Addressing Big Data in EU and US Agriculture: a Legal Focus

By looking at both the EU and US agricultural context, this essay reflects on the implementation of big data into agricultural legal practice, on regulations the implementation may require and on potential changes it brings into the legal realm of agriculture. The first part discusses big data’s potential for agriculture, together with problems and dilemmas arising from it. The second section reviews the main legal problems information exchange poses between farmers and agricultural technology providers (ATPs), by analysing the normative questions on ownership, privacy and security of big farm data. The final part showes the possible perspectives the issue opens in the agricultural sphere, by using the concepts of “open data” and “data philanthropy” as institutional and procedural patterns to follow to achieve more knowledgeable and sustainable agriculture.