LibGuides: Agriculture and Food: Websites for Agriculture and Food

Finding statistics and datasets for Agriculture

Agriculture statistics from the CSO
UCD Agriculture data links
Data.gov.ie -
Search for Farm* or Agriculture* or Rural*
FAO Statistics

Other useful up-to-date websites

Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine

It has a good mixture of reports and factsheets for the industry and is kept very current.

To find out about research programmes and collaborations at Teagasc check:

also has a wealth information on its website. There are reports focusing on markets, consumers and shopper trends on its Insights page tailored for the food industry and also has lots about Brexit.

Board Bia also has a separate page for farmers and growers with links to reports on market trends at farm level.

And don't forget to check on http://courses.dkit.ie/ to see what websites your lecturers recommend for specific modules.

Evaluating a website

When looking for information on web sites always consider:

Accuracy	Is the information factual, not opinion? How valid is the research that is the source? Is the site free of errors in spelling or grammar and other signs of carelessness in its presentation of the material?
Authority	Is the author's name given? Are her/his qualifications specified? Is the author affiliated with a reputable institution or organization? Has the author written elsewhere on this topic? If this is an organization or business website, are they qualified to speak on this topic? Are additional electronic and print sources referenced to complement or support the material presented?
Bias	Is the information factual, not opinion? Where arguments are given, are they based on strong evidence and good logic? Is the author's point of view impartial and objective? Is the author's language free of emotion and bias?
Audience level	What audience is the Web site designed for? Is it too basic or too technical for your needs?
Currency	is this web site current? Is the date of the most recent update given? If this is a book or article, how old is the information?

Why use sources from the web?

The advantages of Web sources :

easy to access
easy to find
up-to-date ( always check that site has been recently updated)

But... ! Anyone can publish on the web, so it's important to evaluate the information you find by looking at:

Who? Who is the author? Is he/she a qualified expert with academic credentials and other publication in the subject?
Why? Why was it written? Is it fact based, opinion based? Is it intended to educate, inform, entertain, sell something?
Where? Where did the information come from? Is it a popular press publication, an academic publication, or something else?
When? When was it written? Has it been updated? Do newer editions or revisions exist?

Check our Evaluating Your Sources Guide for more tips.

Here's some good advice on conducting scientific research on the internet

Using News sources (in the Sciences)

News sources, including newspapers, are good for:

getting the most up-to-date information on a topic
gaining an understanding of public feeling, debate & popular analysis of an issue
identifying key trends

Remember that:

newspapers are not scholarly sources
some newspapers are considered more reliable than others
each paper will have an editorial viewpoint which it wants to promote.

You may choose to use a sensational or obviously biased article to make a point, but you will need to justify this decision and give your reasons for it.