Your data, under your rules: farm data ownership in the US and the EU

Every new system on a farm produces data: tag reads, treatments, weights, locations, loads. Who owns it, who can see it and who can profit from it are now questions with written answers in both the US and the EU. They should be answered before a system is built, not after.

The principles in the US

The American Farm Bureau's Ag Data Core Principles, adopted by many technology providers, start from a simple idea: farmers own the information generated on their operations. Providers who sign up commit to explaining what they collect, getting consent before sharing, letting farmers retrieve their data, and not using it for undisclosed purposes. The principles are voluntary, so what matters is what a provider's contract actually says.

Privacy law also applies where farm data includes people. US state privacy laws give rights over personal information, and driver location tracking in particular should be limited to working time and its stated purpose.

The EU: a code of conduct and the Data Act

In the EU, the Code of conduct on agricultural data sharing by contractual agreement, agreed by farming and industry organizations, sets out that data generated on the farm belongs to the farmer as the data originator, and that sharing should be based on clear contracts.

The EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854) goes further for connected products such as sensors and smart tags. The user of a connected product has the right to access the data its use generates, free of charge and in a machine-readable format, and to have it shared with a third party they choose. Contract terms that unfairly limit those rights are not binding.

The GDPR applies whenever data identifies a person: a farmer, a driver, a vet.

What ownership should mean in practice

Words like "you own your data" are easy to write. These are the commitments that make them real:

1. Export anytime, in open formats, without asking permission and without a fee.
2. No sharing by default. Data goes to a buyer, an auditor or a partner only when the farm says so, and the farm can see who has access.
3. Choice of hosting region, EU or US, so data stays under the rules of the country the animals are in.
4. Ownership of the system. When a custom system is finished and paid for, the client owns the code as well as the data.
5. An exit plan written into the contract, so leaving a provider does not mean losing history.
6. Exports never blocked, even in a billing dispute.

Data as an asset

Livestock data is starting to have a market value of its own. A calf-sourcing operation with a complete record per animal from dairy to packer holds a dataset that breeders, nutrition companies and researchers would pay to use. That only works if the data is governed from the start: lineage on every fact, rights flags that default to "no", and pseudonymous keys so animals and farms are not exposed when data is shared.

Devices raise the stakes

Smart ear tags and other on-animal devices produce continuous data about behavior and location. Under the Data Act, the farm as user has a right to that data. A device maker who wants to use it beyond providing the service, for example to train models across many farms, needs a clear contract and should use aggregated data that does not identify the farm or its animals.

Questions to ask any provider

• Can I export everything, today, in a format another system can read?
• Who else can see my data, and how do I see that list?
• Where is the data hosted, and can I choose?
• What happens to my data if I stop paying, or if you are sold?
• Do I own the system you build for me when it is finished?

If the answers are not in the contract, they are not commitments.

How Mule answers them

Mule's systems default to no sharing, offer free export in open formats at any time, host in the EU or the US by the client's choice, and transfer full ownership to the client on completion and payment. Our Data and trust page and DPA summary set this out in detail.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Check the current texts and take advice for your situation.