Bipartisan ‘Agriculture Data Act’ Ensures Farmers Reap Value From Their USDA Data

Statement by Callie Eideberg, Senior Policy Manager, Ecosystems – Sustainable Agriculture at Environmental Defense Fund

(WASHINGTON, DC – March 1, 2018) U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Thune, R-S.D., today introduced the Agriculture Data Act of 2018, which would aggregate and anonymize the farmer data that the Department of Agriculture already manages, making it accessible to land-grant university researchers while maintaining producer privacy.

“With access to USDA data, trusted researchers can transform siloed data points about conservation practices and risk reduction into meaningful information that farmers can use to increase profitability and build resilience to extreme weather. This bipartisan bill is a major step forward for producers.

“Longer term, USDA data availability will also help strengthen the federal crop insurance program by quantifying the impacts that conservation practices have on soil health, yield variability and climate resilience.”

– Callie Eideberg, EDF Senior Policy Manager, Ecosystems – Sustainable Agriculture

With more than 3 million members, Environmental Defense Fund creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships to turn solutions into action. edf.org

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