Unlawfully "Tying" Ag Data Platforms Together

Unlawfully "Tying" Ag Data Platforms Together

You just spent six figures on a new piece of farm equipment. Now you read the fine print and realize that you must also sign-up with the equipment manufacturer's cloud based data platform. You want the equipment, but not the proprietary data platform that comes with it. What do you do?

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John Deere and Precision Planting Merger Ends Before It Begins

John Deere and Precision Planting Merger Ends Before It Begins

If you haven't heard from now, Monsanto has terminated its agreement to sell its Precision Planting division to John Deere.  Only those inside these companies really know what led to the end of this agreement, but the press releases help us piece together what happened.

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Are You Liable if Your Big Data Platform is Negligent?

Are You Liable if Your Big Data Platform is Negligent?

Who is responsible when an ag data platform recommends to a farmer that he do something wrong?

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Sorry, Right to Repair Advocates: You may be right, but John Deere is on the Winning Side of History

Sorry, Right to Repair Advocates: You may be right, but John Deere is on the Winning Side of History

My response to the Motherboard Right to Repair article: Why American Farmers are Hacking Their Tractors with Ukrainian Firmware. 

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Ag Data and Price Fixing

Ag Data and Price Fixing

As more ag data moves from farmers' tractors and computers into the cloud, the temptation for companies to use this data to price fix will only grow.

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Elon Musk and Agriculture

Elon Musk and Agriculture

What will Elon Musk's impact be on agriculture? This is what I kept thinking after reading his biography: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, by Ashlee Vance.

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Ag Data Transparency Evaluator Launches New Website

Ag Data Transparency Evaluator Launches New Website

The Ag Data Transparency Evaluator has launched a new website to help farmers better understand their technology contracts. 

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America's First Ag Data Case

America's First Ag Data Case

A number of poultry growers have filed suit against Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, and other poultry integrators alleging that growers’ production data was shared among integrators to depress the amounts paid to growers.  This is the first case where farmers’ ag data is at the center of the lawsuit.

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Change is Coming to the Dairy. And not from Regulators.

Change is Coming to the Dairy. And not from Regulators.

Farmers might herald Trump’s executive order pledging to cut two regulations for every one new one, but “regulations” are only one of the burdens placed on farmers. And that leads me to my prediction.

For the next ten years, consumers are going to drive more on-farm changes than regulators. 

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Ag Data Predictions for 2017

Ag Data Predictions for 2017

The clouds that house America’s agricultural data are going to see a lot shifting in 2017.  Here are my predictions for 2017.

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The Year in Reverse: 2016

The Year in Reverse: 2016

Here's a look back at the five biggest ag law and technology stories from 2016.

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John Deere's Electric Tractor Concept: A Bigger Idea than Just Another Tractor

John Deere's Electric Tractor Concept: A Bigger Idea than Just Another Tractor

Earlier this year, I asked when is Tesla’s electricity going to come to farm?  This week John Deere caught my attention this week when it announced an all-electric tractor concept in France. This post takes a closer look. 

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Reflections on Year One

Reflections on Year One

Janzen Ag Law is celebrating our first year. What better way to celebrate than a blog post on the highs and lows of what it means to start a business today.

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Thoughts from the (Ag Data) Road

Thoughts from the (Ag Data) Road

The past two weeks I attended two very different ag data conferences.  The first was the Big Data Dairy Management conference held by the American Dairy Science Association. The second was AgGateway's annual conference. The audiences were different, but many of the issues were the same.  Here are few of my reflections.

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Aggregated vs. Non-Aggregated Data. An Important Distinction.

Aggregated vs. Non-Aggregated Data. An Important Distinction.

Farmer's should understand the difference between ag data platforms that aggregate data and those that don't.

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Making a Federal Case Out of Ag Data

Making a Federal Case Out of Ag Data

A closer look at the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016.

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An In Depth Look at the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy

An In Depth Look at the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued its Federal Automated Vehicles Policy.  Although this policy applies solely to on-road vehicles, CNH’s recent introduction of a concept autonomous tractor suggests that NHTSA’s policy may have agricultural implications too.  This post takes a deeper look at NHTSA’s Automated Vehicles Policy.

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Speed Kings: DOJ Suit Puts the Brakes on High Speed Planting Merger

Speed Kings: DOJ Suit Puts the Brakes on High Speed Planting Merger

The Department of Justice recently filed suit to prohibit John Deere's acquisition of high speed planting technology from Precision Planting.  This article takes a closer look at the suit.

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Case IH Autonomous Tractor: What are the Legal Hurdles?

Case IH Autonomous Tractor: What are the Legal Hurdles?

Case IH unvieled its first autonomous tractor concept.  What are the legal issues that will follow these driverless vehicles into the field?

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Data Use Policies: Start by Defining Your Ag Data Guiding Principles

Data Use Policies: Start by Defining Your Ag Data Guiding Principles

Is your ag technology company struggling to define how it treats ag data?  Define your guiding principles first.

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