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Web Taxonomy is a database for organizing and retrieving agricultural information in large collections. Deep representation captures details at levels from brief metadata descriptions to low-level media structure (words and phrases for example), leading to more accurate search and domain navigation. The model is implemented in four layers. The top layer provides 2D data visualization tools for browsing and editing data models via Web browsers. The second layer is a formal data modeling language. The third is an underlying object database management system for physical implementation of the model, and the forth is an exchange mechanism based on XML, RMI, and CORBA for distributing database objects. The formal data model integrates a thesaurus and ontology. The thesaurus is initialized using WordNet, and handles words and phrases, parts of speech, word senses and synonyms. Thesaurus terms map to objects in the ontology. The ontology is based on common data modeling abstractions (classes, instances, part/whole, association, properties, primitive and complex data types). Applications demonstrating the approach include an agricultural media database on plants, pests, and their interaction, and integrating text, images, and video.