Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Agriculture/archive1

Agriculture

Good thorough treatment, but not overly detailed for such an umbrella topic. Very strong History section. Partial self-nom. JDG 00:07, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Object. It's a good summary for such a vast topic, but it needs a longer lead section and the environmental problems and policy sections should be turned into prose. - SimonP 16:52, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)
• Object. I agree with Simon P here. Generally, it's an interesting read, but the Environmental Problems, Policy and Methods sections need expanding. They're basically just lists at the moment. Perhaps you could start off with including small summaries of each (e.g. "aeroponics is..."). Extraordinary Machine 18:19, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Object. As well as the objections listed above, I would like to see specific source citations inline. I have marked it up accordingly. --Theo (Talk) 19:55, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Overall, it's a good article, but I must object since I don't really see any mention of how the finished goods are transported; a major part of farming is getting the product to buyers since failure to do so means no income from the product that is created. In my eyes, Agriculture isn't just planting and growing, it's also selling and transporting the finished product. For example, the North American "wheat rush" every fall can generate revenues large enough to subsidize some small railroads for an entire year. Many farmers in America join together into co-ops to market and transport their crops to buyers. The Canadian Wheat Board was setup as an agency that would handle much of the marketing of various grains across Canada. There's more that could be said, and I think it needs a mention here. slambo 19:46, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
• Object too many lists, stats are not up to date (and I'd prefer to see stats from the FAO than the USDA), the format is bad in places, the list of methods and see alsos needs pruning to only the immediately relevant links, there is very little information on livestock (should have a section similar to crops), there needs to be a decent discussion of pest and disease management and trade of agricultural goods and futures, environmental policy and problems need to be prose.--nixie 22:47, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Comment: Far to broad a subject to be covered by one article. Each small diversity could be long article in itself e.g. "Wheat Production in East Anglia", or "Agriculture in Ancient Egypt". Not too mention the minefield of "Genetic crops" The word agriculture can only really be a vague dictionary definition. Agriculture should be a category not an article. Not voting on this as my comments are not really actionable. Giano | talk 12:30, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• Comment: Well, folks, you're right. I see now that as good as the existing text is, a number of other areas need to be fleshed out, foremost among them Livestock, as nixie says. But I disagree vehemently with Giano. When writing for WikiP I always keep kids in mind, your typical 12 or 14 year old who was just hit with a homework assignment. Poor kid needs to do a writeup on Agriculture, surfs optimistically over to the best new reference work in the world and is met with "Please use the Agriculture-related links below.", which links lead off to endlessly detailed, often obscure sub-aspects. No, we need strong entries for high--level topics like this. This movement to severely limit article size and throw everything relevant into sub-articles is downright poisonous. This is an encyclopedia, not a vast index-finger workout room. JDG 20:03, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Further comment Children today are not told "go find out what is agriculture" even at a young age thay are given a defined (excuse the pun) field to research, e.g what do cows eat to make milk, what are daddy cows called, why does mummy cow need a calf once a year, etc. etc. etc. That is the detail that needs to be covered on every aspect of agriculture if you are writing for children, or even adults who want to know more. Then one can cover more complex issues calving indexes, feed conversion rates. Yields per hectare. Fertiliser nitrogen rates per hectare to improve protein yields in milling wheat, the perceived detrimental effects of those rates on the environment, before one even approaches the history of the subject, the projected future of the subject, it's effects on the landscape. Agriculture in the political field of the 21st century (very relevant in Europe). The effects of irregation in agriculture on the economy of a country (think Egypt, Aswan damm) and so on. Giano | talk 20:57, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Actually, being a parent of a 10-year-old, I've heard and helped with many of the homework assignments that have been assigned this year. Sometimes the question is "What is TOPIC?" Other times, it's "Find 5 facts about TOPIC." For questions like these, I showed my son how to do a quick search on WP to find an answer. So, yes, we do need to think about children accessing the site for homework with broad questions. However, we do need to stick to certain conventions when nominating articles for featured status. I don't think these two goals are at odds with each other since brilliant prose can be, and often is, accessible to younger readers. slambo 17:28, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)