The front door

The Agriculture Resource Library.

Somebody should keep the map of everything useful in agriculture: the organizations, the data, the standards, the open source projects, the suppliers, the money, the events, the people who can help. Nobody did. So we do. 427 entries and growing, every one described in our own words, every link checked nightly, and nobody pays to be here.

The shelves.

78 entries Organizations & communities The nonprofits, associations, and communities where growers help each other. 42 entries Open source Software and hardware you can use, study, and change. Health honestly badged. 47 entries Data & APIs Free weather, soil, market, and climate feeds, and what each one gives you. 19 entries Standards The specs that let farm equipment and software speak the same language. 38 entries Learning & media Trade publications, references, and the channels still worth your evening. 39 entries Inputs & safety Labels, registrations, and who to call before anything goes in the tank. 86 entries Suppliers & manufacturers Seed houses to greenhouse builders. Nobody pays to be here. 8 entries Funding Cost-share, grants, and loans that fit small and specialty-crop farms. 30 entries Events Recurring conferences and field days, listed by the month they usually run. 6 entries Universities & research Research programs that publish for growers, not just journals. 13 entries Maker spaces Shop tools you can use, and people who know how to use them. 21 entries Special collection The things we built ourselves: calculators, data, sketches, standards.

How the shelves stay honest.

Every card says what a thing is and what a grower gets from it, written by us, not copied from anyone's marketing page. A sweep probes every link nightly; a site that stops answering gets flagged on its card, and a resource that dies moves to an archive entry instead of quietly rotting in place. Each card shows when we last checked it. There is no paid placement, no advertising, and no affiliate link anywhere in the Library.

Ten resources you didn't know existed.

All free, all real, all sitting there waiting. Proof of what the shelves hold:

  1. OpenET: satellite measurement of the water your own fields actually consumed, monthly, field by field, across 48 states.
  2. GRIN-Global: the USDA seed bank mails free samples from more than 600,000 accessions, including varieties you cannot buy anywhere.
  3. SoilWeb: stand in a field with your phone and see the full mapped soil profile under your boots.
  4. NEWA: free research-grade disease and insect forecasts from 700+ farm weather stations; growers using it report tens of thousands of dollars in avoided losses a year.
  5. uspest.org: 150+ degree-day pest models run against 20,000 weather stations, answering "when does this pest hatch at my place."
  6. CropScape: what every field around you grew, every year, for the last 15+ years, from satellite.
  7. Copernicus Browser: 10-meter vegetation imagery of your farm about every 5 days, no GIS skills needed.
  8. USDA Market News: the actual daily wholesale prices, free, as a website or a data feed. Never sell price blind.
  9. SARE's book library: the standard texts of sustainable agronomy, complete and free, including Building Soils for Better Crops.
  10. Ask Extension plus the National Plant Diagnostic Network: free phone-a-scientist, and a diagnostic lab in every state that will identify your mystery disease from a mailed sample.

Resources around you.

All fifty statesGrower resources by state Find one near youFarmers markets Funding, capital, complianceThe Resource Map

Know something we missed?

The Library grows by acquisition. If a resource belongs on these shelves and is not here, tell us about it. If you run one of the resources listed and something on your card is wrong, the same door works.

Frequently asked questions.

What is the Agriculture Resource Library?

A curated, kept-current map of agricultural knowledge: the organizations, data sources, standards, open source projects, publications, suppliers, funding programs, events, and research programs a grower might ever need, each described in plain words with what you actually get from it. It is free, nobody pays for placement, and every link is checked nightly.

How is this different from other lists of farm resources?

Three ways. Most lists are written once and left to rot; we probe every link nightly and show the date we last checked. Most lists copy a site's own description; we write every card ourselves, saying what a grower gets from the resource. And most lists stop at one category; the Library shelves the whole landscape in one place, searchable together.

Do resources pay to be listed here?

No, and they cannot. There is no paid placement, no advertising, and no affiliate relationship anywhere in the Library. A resource is here because it is genuinely useful to growers. That standard is the entire business model, which is to say there is not one.

How do I suggest a resource for the Library?

Use the suggestion page linked from every shelf, or the site's contact page. Tell us what the resource is and what a grower gets from it. If it belongs, we verify it, write its card, and shelve it. Corrections to existing cards come through the same door and are genuinely welcome.