Policy & Practices Research
The legal, economic, social and other public policy issues surrounding data-intensive technologies in Canadian agriculture are evolving very rapidly. Solid information can be difficult to find, and in many cases it is more common to find resources focused on the United States, or Europe.
As a result, the EMILI Data Initiative will be undertaking a series of collaborative applied research projects addressing gaps in foundational knowledge related to the rapidly evolving commercial and public policy environment for data in Canadian agriculture and food.
Each project will produce a landmark report designed to be a trusted resource for people, and organizations, working across the agri-food value chain.
Project 1: Legal Landscape for Canadian Agri-Food Data
Questions of ownership and privacy are often some of the first raised in any discussion about data in agriculture. As a result, the first policy and practices research project will investigate the legal landscape associated with agri-food data in Canada.
This project will address key questions such as:
Ownership: What does it mean to own data? Who owns agricultural data gathered on-farm in Canada?
Privacy: How do federal, and provincial, privacy legislation apply to agri-food data? How does this match the privacy expectations of producers?
End User License Agreements: How should a non-lawyer read the end user agreement for a software tool? What role do voluntary codes like Ag Data Transparent play to help growers and other users?
Published Guidebooks
Fewer, Margison and Geist. Contracts: Legal Landscape for Agri-Food Data. EMILI Canada. CADI-Legal-2024-01. April 2024.
Status Updates
🡢 24 April 2024: Contracts guidebook published https://bit.ly/49MDbXn PDF: https://bit.ly/3y0218X
🡢 4 April 2024: Panel presentation to preview Contracts guidebook at University of Calgary Simpson Centre workshop on agriculture data. https://bit.ly/49mUuhx
🡢 November 2023: Contacts guidebook to be produced by Spring 2024.
🡢 March 2023: Review of second drafts.
🡢 November 2022: Review of first section drafts.
🡢 September 2022: Review of section outlines.
🡢 June 2022: Initial meeting of the project working group.
Project Partners
Project 2: Interoperability - State of Play
Growers, and other businesses along the agri-food value chain, want their software and digital tools to work seamlessly together. Standards and interoperability are critical to achieving this vision. At the same time, it is not easy to understand what standards are in use today and the strategy that technology providers are pursuing to deliver a higher degree of interoperability in the future.
As a result, the EMILI Data Initiative will undertake a survey of the state of standards and interoperability for digital technologies found in the Canadian agri-food value chain as the second policies and practices research project.
Status Updates
🡢 November 2023: Writing of the final report.
🡢 July - Aug 2023: Analysis of interview findings
🡢 June 2023: Final round of interviews with stakeholders.
🡢 March 2023: Second round of interviews with stakeholders.
🡢 January 2023: First round of Interviews with stakeholders.
🡢 November 2022: Scheduling interviews with stakeholder organizations.
🡢 October 2022: Development of interview questions and supporting materials.
🡢 August-September 2022: Outreach to stakeholders to confirm interest in being interviewed for the project.
