Policy and Practices Research: Legal Landscape

EMILI is creating a series of guidebooks to help people working in the agri-food sector understand key legal issues connected with the use of agricultural data.

  • Ownership: What does it mean to own data? Who owns agricultural data gathered on-farm in Canada?
  • Privacy: How do federal, and provincial, privacy legislation apply to agri-food data?  How does this match the privacy expectations of producers?
  • Agtech Contracts and Data Use Agreements:  How should you read the end user agreement for an agtech agreement?

Published Guidebooks

Status Updates

  • June 2025: Competition guidebook published (View/Download PDF)
  • March 2024:  Contracts guidebook content presented to webinar for the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors.
  • January 2025:  Ownership guidebook published (View/Download PDF)
  • November and December 2024:  Contracts guidebook content presented at FCC Young Farmer Summit.
  • September 2024:  Final editing on ownership and competition guidebooks.
  • April 2024:  Contracts guidebook published (View/Download PDF)
  • April 2024: Panel presentation to preview Contracts guidebook at University of Calgary Simpson Centre workshop on agriculture data.
  • November 2023: Contacts guidebook to be published in Spring 2024.
  • June 2022: Initial meeting of the project working group.

Quick Navigation

Round Image

The legal guidebooks developed by EMILI provide anyone working with farm data a better understanding of key legal issues regarding data rights, including data ownership and the safeguarding of farm data. This makes sure that everyone – both farmers and agtech companies – is starting from the same understanding and stays on the same page.

Danielle Graff, Partner, MLT Aikins

Project partners