Terms of Reference for 

The British Farm Data Council 

7th June 2022

Executive Summary 

There exists a great opportunity to improve trust in data across the British food & farming industry, and thereby truly unleash data sharing, collaboration, and value for the industry, especially our farmers; whilst always ensuring a commonly recognised standard of care, security, and ownership. 

Amongst senior constituents from a range of stakeholders along the food supply chain, there is a clear recognition of the importance of farm data governance, but there is a general unease that things are not being done properly, that there are little or no safeguards outside the narrow confines of GDPR legislation, and that no one is sure “what good looks like”. 

It is therefore proposed to set up the British Farm Data Council, an independent body made up a cross-section of senior industry leaders, seeking the following impact for the agrifood sector as a whole.

The Council intends to 

1. Accelerate the digitisation of the industry, and  associated benefits in productivity sustainability and performance, by building trust and participation especially on farm, and  

2. Enable clear recognition for farms, companies, and organisations across the agricultural industry who champion fair and appropriate data rights, leading the industry forward. 

In the short term, the Council seeks to begin this journey by: 

1. Surveying the farm data governance ecosystem, 

2. Defining the aspiration for a gold standard in British farming data, and 

3. Becoming the authoritative body for data governance standards, certification, and thought leadership across British farming. 

This Council is chaired by Prof Tina Barsby, OBE. It is incubated by YAGRO for up to two years until it is able to build momentum and its own resources. 

The enclosed document explains this in further detail. 

Context 

In recent years there has been a sea-change in data capability across British agriculture, with more and more demands for intelligence, analytics, and with these, data sharing from farms and across the supply chain. 

Alongside this increasing technological capability, we must ensure progress of a secure and safe data environment for the industry: one where control, integrity, and quality of data is ensured for all participants. To do so, data governance and standards in the UK must keep pace with technological innovation. 

Importantly, the UK is yet to agree any voluntary corporate initiative, such as the EU Code of Conduct on Agricultural Data Sharing, Ag Data Transparent2 in the United States, and Farm Data Code in New Zealand. Our farming industry is unique, especially as new regulation moves us away from EU policy. This requires a dedicated framework and vision for our future – informed by, and learning from, international parallels. 

We are therefore initiating The British Farm Data Council: an independent industry body which will conspicuously shape the way forward for UK farm data governance and standards. This group of leaders, drawn from across the industry, have come together to:  

Review the current landscape, 

Present a compelling vision for gold standard in data governance principles, 

Lead the establishment of a certification framework to guide all companies to these goals (as data increasingly touches the entire industry),  

Routinely assess the industry’s progress and publish periodical assessments of progress in data governance. 

They will also lend subject matter specialism to key UK lobby groups and policy makers. 

This group seeks to define the guiding principles only at this stage, and will look to work with others (e.g. Agrimetrics and the Open Data Institute) to implement the standards at a practical business level. 

Stakeholder support 

We have consulted a range of senior leaders across the supply chain (from farmers to researchers, manufacturers and to retail) for their views and desires from such an initiative. The key findings are: 

Individuals had different interpretations on what they thought the term “data governance” means but there is broad agreement on the responsibility to take it seriously. 

The importance of data governance was recognised but there is a general unease that things are fragmented, non-standard, not being done properly, there are little or no safeguards. There is no clarity on “what good looks like”, especially in non-GDPR areas. 

The biggest concerns revolve around trust and confidentiality, and what constitutes an appropriate standard of data governance. The majority are wary of participation in data initiatives, because of the associated (and largely unknown) risks. 

The solution, according to those interviewed, was to have a set of standards that players in this area could work towards; with the goal of some sort of accreditation.  

If there were to be a clear trusted standard, farmers would feel less disenfranchised, and those in the food chain would feel less exposed. 

Some discussion, but a voluntary system seems to be the preferred approach to set and certify a “gold standard”, rather than a regulatory initiative which could focus on the ‘minimum’ requirement. 

All were keen to support and be involved in such an initiative, recognising the good for the industry as well as their own organisations.  

THE BRITISH FARM DATA COUNCIL 

Aim of the Council 

The British Farm Data Council is to be an independent non-profit group, which provides thought leadership, direction, and certification to the British farming industry on the standards and principles for farm data governance. 

Principles of the Council: 

Independence 

Impartiality 

Transparency 

Equitability 

Action-oriented Cross-sector collaborative, but not at the expense of Action 

Objectives of the Council 

The objectives of The British Farm Data Council are to: 

Shape and disseminate the gold standard ambition for UK farm data governance standards and principles, 

Develop, share, and award a certification framework for industry against this gold standard, and publish assessments of industry progress towards this, 

Consult and support key industry groups such as the NFU, AHDB, CLA, AIC, Red Tractor, LEAF, CropLife UK and along the food supply chain to retailers, senior policy makers, and scientific research bodies, as the recognised thought leader in data governance standards, and 

Become self-funding through industry membership or other mechanism. 

Impact of the Council 

Accelerate the digitisation of the industry, and its associated benefits in productivity sustainability and performance, by building trust and participation especially on farm, and  

Enable clear recognition for farms, companies, and organisations across the agricultural industry who champion fair and appropriate data rights, leading the industry forward. 

Sector Engagement 

The Council is a collaborative, consultative body, which will work with as broad a group of agrifood stakeholders as possible in order to shape its thinking and definitions. It will consciously balance this, with an over-riding imperative for action and progress towards its objectives for the agrifood sector as a whole.
 

The mechanism for engagement to the full sector is to be defined, and could include direct Council representation, as well as membership, association, bilateral or multilateral direct consultations, and any other approach deemed suited to the Council’s objectives and principles for sector engagement. 

Membership 

The Council shall consist of the Chair, and an initial 8 further individuals drawn from across the agricultural industry. 

Members should serve as individual representatives, rather than corporate representatives – but clearly bring a deep and relevant body of knowledge from within the industry. 

Members shall serve for a Term of 24 months. Any individual may be elected a Member a maximum of three times. 

Once The British Farm Data Council is launched, further appointments will be made by the Council. 

In forming the first full Council, we have sought to represent voices across the breadth of industry, while not limiting ourselves in the pursuit of the right individuals, particularly to focus on concrete action and progress to our objectives.  

Proposed Council 

We are pleased to confirm Prof Tina Barsby OBE has agreed to Chair the Council. 

Confirmed Members for launch are: 

Prof Tina Barsby OBE  

Sarah Bell  

Susannah Bolton  

Sarah Cowlrick 

Gareth Davies 

Helen Ferrier   

Poul Hovesen  

David Hutchinson 

Council Support 

The Council shall be supported with the following resources, to be financed initially by YAGRO: 

Secretarial support, 

A Communications expert to facilitate meetings, and provide execution capacity to disseminate the Council’s findings and actions, 

Additional support and budget as approved from time to time to achieve the Council’s aims and objectives. 

Member Responsibilities 

The responsibility of Council Members is specifically to: 

Meet the Objectives of the Council through regular meeting and interaction, 

Set the executive tasks for Council Support to carry out, subject to budgetary constraints, 

Contribute the best of their knowledge and expertise on industry developments and emerging requirements of data, 

Individually promote the work, findings, and role of The British Farm Data Council within their networks, to the industry, the food supply chain, the media and Government, 

Members should be aware that their membership will be visible to the outside world, 

Uphold the Membership and Ways of Working requirements for the Council, 

Adhere to ethical guidelines and not bring the membership nor the Council itself into disrepute.  

Ways of Working 

The Council will meet once every quarter, in person where possible; 

Council meetings should require no more than half a day; 

Members are asked to attend all scheduled meetings and contribute to proceedings fully and with the best of you’re their knowledge and expertise; 

Members may be asked to review and respond to materials between meetings; 

Work in draft form shall not be shared beyond the Council. 

Member Compensation 

Through the incubation period, Members shall receive payment for reasonable direct expenses for attending meetings.

This will be reviewed once independent funding has been secured. 

Funding 

The Farm Data Council shall be initially funded by YAGRO. The council should aim to achieve a path to full independence within 2 years through its own activities. This will include complete separation from YAGRO. 

Data Governance topics 

To expand on suggested areas of focus: 

General principles of data governance 

Actively enabling farm digitisation 

Active inter-operability 

Adoption of common nomenclature 

Actively training farm practitioners Data ownership / permissioning framework 

Phasing 

The British Farm Data Council shall determine its own approach to achieving its objectives. We envisage initial phases to focus on: 

Phase 1 

Establish the first fully populated Council 

Determine the limits of remit and boundaries within the ecosystem  

Review the current state of play nationally and internationally for data governance standards 

Set a 5-year vision for gold standard data governance standards 

Begin links to cross-industry players through detailed consultations 

Phase 2 

Develop a data governance standards assessment / certification framework for any agricultural players touching data 

Develop an assessment service against this, with partners as appropriate 

Formally engage cross-industry players into membership, certification, or stakeholder panels, or other relationship 

Disseminate the certification approach widely to the industry 

Phase 3 

Track developments in compliance to the Gold Standard 

Publish assessments of sector progress within data governance standards 

Develop plan for self-sufficiency including legal status of the Council and liabilities therein 

Review and update the 5-year vision on a rolling basis