Data rights and security, a few words that you most likely don't hear that often in the day-to-day operation of an agricultural business.
I grew up with the notion that security was making sure the gates were locked and keeping an eye on the fences.
Yet our world has evolved around us to make that basic idea of security take a back foot as we emerge into what is known as 'Agriculture 4.0'.
Every day we improve our ability to connect with the world around us instantly, and vice versa. This brings both a plethora of advantages and benefits but also some serious vulnerabilities and risks.
That is what I see in 'Agriculture 4.0', which is a term that has been coined to represent our industry embracing the trends of precision agriculture, the Internet of Things, and the use of big data.
These three trends are almost solely centered on how we utilise both the data we collect and our access to the internet.
The positives are huge, enabling increases in yield, productivity, efficiency, knowledge and connectivity.
However, as we have seen in recent months with both the American Colonial pipeline and JBS, our reliance on the internet and data is by no means safe or secure.
Both incidents shut down a supply chain that supports entire countries and are certainly not isolated one-off cyber attacks.
They happen around the world thousands of times a year and we are only just beginning to see the cusp of the damage they could inflict.
One way to ensure we are taking the right steps to protect ourselves is to increase funding of cyber security and ensure we are vigilant for any form of scams or hoaxes.
However, I believe it raises another question that is an important aspect of our online presence - who owns your data?
Diving a bit deeper into this question will ultimately lead us to realise how freely we have been giving our data, both personal and professional, out to companies for the last decade or more.
Farmers deserve much more ownership of the massive amounts of data they are collecting, which is due to continue to increase exponentially, and it is so important that we keep tabs on where our data is going and who is utilising it.
Keep locking the gate and checking the fences, offline and online.
- Callan Daley, youth agvocate
