Internet editorial

Citation

McGaughey, R.E. (2006), "Internet editorial", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 13 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2006.13113eag.001

Internet editorial

The editorial staff of Benchmarking: An International Journal is committed to helping those working at a senior level in industry, the public sector, consultancy, or academic institutions, to stay current on developments in the areas of Quality, Technology and Benchmarking. The focus of the journal is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The Internet editorials will center on sites with a similar focus. I examine sites believed to be of interest to BIJ readers, and I attempt to be fair and objective in the presentation of my findings. This editorial focuses on farming/agriculture. More specifically, I attempted to find sites that might be helpful in benchmarking agricultural performance, or identifying best practice in agriculture.

We citizens in developing nations tend to take agriculture for granted. All great societies/civilizations that endured for a time were successful in their agricultural endeavors (Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Roman, Inca, and Mayan empires to name a few). Agriculture is the source of products that sustain us and is a cornerstone on which a countries economic and social progress rests. While trading nations can secure agricultural products form other trading nations, a sound agricultural base provides the foundation needed to develop into a “trading” nation – people must have food, clothing and shelter to be productive in almost any other economic endeavor. Continued expansion of industrialized nations, the rapid industrialization of many developing nations, population growth, concerns for the environment, simple economics, and even diplomatic relations have placed ever increasing demands on agriculture. In many countries the trend is toward large-scale agricultural production as farmers, corporate or otherwise, search for ways to be more efficient and effective. While the pressure to attain economies of scale is less intense in some developing nations, like countries in Africa where successful agriculture on a small scale may make the difference whether or not a family or village has food to eat, there is never-the-less a growing need to improve agricultural performance everywhere. It is not just a matter of profit or loss, it is a matter of life and death. To the extent that agricultural practices can be improved, the environment can be protected, people can be provided with the necessities of life (food, clothing, shelter, and fuel), profits can be made, and government expenditures (because farming is heavily subsidized in many countries) reduced. It is easy to see that from a humanitarian, social, environmental or economic perspective, that improvement in agricultural practices is desirable. The subject of this editorial is best practice and benchmarking in agriculture. The purpose of this editorial is to explore sites devoted to agriculture with emphasis on those that offer something of value to readers interested in measuring performance in this important area. Priority was given to sites with information about best practice in agriculture or benchmarking agricultural performance. It is my hope that resources available on the sites showcased herein will be helpful to our BIJ readers interested in agriculture, or as we often call it, farming.

The searches

As has been the case for my more recent editorials, I used Google and one other search engine to conduct the searches for this editorial. I used the following four search phrases for this editorial: “benchmarking farming”, “farming best practice”, “agriculture best practice”, and “benchmarking agriculture”. My Google searches produced, 300,000, 7,420,000, 10,500,000 and 745,000, respectively. The other search engine I used, a relatively new one called Kartoo, is a meta search engine that produces results in the form of a map. On the map, the sites found by Kartoo are represented by more or less important (based on relevance) size pages. As one moves the mouse pointer over the pages, the keywords are illuminated along with a brief description of the site which appears on the left side of the screen. The descriptions are quite helpful in assessing site relevance before visiting it. While it takes some time to become accustomed to Kartoo, it is useful and makes drill down searches easy – a new search is conducted and a new map is generated by clicking topic folders listed on the left side of the screen, or keywords on the map itself. While I found Kartoo interesting, it was a bit cumbersome for me to use, since I am accustomed to the more conventional search engines. I was able to examine many relevant sites using Kartoo, but I never found any information on the exact number of sites found with each search. As I understand Kartoo's function, I continued to trigger new searches by selecting topics from the map and folder list. Most of the sites I examined while using Kartoo were also found with my Google searches. I did not examine all of the millions of sites produced with my Google searches, but I did examine sites in the first six to ten pages of hits (60-100 sites). The more relevant sites tend to appear near the top of the hit lists produced by Google searches. It is noteworthy that a number of useful sites were discovered by following links on visited sites.

I could not possibly include all sites examined in conducting my research for this editorial, but the 12 included herein are a good sample of what cyberspace has to offer. These and others should be useful to BIJ readers with an interest in benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. Many other sites can be visited and examined by following links on these featured sites. Alternatively, one may prefer to conduct one's own searches using a wider variety of search phrases and or different search engines. As always, inclusion of sites in this editorial should not be considered an endorsement of the goods or services of the entities that own or sponsor them.

Benchmarking and best practice in agriculture

Primary Industries and Resources South Australiawww.pir.sa.gov.au/

Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA) is a key economic development agency within the South Australian Government that supports key industries like mining, agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, fisheries and others in the primary resource sector. PIRSA seeks to promote sustainable and responsible development and foster greater international competitiveness across the primary resources sector. Encouraging the development of best practice and use of benchmarking to improve agriculture is consistent with the PIRSA's strategy and as a consequence, one will find information on the site pertaining to benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. The quickest way to find that information is the search feature. Upon conducting searches on “benchmarking” and on “best practice”, I found numerous publications about the topics. Some were agency reports, some were articles and some were program descriptions. Search results included titles, descriptions, and category (agriculture, horticulture, etc.) for each hit list entry, making it easy for one to assess relevance. Much useful information about best practice and benchmarking can be accessed via the search feature. As an alternative to the searches, visitors can peruse the site by following links for each industry sector (livestock, field crops, and more). For instance, if one follows the livestock link, one will find a page with links for beef, sheep, goats, deer and more. Those links access pages containing links to articles, reports, program announcements and external sites – some of the links to external sites were useful. If one is interested in some specific area/aspect of agriculture, this drill down approach may be best for finding relevant information. The PIRSA site is well designed and well maintained. While it is tailored to the needs of constituents in southern Australia, it does contain information that may be or value to others. The PIRSA site is interesting, and like many other sites featured in this editorial, owned/sponsored by a government agency.

National Hog Farmernationalhogfarmer.com/

The National Hog Farmer (NHF) magazine, now an e-zine as well, has been helping to disseminate information for the pork industry for 45 years. NHF provides professional pork producers with the information they need to keep their operations competitive. NHF covers production technology and management practices in production and marketing, as well as industry research and news stories. Regular monthly features are part of each issue. For information useful in benchmarking and best practice, visitors might examine the “Quarterly Reports” and “Weekly Reports” links. Each accesses reports containing statistics relating to various aspects of market performance. Likewise, the “Hog Info” link (right, middle on home page) accesses another site (Hoginfo.com) containing links to many, many university research reports. That site would be a must see for hog producers developing benchmarks. The NHF “Newsletter” was interesting. I examined a sample newsletter and found it to contain information that might be useful in identifying best practice and developing benchmarks. One need only sign up for the newsletter to get it. The sign-up form was relatively short and one can elect to receive one or all of the newsletters – many interesting newsletters were available. Perhaps the fastest way to find information related to benchmarking and best practice on this site is to use the Search feature. A search on benchmarking produced 49 hits and a search on best practice produced 119 hits. Article titles, authorship, date of publication, and descriptions appeared in the hit list for each item, which helps one determine relevance before following the link to the article. It is noteworthy that all of the articles were NHF publications. The NHF site is a good example of the numerous agricultural sector specific sites that can be found on the Web. Nearly every major agricultural sector will have a similar site. This site is a valuable resource for hog farmers and a good place to find information about benchmarking and best practice in this agricultural sector.

Food Chain Centrewww.foodchaincentre.com/

The Food Chain Centre (FCC) is a UK based organization dedicated to providing information to improve the efficiency of the UK food chain. The FCC recognizes the need to promote cooperation among government, universities, consultancies, consumer groups, farmers, manufacturers, retailers, trade groups and other organizations and constituency groups to strengthen the food base of the UK. Among the things promoted by the FCC are benchmarking and best practice. Prominently displayed on the home page is the slogan “best practice for your business.” The “Activities” link on the homepage moves users to a page that lists benchmarking as a “main project area” of the FCC. If one clicks the Benchmarking link, one can examine a brief description of the benchmarking program started in 2003. The centre provides guidance in benchmarking and collects data using surveys, case studies, etc. This would seem a valuable resource for UK based farmers, or farmers elsewhere who are interested in benchmarking and best practice. The FCC is consolidating data from various sources, analyzing it, and summarizing the data to make it available to farmers in an easy to digest format. All of this activity is aimed to helping farmers do what they do better. To quickly find information on the site pertaining to benchmarking and best practice, a “Search” feature is available. Using the Search, I was able to quickly find documents and reports describing centre activities and outputs pertaining to best practice and benchmarking. Visitors might wish to examine the “News” link, as it accesses a page that describes current events and programs of the centre. The “Web Ring” is also worthy of comment. FCC plans call for linking farming organizations together for the purpose of sharing information. The web ring will be one way of linking likeminded farming organizations. While the FCC site is not loaded with links and articles, it is certainly worth a visit. Information sharing is the FCC's primary purpose, and information is essential in establishing best practice and benchmarking programs for agriculture. The FCC site is not extensive, so it can be examined without much time and effort. For UK farmers, the FCC site is a must see site.

Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, UKwww.dardni.gov.uk/

The purpose of DARD is “to promote economic growth and the development of the countryside in Northern Ireland.” DARD attempts to promote the competitive development of the agri-food, fishing, and forestry sectors of the Northern Ireland economy, while at the same time assuring safe and wholesome food for consumers, the welfare of animals, and conservation of the environment. One place visitors may wish to look for information pertaining to benchmarking and best practice is the “Popular Areas” menu (see main navigation bar), and from that menu browsing the DARD publications and DARD statistics links. Useful information can be found following links in both of those categories, however, to more quickly find benchmarking and best practice information on the DARD site, the Search feature is the way to go. The “Search” link can be found at the bottom of the DARD homepage. The Search link opens a page providing access to a “Site Index”, and a “Search this site” link. I had better success using the Site Search than with the Index. I searched on “benchmarking” and again on “best practice”. On each word/phase, I had numerous hits – some 3,055 on best practice and 721 for benchmarking. I found documents discussing benchmarking pig production, dairy production, sheep and beef production, and much, much more. Many potentially valuable publications pertaining to benchmarking and best practice were discovered in my DARD site searches. While I do not mean to suggest that other aspects of the DARD site are not useful, if your interest is benchmarking and/or best practice in agriculture, then the site search is for you. In fact, a visit to this site is worthwhile solely for the purpose of using the site search feature to find benchmarking and best practice resources. Regarding the site in general, it is pleasing to the eye, well maintained, packed with information, and fairly easy to navigate; however, because of the sites organization, the process of finding specific information is expedited by using the Search. This is good site to add to one's favorites list.

Agribusiness Association of Australiawww.agrifood.info/

The Agribusiness Association of Australia (AAA) facilitates communication across the agri-food chain and promotes the contribution of agribusiness to the Australian economy and community. It aims to help make the agri-food sector more efficient and profitable by promoting cooperation and expanding knowledge of issues effecting the development of an efficient and competitive agri-food value chain. Members of the Agribusiness Association of Australia are professionals from the private sector, government and education. There are a number of places to look on this site for benchmarking and best practice related information. First, there is the “Research info” link found on the home page navigation bar. The Research page has links to various types of agribusiness research. Most documents are in PDF format. Both the “Agri News” and “Food News” links access current and archived news items, some of which pertain to best practice and benchmarking in agribusiness. These articles are accessed from various sites around the globe. The “BioTechnology” link accesses a page full of links to publications and sites related to biotechnology and could be useful to those interested in benchmarking or best practice in that area of agriculture. The “Publications” link pulls up a menu of links to essays, perspectives, reviews and connections, some of which may be relevant for those interested in agribusiness performance assessment. The so-called “connections” are particularly interesting as they are refereed articles dating back to 2001, on a variety of agribusiness topics including agribusiness performance and benchmarking. Many links to relevant sites can be found under the “Who's Who” link (why there, I am not sure). What is missing from the AAA site, and sorely needed in my view, is a search feature. While I found good information that would be of interest to those interested in benchmarking and best practice in agriculture, my search was time consuming. A search feature could have saved me much time. That said, the site seems useful, it is well designed (except for omission of a search feature), and it seems to be well maintained – I encountered no link rot in examining the site.

AgWeb.comwww.agweb.com/

AgWeb is an e-zine devoted to agriculture. Like most e-zines it has advertisements and such, but the many articles and links available on the site are its strength. They are available at the click of the mouse. A “Directories” link on the homepage accesses a page with contact information and links to universities (80), government agencies (9), and media (158). Links to associations, companies and products can likewise be found on the Directories page. It is noteworthy that some of the links access sites housing information pertinent to benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. The Discussions link allows producers to discuss money and markets, policy and politics, machinery and technology, and crop production and livestock with other producers and with experts. The Discussions could be helpful in identifying best practice. The AgWeb Professional link accesses a page that sports tools for profitable producers (some potentially useful for benchmarking), subscription services for top marketing and policy analysts, top agribusiness related newsletters, special reports, learning tools and more. Nearly every major Ag newsletter is available from this page. The quickest and easiest way to find information about benchmarking and best practice in agriculture on the AgWeb site is to use the Search feature. I conducted a search on “benchmarking” and on “best practice” and produced 33 and 202 hits, respectively. While some of the articles were of interest, others had little to do with benchmarking or best practice, but the search still saves time over perusing the site by following the many links. The site is a bit busy, but it is loaded with information about various sectors of agriculture, and it is a good place to look for information useful in benchmarking agricultural performance, or to identify best practice. This site should be on every farmer's favorites list.

AgManager infowww.agmanager.info/

The AgManager.info (AMI) website is a clearinghouse for research produced by the Kansas State University Department of Agricultural Economics. AMI is a “comprehensive source of information, analysis, and decision-making tools for agricultural producers, agribusinesses, and others.” AMI topics include include: crop and livestock marketing and outlook reports, crop insurance, farm management, agricultural policy, human resources, income tax and law, and agribusiness. Decision-making tools, articles, and data sets are among the AMI outputs potentially useful to those interested in benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. Many links on the AMI homepage (found on navigation bar on left of homepage) can be followed to find information on best practice and benchmarking. The “Agribusiness” link access a page housing case studies, feasibility calculators, and other tools to assist in decision making. Likewise, the Farm Management page (accessed via the “Farm Management” link) contains many potentially valuable resources accessed through links like “Land and Leasing”, “Machinery”, “Business Planning”, “Farm Management Guides”, and “Links to Useful Farm Management Sites”. The “Crops” link and the “Livestock & Meat” links also access pages with links to resources that could be helpful in benchmarking and examining best practice in agriculture. The “AgEcon News” link moves the user to a page housing radio interviews and newsletters. Each radio interview is described, dated and downloadable. Various newsletters covering topics like “Risk Assessed Marketing” are also available through links on this page. The Program and Centers page should not be overlooked as it contains links to many agribusiness centers, most located in Kansas. To expedite one's search for benchmarking and best practice information on the AMI site, one should use the Search feature. I conducted searches on “best practice” and “benchmarking”, and found many relevant reports, case studies, news items, and more. The AMI site is loaded with information. The site is well organized, well maintained, tastefully designed, and very easy to navigate. AMI is well worth a visit for anyone interested in agribusiness performance generally, and best practice and benchmarking specifically.

Forward Farmingwww.forwardfarming.org.uk/

Another UK based organization, Forward Farming (FF) is dedicated to helping farmers share best practice and learn from each other. The FF site has “Monitor” farms that can be examined by visitors. Dairy, Beef, Sheep and Arable Monitor farms share information about their activities and performance, and are part of the information sharing and benchmarking efforts of FF. Links to each category of monitor farms can be found on the left navigation bar of the FF homepage. If one accesses any one of the Monitor Farm pages, one will find a “Monitor Farms” link accessing a description of the monitor farms, an “Introduction” link accessing a description of the monitor farm programs, links to “Stakeholder Groups”, “Events”, and more. Of particular interest is the “Benchmarking” link which accesses a page with links to relevant sites and resources for benchmarks and best practice applicable to that particular farm type. This is a VERY valuable link for anyone interested in benchmarking and best practice in agriculture to examine. It is noteworthy that some of the links examined lead to other sites included in this editorial. Other links of interest on the site (see main navigation bar) are the “Virtual Pig Farms” link, and the “Demonstrating Rural Integration” link. Each accesses a page with demonstration farms that show best practice in action. Newsletters are available for viewing, and of course one can subscribe to the Newsletters (without much effort I might mention). I would be remiss in my duties if I did not mention the forums available on the site. A “Pig Industry Forum” and a “Farm Bird Forum” allow farmers to communicate and share information, ideas, and concerns with likeminded producers. Some of the forums had recent activity, and some had little – forums are only useful with good participation. While I found no search feature on this site, it was not really necessary for finding best practice and benchmarking information. Sharing such information is basically the purpose of the FF site. The site was aesthetically appealing, well organized, easy to navigate, and well maintained. The AA site is a must see for those interested in benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. It would be particularly beneficial to UK farmers as its featured farms may better represent their own reference group.

Registry of best practices on indigenous knowledge (part of the MOST program of the united nations educational scientific and cultural organization)www.unesco.org/most/bpikreg.htm

Note that the URL above is for a page on the MOST Program (Management of Social Transformations) site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This particular page has what I believe to be useful information pertaining to best practice in agriculture. I saw no need to include any review of the broader UNESCO site or the MOST Program site. With that said, I will describe what can be found on the Registry of Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge (BPIK) page. The page is devoted to documenting best practices on indigenous knowledge, largely in the area of agriculture, from around the globe. The strength of the BPIK page is the links. It is loaded with links to descriptions of projects that document best practice in areas like growth and use of medicinal plants, integrated forest conservation, animal health, building and maintaining irrigation systems, and more. Visitors will find the Geographic, Thematic (like a topics index) and Institutions indexes helpful in looking up information, and one can use the basic site organization (organized by regions of the world) to narrow one's search for information about best practice in agriculture related areas. Many links to documents and to relevant sites/pages are available on the BPIK page. While this page will not be of interest to everyone interested in agricultural performance, it could be of interest to some with a narrowly defined interest in some country (especially developing countries), or some particular agricultural practice – that is why it was included in this editorial.

Soil Associationwww.soilassociation.org/

The Soil Association (SA) is the UK's leading advocate of organic farming and the premiere certification organization (most recognized and trusted organic mark) for organic food and farming in the UK. The SA works to raise awareness of the health and environmental benefits of organic food and farming and support the individuals and organizations that produce organic products. The site is loaded with resources, but I will focus on a few of particular interest to those looking for information related to best practice and benchmarking in agriculture. The “Information Centre” link (on top navigation bar) is a good place to start exploring the site. The Information Centre page contains links to various types of information. Among the links found on that page are those entitled “Library”, “Image Library”, “Organic Directory”, “News”, and “Links”. The “Library” link is perhaps the most useful as it accesses a library of more than 400 documents about organic issues and the work of SA. The Search feature on the Library page makes finding relevant materials easy. I conducted searches on “Benchmarking” and “Best Practice” and produced nine hits on benchmarking and 33 on best practice. Among the hits were case studies, news releases, consultation papers, fact sheets, policy papers and more. Using the search feature to explore the library contents is probably the most fruitful way to mine the site for information on best practice and benchmarking in organic agriculture. Another feature of the Information Centre that is quite helpful is the links. The “Links” hyperlink accesses a page which is organized by category (examples: Associations, Certification bodies, Conservation, Biotechnology, Animal health and welfare). Each category has many, many links–all with titles and most with short descriptions. The Links page, too, is a valuable resource for those interested in benchmarking and best practice, particularly in the area of organic farming. Besides the Information Centre, visitors might be interested in the “Consumer Guide”, “Soil Association Certification Ltd”, “Farming, growing and local food”, and “Education” links. The “Education” link accesses a page offering visits to organic farms through several different links. The virtual tours of those farms could be helpful in one's quest for best practice in organic farming. One particularly interesting aspect of the SA site was all the information available to help educate children and adults about organic farming. This makes the SA site itself a bit of a model of best practice in promoting a particular segment of agriculture. I found the SA site to be very interesting, well organized, well maintained, easy to navigate, and well endowed with resources/access to resources pertaining to organic farming performance generally, and benchmarking and best practice in organic farming specifically. If your interest is organic farming practices, this is a must see site. There was so much to see on this site that it was difficult to do it justice in this short review.

United States Department of Agriculturewww.usda.gov/

The USDA was started in 1862 to serve farmers. Today it still serves farmers and agriculture in general, manages the National forests and rangelands of the US, promotes conservation, administers food programs to feed the poor in the US and abroad, conducts and supports research in many areas directly and indirectly related to agriculture, promotes US agricultural products abroad, and more. The site is a virtual plethora of information on agriculture. Features on the homepage include “In the News” and “Spotlights”, which may occasionally have information pertaining to benchmarking and best practice. Past items from these features can be found using the Search feature of the site, as can many other resources. I conducted searches on “benchmarking” and “best practice” producing 267 and 10,700 hits, respectively. More targeted searches can be conducted to find information about benchmarking and best practice in specific agricultural sectors or particular performance areas. The depth and breath of the site make the Search feature particularly useful. One might opt to “Browse by Audience” or “Browse by Topic” (see left navigation bar on homepage). Audiences include consumers, landowners, producers, researchers, and more. When a target audience is selected from the drop down list, a page with features and resources (like reports, publications and events), for that audience is displayed. In using “Browse by Topic”, each time a topic is selected, a page housing resources, materials and features (reports, publications and events) for that topic is displayed. Whether browsing by audience or by topic, a frame on the right side of the screen displays links to related topics and sites. While agricultural benchmarking and best practice materials and resources can be found by browsing, using the Search feature is much faster. As noted, the USDA site is loaded with useful information. One can find much information about agriculture in general, as well as information about benchmarking and best practice in agriculture. The site is a bit busy, but otherwise well designed, organized and maintained. The USDA site belongs on the favorites list of anyone interested in agriculture in the US or elsewhere.

Agriculture and Agri-food Online of Canadawww.agr.gc.ca/

Agriculture and Agri-food Online of Canada (AAFOC) is the site of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-food (MAAF). English and French versions of the site are available – visitors make a choice upon entry to the site. The MAAF is responsible for all matters pertaining to agriculture in Canada. The MAAF supports agricultural productivity and trade, stabilizes farm incomes, encourages research and development, and is responsible for inspecting and regulating animals and plant-life forms as well as coordinating rural development and efforts to enhance the quality of rural life. The AAFOC site is much like the USDA website in that it is loaded with information and other resources, with a depth and breath difficult to do justice in this editorial. That said, I will mention some of the AAFOC site features possibly useful to those interested in agricultural benchmarking and best practice. The top navigation bar (at top of homepage), houses numerous useful links. First, the “Newsroom” link accesses a page with links to various news items from a variety of sources, covering topics as BSE (mad cow disease) and much, much more. The “Site Index” can be useful, if you know what you are looking for, as it organizes site contents in an index that makes access to site resources quick, in comparison to following link after link on page after page to find information. The “Search” on the top navigation is by far the most efficient vehicle for finding information on the site. A search on “benchmarking” produced a list of 82 relevant resources on the site and a search on “best practice” produced a list of some 2,640. The site resources found through the searches included news items, reports, published research, glossaries, and more. Other avenues are available for finding benchmarking and best practice resources. Links on the left navigation bar like “Business Risk Management”, “Finances and Economics”, “Food Safety and Food Quality”, “Programs and Services”, “Science and Innovation”, and “Renewal” access pages with links to sites, programs, publications and other resources of potential value. For example, in following the “Renewal” link I found a link to “Benchmarking Tools”. The Benchmarking page accessed through that hyperlink had links to other sites, farm management tools for benchmarking, offices to contact for help, and a “What's New” page for benchmarking. Back to the top navigation bar, the “Links” hyperlink accesses a page housing an image map of Canada from which one can select a Canadian province and access a page with links to sites and resources in that province. The AAFOC site is one of the very best visited for this editorial, not just in terms of relevant information on benchmarking and best practice, but with regard to ease of use, organization, and currency. This site is also a prime candidate for the favorites list of anyone interested in agricultural best practice and/or benchmarking.

The focus of BIJ is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The content of this Internet editorial is consistent with that focus. Effective and efficient agriculture is the cornerstone of economic, social and political progress – when people are hungry, they can think of little else. Developed and developing nations are looking for ways to make agriculture more efficient and effective. Benchmarking can help, as can identifying and disseminating best practice in agriculture. It is not an overstatement to say that it is of critical importance to us all. The 12 sites included in this editorial should help readers learn more about best practice and benchmarking in agriculture. On these 12 sites, one will find metrics, tools, opinions, news, research, and more pertaining to agriculture and agri-business. Hopefully, BIJ readers interested in either will find these sites to be valuable in helping them learn more about agriculture and how to improve performance in this area so important to the progress and prosperity of individuals and nations.

I strive to prepare editorials that best meet the needs of BIJ readers. Your views are important to me and will influence the format and content of future editorials. Any assistance you can provide to help me achieve that goal is appreciated. If you have a site or know of a site that you would like to see featured in future editorials, please E-mail me your suggestions. Send your comments and suggestions to Ronald McGaughey at ronmc@uca.edu

Ronald E. McGaugheyInternet Editor