Janzen Shares Thoughts on Ag Tech Trends

Attorney Todd Janzen will join us in Little Rock in April to discuss legal issues related to autonomous farm vehicles and the collection, storage, and use of on-farm data. Here, he shares his thoughts on developments in ag tech as he looks back at 2016 and ahead to this year.

1. Big ag became bigger ag. Six big seed and chemical companies became three. Janzen predicts Chemchina/Syngenta, Dow/DuPont, and Bayer/Monsantwill be realities soon.

2.  Ag Data Transparency Evaluator launched. At Commodity Classic in March, an industry consortium launched the Ag Data Transparency Evaluator tool. The Evaluator asks ag tech providers to answer 10 simple questions about how they store, use, and share ag data. Companies that complete the evaluation receive the Ag Data Transparent seal of approval. Eight companies were approved as 2016 drew to a close. This is a great start. Farmers should know what happens to their ag data when they send it to the cloud.

Transparency is a very important issue, but we should not forget that farmers and ag tech providers are still searching for the return on investment for ag data platforms.

3. Ag drones entered the mainstream. All of the excitement over the illegal flying of drones came to a halt when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced its final rule integrating small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the national airspace system. Questions remain, as the FAA is concerned with safety, not privacy.

4. Silicon Valley’s love affair with farming continued. Investment in ag tech continued from venture capital. Silicon Valley needs to understand that marketing to Midwestern farms requires that they first understand what makes farming different than other industries. Whether or not investors grasp that differences, money continues to pour into ag tech.

5. Autonomous farming is on the horizon. Tesla continues to push the envelope on autonomous vehicles by marketing “autopilot” on its vehicles. In 2016, we saw the first autonomous vehicle fatality, but the technology marches on. Piloted vehicles are not always safe, either. 

One can debate whether autosteer and other guidance technologies are ahead or behind of autonomous cars, but one cannot debate that autonomous farm machines are coming.

Source: Janzen Ag Law Blog   aglaw.us/janzenaglaw