WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Farmers from across the nation
gathered in Washington this month for what has become an annual trek to
seek action on the most important matters in American agriculture, such
as immigration reform and water regulations.
But this time, a new,
more shadowy issue also emerged: growing unease about how the largest
seed companies are gathering vast amount of data from sensors on
tractors, combines and other farm equipment.
The increasingly
common sensors measure soil conditions, seeding rates, crop yields and
many other variables, allowing companies to provide farmers with
customized guidance on how to get the most out of their fields.
The
involvement of the American Farm Bureau, the nation’s largest and most
prominent farming organization, illustrates how agriculture is
cautiously entering a new era in which raw planting data holds both the
promise of higher yields and the peril that the information could be
hacked or exploited by corporations or government agencies.
Seed
companies want to harness the data to help farmers grow more food with
the same amount of land, and the industry’s biggest brands have offered
assurances that all information will be closely guarded.
But
farmers are serving notice in Washington that the federal government
might need to become involved in yet another debate over electronic
security and privacy. Some members of Congress from rural states such as
Kansas were already aware of the concerns, although the issue is new to
many urban lawmakers.
Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Kansas Republican who
grew up on a dairy farm, said agriculture must achieve technological
advances to keep up with population growth, which is expected to require
60 percent more food by 2050. But she has heard farmers’ concerns about
data collection.
"Information and data utilization is the way of
the future," Jenkins said in an emailed statement. "And just as our
federal government struggles with privacy concerns through records at
the NSA and various health records, so too must we maintain appropriate
privacy protection of individuals from corporate entitles."
The
Farm Bureau isn’t sure what it needs from Washington, or whether action
is even warranted yet. But farmers want their elected officials to be
aware of how the industry is changing.
This year’s trip to
Washington was primarily "an educational effort" to make sure members of
Congress know about the data collecting and understand "the
implications of the issue for our farmers and ranchers," Steve Baccus,
an Ottawa County farmer and president of the Kansas Farm Bureau. "We may
need to come back at some time in the future and talk to them about
legislation."
Farmers worry that a hedge fund or large company
with access to "real-time" yield data from hundreds of combines at
harvest time might be able to use that information to speculate in
commodities markets long before the government issues crop-production
estimates.
Others are concerned that GPS-linked farm data could be
obtained by the Environmental Protection Agency, antagonistic
environmental groups or, in the Farm Bureau’s words, "an overall-clad
Edward Snowden," a reference to the former National Security Agency
analyst who disclosed intelligence-gathering operations.
"It is
not like we don’t all trust them," Mark Nelson, director of commodities
for the Kansas Farm Bureau, said of agribusiness companies. The new
data-collection systems deliver "a lot of good things" to producers.
"But as an organization we are looking at, ‘What is the big picture?’"
The
Farm Bureau Federation put together a "privacy expectation guide" to
educate its members and recently drafted a policy asserting that data
should remain the farmer’s property. The bureau also opposes allowing
any federal agency to serve as a clearinghouse for proprietary or
aggregated data collected by private companies.
Agribusiness giant
Monsanto and other corporations have tried to allay fears by reassuring
farmers their data is secure and will not be used beyond providing
services farmers request.
This season, growers in Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota can even buy for the first time a Monsanto
"prescription" that offers a precise seeding recipe tailored to their
soil type, disease history and pests.
The St. Louis-based company,
which has dominated the bioengineered seed business for more than a
decade, expects to expand its prescription services to other states. It
calls the advancements the "Green Data Revolution" — a play off the
so-called Green Revolution of the 20th century in which mechanical,
chemical and biological advancements drove unprecedented increases in
food production.
Monsanto expects the use of ag data to offer
comparable improvements in the next few years. It bought Precision
Planting, a high-tech farm equipment maker, in 2012, followed last
October by the purchase of the Climate Corporation, a data-analytics
firm that provides weather-related farm services and crop insurance and
is handling Monsanto’s fledgling data-related services.
The Green
Data Revolution will help farmers make more profit per acre, said Dave
Friedberg, chief executive officer of The Climate Corporation. The
average farmer, he says, won’t have to be "tech savvy."
"Tech will
just become integral to the work that they do … in the same way that
more than 100 years ago, we adopted machine-based farming equipment as
the standard in the industry," Friedberg said.
Companies are also
pushing an Open Ag Data Alliance, which would set uniform data standards
and allow systems built by different manufacturers to talk to one
another.
Farm equipment manufacturer John Deere has partnered with
DuPont Pioneer to tout what it calls "Decision Services," a system in
which farmers upload data onto servers that respond by sending seed and
fertilizer prescriptions directly to Deere tractors in the field. Other
companies offer services that let farmers connect a tablet computer to
the seed monitor in the cab and download the information.
Farm groups are conflicted about what role, if any, government should have in regulating data-gathering
practices.
"We
don’t believe ultimately there is a legislative fix for this," said
Terry Holdren, chief executive officer and general counsel for the
Kansas Farm Bureau. "It is a contractual model for folks who have
technology and folks who want technology."
Nick Guetterman, who
farms roughly 10,000 acres of corn and wheat with his father and three
brothers in eastern Kansas, already uses GPS technology and has been
considering sending all his data to a specialized service. But he still
has reservations about what a seed company or an equipment manufacturer
will do with it.
"I have not found it on my farm beneficial enough
to pay them to analyze my data," Guetterman said. "I either analyze it
myself or do nothing with it."
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