Library Guides: INTAG 100: Introduction to International Agriculture: Get an Overview

General Overview Sources for Countries

CIA World Factbook
brief information and statistics about countries around the world.
FAO Country Statistics
includes topics such as: Demographics; Hunger and food insecurity; Land; Economic and political stability; Production
Political Handbook of the World
Background information on the politics of countries and organizations around the world.
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
Report issued July 13 2020!
Look in the annexes for specific country information.

Overview

We can use basic reference sources such as encyclopedias and textbooks to get an overview of your product, and to help you identify the ISSUE that you will focus on for your product.

As you find the answers to the simple questions, you will likely find information about the environmental, economic or social issues related to your issue.

Hint: As you search take notes on any terminology that relates to your product or issue.

Hint: If you see a reference to a book or article that looks useful, make note of the title so that you can see if Penn State owns that resource.

Get an overview of the issues related to your product via:

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
articles on all subjects

A collection of over 1000 reference resources.

How to Use the Gale Virtual Reference Library

Other General Resources

PolicyFile (Public Policy Research & Analysis) - PSU access expires 01/31/2021.
Index to publications from many of the major think tanks and interest groups. Links to many full-text articles.

PolicyFile draws its content from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Some well known contributors include: the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Cato Institute, Center for Defense Information, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Democratic Leadership Council, Economic Strategy Institute, Federation of American Scientists, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution, Hudson Institute, Institute for International Economics, International Monetary Fund, National Center for Policy Analysis, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, RAND Corporation, United States Institute of Peace, and the World Bank. Where available, access to home pages, electronic mail addresses and fulltext are made available within individual abstracts.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
International affairs working papers, foundation funded research projects, and proceedings

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) is a comprehensive source for research in international affairs. It includes full text of selected books on international affairs, working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. It also, contains abstracts and some full text of selected journal articles
World Development Indicators (WDI)
Statistical indicators related to social and economic development. It is organized into six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links.

World Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates. [Note: Even though Global Development Finance (GDF) is no longer listed in the WDI database name, all external debt and financial flows data continue to be included in WDI. The GDF publication has been renamed International Debt Statistics (IDS), and has its own separate database with historically archived data.