A House Agriculture Committee hearing this week highlighted the concern farmers have with data privacy, according to the American Farm Bureau.
Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst testified to the committee that “The big data movement and the innovative technologies and analytics it yields, could lead to at least as much change in agriculture as the Green Revolution and the adoption of biotechnology did.”
However, Hurst was adamant that privacy be addressed and not by the government, but rather a public-private partnership, stating “if we rely on the government to make changes, the undue overhead might irreversibly deter innovation.”
Committee Chairman Michael Conaway said opened the hearing stating “the question is how to best use, collect, and protect this data.”
Also giving Billy Tiller with Grower Information Services Cooperative in Lubbock, Texas, Michael Stern, President of The Climate Corporation, Matt Rushing with AGCO and Shannon Ferrell with Agricultural Law Department of Oklahoma State University.
