This revision of the organization’s long-standing document includes consideration of emerging and evolving trends in agriculture data.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | August 14, 2025 | The rapid advancement of data-driven technologies in agriculture offers immense potential to enhance productivity, sustainability, and economic resilience. However, this increasing reliance on data also brings ethical, legal, and stewardship challenges that must be addressed to ensure responsible use and equitable benefits for all stakeholders.
These trends, along with encouragement from its member leadership, were the impetus for AgGateway to review and refresh its White Paper on Data Ethics and Stewardship. Following two years of work, the document is now available for review by any interested data stakeholder.
“The substantial work and commitment of volunteer members and staff to update and improve this document has been staggering, and now we are at last ready to share it with the agriculture community at large,” says Jeremy Wilson, Executive Vice President/COO and North American Director for AgGateway.
Organization leaders are encouraged to review and use the white paper as a guide for current approaches to data ethics and stewardship. And, because this is intended to be a “living” document any suggestions for further revision or updates are welcomed.
“AgGateway provides a unique environment to pursue consensus on important topics like data ethics. It brings together representatives of big ag, small ag, technical service providers, and interested non-profits like us,” noted Steve Francis of Tech Matters, who served as a key adviser and contributor to the White Paper. Tech Matters supports the work of non-profit organizations by fostering education and collaboration around technology for the common good.
“This work is important to build trust between producers and industry – for example, it benefited our organization’s Better Deal for Data governance project by allowing us to learn from others who have been thinking deeply in this area,” he adds.
This document explores key principles of data ethics and stewardship within agriculture, emphasizing the importance of privacy, ownership, transparency, fairness, and responsible governance in agricultural data management.
Key themes within the report include:
Data ethics by design: Ethical principles should be integrated proactively into data agreements and data management systems to ensure compliance with regulations and maintain data originator trust.
Understanding agricultural data: Agricultural data can be divided into several categories, including farm management, agronomic, machine, weather, and livestock data, all of which may have multiple stakeholders with different needs and expectations.
Standardization & interoperability: Developing common standards for data formats, exchange protocols, and semantics is essential for efficient and effective data sharing.
Ethical considerations: Privacy, ownership, control, transparency, fairness, and accountability are critical concerns when handling agricultural data.
Stewardship challenges: Organizations face technical, legal, and ethical challenges related to data integration, security, regulatory compliance, and long-term sustainability.
Legal & regulatory compliance: Managing agricultural data requires navigating evolving and conflicting laws related to privacy, ownership, and intellectual property.
Best practices & frameworks: Several global sets of principles provide guidelines for ethical data governance and stewardship.
The White Paper is available for download on the AgGateway website in either ANSI or A4 format as a pdf. Please direct any comments, concerns, or questions about the document to Ben Craker, Portfolio Manager, at ben.craker@aggateway.org.
Individuals interested in the White Paper can learn more by attending a 45-minute webinar on 28 August at 9:00 AM Chicago/16:00 Paris. More details and registration information are available on the Inside AgGateway Webinar home page.
Multi-media content
Link to audio interview with Jeremy Wilson, AgGateway Executive Vice President/COO and North American Director – 9:32
AgGateway is a non-profit consortium of businesses that helps its member companies improve their profitability and productivity by promoting, enabling and expanding eBusiness in agriculture. Learn more at www.AgGateway.org
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