If there is a moral obligation on the agricultural industry to use its ‘big data’ to try and feed the world’s growing population, isn’t there also a moral obligation to protect farmers and agrichemical traders?
While new crop protection products and crop varieties have the power to feed a growing global population, some experts are advising caution in the amount and way that information is being shared. ‘Big data’ may help feed the world, but care should also be taken to protect the farmers, customers and chemical product traders involved.
This is a point highlighted in a recent article by Prof. Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Adviser at Defra, the British ministry responsible for, among other things, agriculture. He wrote that, “As the population increases and food production becomes more costly due to climate change and uncertainties about energy and fertiliser production, open data has the capacity to be an important part of the solution to global problems of food poverty and poor nutrition.”
However, despite being a speaker at the UN’s recent GODAN (Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition) meeting in New York, Boyd still maintains his reservations over the sharing of data and its conflict with personal security. Stating that, “Central to the risks associated with data is personal information. Everybody leaves behind their digital fingerprint as they engage in digital economies. For those who wish to, there are ways of using these signals to find out more about us than perhaps some people might wish. I am a great supporter of better use of data, but we need to make sure that people know what data there is about them, how it is being used, and by whom.”
So while data is shared to feed the world, data sharing should be limited to save the individual.
Agribusiness companies who spend millions of dollars researching improved fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, and crop varieties do well in sharing their knowledge and products with the world’s hand-to-mouth farmers. But this information should be disseminated carefully, as we all (including farmers and agrichemical traders) have a right to privacy.
Using and trading agribusiness products is a secretive industry, where prices and market intelligence comes at a price. This means, that when it comes to big data in agrichemical products, it needs a portion of caution to make sharing caring.