The Janzen Ag Tech Blog contains articles about the intersection of agriculture, technology, and law. All articles are original content, authored by attorney Todd Janzen. Subscribe by email at the bottom of this page to receive new posts after they are published.
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.
Read MoreJanzen 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreFarmer's should understand the difference between ag data platforms that aggregate data and those that don't.
Read MoreA closer look at the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreCase IH unvieled its first autonomous tractor concept. What are the legal issues that will follow these driverless vehicles into the field?
Read MoreIs your ag technology company struggling to define how it treats ag data? Define your guiding principles first.
Read MoreWhen the Internet of Things arrives on the farm, the change will be remarkable. This post explores some issues that may arise with the coming wave of interconnected devices.
Read MoreFarming is different than other industries. This post explains why.
Read MoreAlthough Google’s autonomous car appears to be getting most of the press, the auto-guidance system on tractors, combines, sprayers and other farm equipment has been around for years.
Read MoreI have spoken at a number of events this past six months about the legal issues arising from the transfer of ag data from the farm into cloud-based platforms managed by ag technology providers (ATPs). Moving to the cloud is not for everyone, but what has surprised me is that the complaints I hear are from both “small” and “larger” farms. This post explores those complaints and asks, who is big data really for, the small farm or large farm?
Read MoreI recently contributed to an article about big data considerations for rural property appraisers and other professionals in Journal for the The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Here is an excerpt and link to the full article.
Read MoreAmerican Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) conducted a survey of farmers to determine whether their attitudes about ag data had changed since the prior survey a couple years ago. The results were very interesting. Most farmers still do not have a solid understanding on what happens to their data when they move it from on-farm storage to cloud-based storage with an ag tech provider (ATP).
Read MoreAs custom harvesters make their way across the United States and Canada this summer, I keep wondering what happens to all that yield data these machines are collecting. I am sure much of the data is forwarded to the landowners and farmers so that they can make decisions for next year. I hope so. But do custom harvesters address this in their agreements? Here are some suggestions for how they should.
Read MoreJanzen Ag Law recently converted from Windows laptops to Apple MacBooks. I could write a book about the changes from Microsoft’s Windows to Apple’s OS, but one thing is the same—both Microsoft and Apple are now insistent on forcing users to use their cloud platforms. Windows embeds its cloud, “OneDrive” into everything. Apple’s mandatory sentencing to iCloud is not much better. Avoiding these cloud servers takes time and effort. As a result, I cannot tell you how many times I have saved a document into a cloud drive when that was not my intent.
Read MoreCountless articles have been written about the potential value of ag data. But the immediate question for farmers trying to decide whether to invest in an ag data product is what is the return on investment (ROI) for this year? Listening to grower panels at precision ag events has convinced me that most farmers still don’t know what the ROI is for most ag data products on the market.
Read MoreThere are many ways to describe the data that is streaming off the farm today. This post explores five currently accepted categories of ag data and how they are being used.
Read MoreWhile attending Commodity Classic, I did an interview with Matt Grassi at PrecisionAg.com about the Ag Data Transparency Evaluator. Here is an excerpt and link to the full interview.
Read MoreUSDA may have pulled the plug on the Climate Smart Commodities grants that were funding many climate change programs, but there are still a number of private industry offerings on the market. How can you sort through the various programs to pick one that is right for your farm?
Five years ago I worked with the Ag Data Transparent organization to create a model data use agreement for agriculture. Here is the updated version.
We opened our office ten years ago. Here’s a short look at how agriculture and the practice of law have changed during that time.
How will courts determine the “intent” of the drafter when AI becomes the author of contracts?
Are local zoning and planning boards up to the challenge of permitting small scale nuclear reactors?
There are many companies offering farmers cash to sign soil carbon contracts. What is in these contracts and should you sign up your farm?
Online revenue management platforms for landlords are being challenged as price fixing tools. What will the implications be for tenant farmers?
The 45Z tax credit for production of sustainable fuels will require farmers to verify compliance with ag data.
All articles on the Janzen Ag Tech Blog are Copyrighted as of the date published by Janzen Agricultural Law LLC. Reprint only with permission.
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As America turns 250, it is time to revisit whether our system for owning and conveying real property is ready for the next century.