Does Your Lease Address Big Data?

I've drafted and reviewed dozens of farmland leases over the years, but I've yet to see a lease that addresses the issues associated with ownership and transfer of farm data. As farmers embrace new data storage and analytic tools, it’s time to modernize the traditional farm lease to address farm data. This post begins a series of articles on how to address farm data ownership, privacy, and sharing, in a farm lease.

What You Need to Know about Farm Data Privacy

Here is my presentation to the Indiana Horticultural Congress on January 21, 2015.  You can follow along online by clicking below:

Farm Data Privacy:  What You Need to Know

Please check out other articles about the agriculture and technology on this blog.

Big Data on the Farm: Presentation to Indiana Farm Bureau

My January 20, 2015 presentation to Indiana Farm Bureau's District Meeting can be found by clicking on the following link:

Big Data on the Farm

Don't forget to also check out American Farm Bureau Federation's Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data.

FAA Approves Ag Drone Flights for One Company: Is Decision a Road Map for Others?

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted a Washington company (Advanced Aviation Solutions LLC) an exemption to fly unmanned aerial vehicles ("UAVs" or "drones") commercially for "precision agriculture" and "crop scouting" purposes.  In general, FAA regulations prohibit any person from flying a UAV in national airspace without an airworthiness certification (except for model aircraft flow under the "hobby" aircraft guidance document).  A person may seek to avoid airworthiness certification by seeking an exemption under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (“FMRA”).  To date, these exemptions have been issued sparingly.  This latest exemption, however, may provide other ag drone operators with a road map for obtaining their own exemption from current FAA regulations.