Ethical and Legal Considerations in Smart Farming: A Farmer’s Perspective
Foteini Zampati · 2022
Abstract Smart farming contributes to exponential income growth, enhanced decision making, better services and products, as well as productivity and profitability. Nowadays, numerous agricultural technology providers are entering the market, focusing on aggregating farmers’ data. But many farmers, especially smallholders, do not benefit from the sharing and exchange of this data, which leaves them feeling disempowered. Until today, ethical considerations were often side-lined because gathering more data was seen as necessary, and concerns about how data might be abused or misused were only subsequently considered. However, with the increase of big data in smart farming, it is more essential than ever to focus on the ethical aspects of data governance (access, control, consent) and practices. Therefore, these ethical questions will provide valuable insights into how data is being collected and used, for what purposes, how to bridge the digital divide, and how to create transparency and build trust between stakeholders. This chapter will focus on farmers’ perspectives and how they could actively participate in a more equitable data sharing and exchange in the agri-food value chain by contributing to the design of a fairer data governance framework. The adoption of agricultural codes of conduct is the example that will be explored.