Getting Farmers the Most From Their Data: Ag Data Transparent and Farm Journal's Trust In Food Join Forces with NASA Acres to Move the Needle on Farm Research
January 29, 2024 - Written By Nicole Pepper
Lance Lillibridge, a corn and soybean farmer in Iowa, leading a group of NASA Scientists in a tour of his farm at NASA’s Space for Ag tour in 2023.
Over the last decade, the potential of satellite-based Earth observation (EO) data for farmers is growing with the rich information it can reveal - frequently, and over large areas - about the conditions of vegetation, water, and soil that the naked eye cannot see. However, the direct value that it brings to farmers within their own operations is mediated by the degree to which farmers share their on-farm data with EO innovators and analysts. At the same time, collecting and sharing farmer data for research projects raises concerns about privacy and security for farmers, as they may worry about how their personal and operational information will be used and protected, and whether it might be vulnerable to breaches or misuse.
“Within agriculture, there is a lot of concern about what satellites can see, but it may be of some reassurance that nearly all of the high-quality applications of satellite data to problems that farmers face require some degree of farm data to ‘train’ and ‘validate’ the maps they create,” says Alyssa Whitcraft, the Executive Director of NASA Acres, NASA’s new Consortium focused on agriculture and food security in the United States. Their programs are designed to bring the value of satellite EO data for different agriculture use cases. “This means farmers must play an integral role in our efforts to bring the most value from our satellite data and tools to them, and we want to get the relationships and data governance right.”
This is why Ag Data Transparent (ADT) has partnered with NASA Acres to develop a set of guiding principles to be used for managing farm data in their research. These principles aim to promote beneficial and safe data collection, sharing, and use that prioritize farmers' well-being while unlocking the value of satellite data for farmers. In 2024, NASA Acres, ADT, and Farm Journal’s Trust In Food will launch a survey and organize outreach sessions with farmers to gather perspectives on pain points, needs, priorities, and opportunities for collaboration and trust-building around collaborations that involve farm data.
Todd Janzen, a private practice attorney at Janzen Schroeder Ag Law and Chair with ADT, is leading this initiative under NASA Acres. ADT is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the contracts between technology providers and farmers. “I'm happy to be involved with NASA Acres as a part of this survey,” says Janzen, “because one thing that Ag Data Transparent really needs is good data about the farmer's pain points with respect to data collection. And, I felt like we had our hands around that really well a few years ago and just can't wait to find out what current attitudes are from farmers and if that's changed over the years.”
Rebecca Bartels, Vice President of Trust In Food, serves as the organizational lead on the project. Trust In Food is a division of Farm Journal that is focused on accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient agricultural system. Their team will help deploy the survey to farmers and other relevant stakeholders. “We focus very closely on deeply understanding how farmers think and feel and interpreting those insights to help us make decisions and provide a deeper context to solution and outreach design,” says Bartels.
This collaboration will foster open dialogue with the objective of creating clear language regarding data and its use in NASA Acres collaborations. Through it, they hope to demonstrate to farmers the value of their data and resulting activities under the NASA Acres Consortium.
“We’ve been working on satellite remote sensing of agriculture for a long time, and we all know ground data are a major roadblock to progress. We need to understand farmers' perspectives on data use by research entities like NASA so that we can structure our work in such a way that works for the farmer - so that they see the reward as much greater than the perceived risk in sharing,” adds Whitcraft. The team hopes that the survey and outreach events will help NASA Acres’ projects and relationships get off on the right foot with respect to data governance, and will provide a valuable reference and model for others in the satellite monitoring community who aim to positively work with farmers.
To learn more about this ongoing work under NASA Acres, follow along via our website, social media, and monthly newsletter.
About NASA Acres:
NASA Acres brings the value of Earth observation technology down to Earth. We bridge the gap from space-to-farm and education-to-impact together with U.S. farmers, ranchers, and other agrifood system decision-makers who are charged with addressing the most pressing challenges to sustainable, productive, and resilient agriculture, both today and into the next generation.
NASA Acres website: nasaacres.org
Twitter: @AcresProgram
Monthly Newsletter: nasaacres.org/newsletter
About Ag Data Transparent:
To verify compliance with the Core Principles, AFBF, and the other interested organizations and companies formed the Ag Data Transparency Evaluator, Inc., a non-profit organization (ADT), to audit companies' ag data contracts. This organization developed the Ag Data Transparent seal of approval. Much like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval verifies compliance with Good Housekeeping's standards, the Ag Data Transparent seal recognizes compliance with Ag Data's Core Principles.
About Trust In Food:
Trust In Food is a purpose-driven division of Farm Journal dedicated to mainstreaming and accelerating the transition to more sustainable and regenerative ag practices, making every dollar invested in conservation agriculture more impactful. We bring business intelligence to agricultural production behavior change: helping farmers understand, value and feel capable of undertaking practice change through data science, social research and strategic communications deployed through the omnichannel Farm Journal platform in collaboration with our partners.
Visit www.trustinfood.com to learn more.
For media inquiries or more information on NASA Acres, please contact:
Nicole Pepper
Communications and Outreach Coordinator, NASA Acres
nicole@nasaacres.org