As the use of digital agriculture technology increases, so does the importance of strengthening communications between farmers and agtech companies. This is the aim of Ag Data Transparent (ADT)

While presenting at EMILI’s 2024 Agriculture Enlightened Conference in November 2024, Todd Janzen, attorney and ADT administrator, shared the origins of ADT and the role the non-profit group plays in strengthening the agriculture data ecosystem in Canada and the USA.

Janzen’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion that included Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) Board Member and Keystone Ag Producers President Jill Verway, GrainFox Chief Growth Officer Liz Pham, and ADT Board Member and EMILI Director of Agri-Food Data Dan Lussier. 

To qualify for Ag Data Transparent certification, agtech companies answer 11 standard questions and submit copies of the contracts and data use agreements they ask farmers to sign. This application package is reviewed by the ADT Administrator to validate that the answers align with the information in the contracts. 

“With a new wave of data collection tools, comes the potential to shift power away from farmers and into the hands of companies who want to sell farmers their product. Building on the original set of farm data principles developed by the American Farm Bureau, the ADT Core Principles for Agricultural Data help producers understand and evaluate contracts associated with the collection, storage, transfer, and use of their agricultural data,” said Janzen. 

Pham said that becoming ADT certified in 2023 increased the credibility and trust of GrainFox’s data-driven grain marketing platform. “One of the key questions we’re asked by producers is around data ownership; Where’s my data going? Who owns it?” she said. “Our clients own their data, and our platform relies on producers to input accurate data. At the end of the day, that data’s purpose is making producers more successful.”

Janzen recognizes that the majority of companies want to collect data in a way that is fair to the producer, but they don’t always know how to engage with their farmer customers. He hopes that ADT and its Core Principles provide a framework to strengthen communications and build trust around key issues like ownership of data.

“If you say the farmer owns their data, but the contracts don’t say that, you need to either update your contract or update your answer,” said Janzen.

Verwey says transparency is important to farmers working with new equipment and technologies, and “the limitless number of user agreements that might be involved.”

“Ag Data Transparent and ADT certification provides a sense of transparency, in layman’s terms, as to what’s important to producers in those Core Principles,” she said. “I think grower education is definitely key. And being able to look to an organization like ADT, that can provide that “Cole’s Notes” as to what’s in that user agreement. Although ADT isn’t a regulator, it provides transparency and trust, enabling the producer to choose the products they are comfortable using.”

Many of the technology providers that EMILI works with are ADT Certified, such as FCC AgExpert, Agi3, GrainFox, Metos Canada, and John Deere. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture recently became the first Canadian farm organization to join ADT as an industry member in fall 2024. EMILI has been a supporting member since 2022 when ADT created this membership category for organizations who do not directly collect farm data yet want to advocate for and support the work of ADT