Finding "Organic": Search Strategies And Terminology

Organic Information Resources: What are They? Where are They? How can I Find Them? The unique nature of organic production and marketing makes searching on organic topics challenging. There are many unrelated topics connected with the word organic, such as organic chemistry, organic acids, and soil organic matter, that preclude searching on just the word organic with the expectation of meaningful results. There is the confusing nomenclature associated with organic production: organics, organically grown, biodynamic, biological farming, ecological agriculture, and more - a host of almost synonymous terms. There are also many organic practices and organic commodities that may not always be labeled as such, but that may be relevant to a particular search, e.g. biological pest control, or natural foods. There is the holistic nature of organic production itself. Particularly in the area of organic farming, one may need to consider the whole-farm, economic, political, philosophical, and economic aspects of organic. This is not easy to do, especially on discipline-focused databases. Note on electronic searching: Terms or phrases with multiple forms of one word (e.g. farm/farms/farming) may be searched using truncation or stemming on search engines with these search capabilities. Phrases should be searched as phrases, e.g. enclosed with quotation marks, whenever possible. Using precise words and phrases is especially important in searching on organic topics. The following terms are used as descriptors of organic systems and/or are synonyms for organic systems. Related Terms section of Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms. National Agricultural Library's Agricultural Thesaurus. Terms that denote systems/practices that overlap, over-arch or include organic systems. contextual backlinks of these terms are often confused with terms that pertain to strictly organic systems.