March 28, 2023
CarbonTerra has recently received the Ag Data Transparent (ADT) certification.
ADT is an authority in the field of farm data protection, and the certification is based upon the Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data, a set of guidelines for companies collecting, storing, analyzing, and using farmers’ ag data. Only companies that complete the certification process are allowed to call themselves Ag Data Transparent. Achieving the ADT seal of approval sends a strong message about how a company does business.
CarbonTerra, which partners with Canadian farmers and landowners to monetize carbon offsets by incorporating regenerative agriculture practices, collects a wide range of data through its digital platform MyTerra. This includes location data of the farms, satellite imagery and/or photographs, agronomic data, map data, recording, and information available from public sources, including land registries, records, databases and government agencies. Additionally, the platform also pulls weather and climate data for their land locations using third party services, or data about seeding and fertilization via connected farm equipment.
“Privacy is at the forefront of CarbonTerra’s philosophy of serving the farming community. We believe in helping farmers make the most out of their data while still maintaining ownership of all of it. We are committed to protecting the personal information of users by complying with applicable existing privacy legislation, and then going beyond. This ADT certification emphasizes our focus on making sure all our usage and storage of farmer data puts farmers first,” said Pavel Bordioug, Vice President, Tech at CarbonTerra.
“Transparency, simplicity and trust have never been more important in the arena of ag data use as complexity increases daily. We welcome CarbonTerra to the group of leading North American companies who are committed to being clear with their customers and following industry best practices,” said Todd Janzen, ADT Administrator.
Much like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval verifies compliance with Good Housekeeping’s standards, the Ag Data Transparent seal recognizes compliance with ADT’s Core Principles. Companies that want to be recognized as Ag Data Transparent must submit their contracts with farmers for certification to the ADT. In addition, companies must answer 11 questions about how they collect, store, use, and share farmers’ ag data. The contracts and answers to the 11 questions are then reviewed by a third party administrator for accuracy, following which the Ag Data Transparent seal is awarded.
While technological developments such as precision farming has transformed the agriculture sector, they have also opened up serious questions around data privacy and security. Modern agriculture increasingly involves use of sensors on farm equipment, drones, and satellite imagery to collect farm data, and then analysis of all that data to improve the productivity of resources and management decisions on the farm. Since these technologies collect a large amount of data related to the farm, farmers are getting increasingly concerned about the privacy and security of their data.
To address these challenges, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) along with 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. ADT’s board members come from two groups — farmer-led organizations and small, medium, and large ag tech providers. The ADT seal guarantees that a farmer’s usage contract is compliant with the core principles of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s privacy and security principles for farm data.
About CarbonTerra
CarbonTerra enables carbon-neutral food production with technology solutions for farmers that simplifies the monetization of carbon offsets, and helps in building a climate-friendly, carbon-neutral agriculture ecosystem that ensures maximum return on investment in sustainable agriculture practices.
https://carbonterra.com
About ADT
Ag Data Transparent, or ADT, is a non-profit organization set up under the aegis of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) to audit companies’ ag data contracts and
provide a certification that recognizes companies that voluntarily agree to have their data contracts reviewed by an independent third-party. The ADT certification process is backed by leading farmer-member organizations and ag tech companies of all sizes to build trust and transparency in agricultural data platforms.
https://www.agdatatransparent.com