Organic farming -- Environmental aspects and Organic farming -- Economic aspects)
• Organic farmers
• Organic foods 
• Organic foods industry
• Organic gardening

• Meat animals
• Meat industry
• Irrigation
• Sustainability
• Sustainable development
• Permaculture
• Alternative agriculture
• Edible forest gardens
• Agricultural ecology
• Cover crops
• Soil management
• Soil conservation
• Soil degradation

Madison College offers the following programs related to agricultural studies: 

Agricultural Equipment Technology 

Agriculture Equipment Service Technician 

Tree Care Technician 

Artisinal Modern Meat Butchery 

Interested in attending Madison College, or applying for one of these programs? Fill out a general interest form, or call our Enrollment Center at 608.246.6210

Starting Point Databases

Academic Search Complete: This is a multi-disciplinary database which contains articles from scholarly journals, newspapers and other periodicals. For off-campus access, you will be prompted to login with your Madison College username and password before accessing the database. 

Opposing Viewpoints: Database with current information on many topics, including GMOs, organic food and farming, the agriculture industry and other popular paper topics. For off-campus access, you will be prompted to login with your Madison College username and password before accessing the database. 

Agriculture Specific Databases

AGRICOLA (National Agricultural Library): This database provides citation information for books and articles on agricultural topics. Full text is not available. If you'd like to obtain any of the resources listed in the database, please submit an interlibrary loan request for each item. 

AGRIS: This database also provides citation information for articles. Maintained by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Full text is usually not available. 

NASD: National Ag Safety Database- Contains documents on agricultural safety issues. Some PDFs available for download.