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Missouri Farmers Union took lead on Big Data discussion

Missouri Farmers Union President Richard Oswald says the group is forward thinking in its policy formation.  Oswald, who farms near Clarence, Missouri, in Atchison County, tells Brownfield Ag News that the state’s Farmers Union gets the attention of its national counterpart.

“Missouri tends to sort of be at the cutting edge of policy because a lot of the new things we adopt into our policy find their way into national policy the following year, because we’re always looking ahead,” said Oswald, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News.

Oswald says a case in point is that the Missouri Farmers Union began discussing the issue of Big Data prior to it being addressed by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau.

“Basically what we said in our policy is that a farmer’s data belongs to that farmer unless he makes a deal and sells that data and is compensated for that data,” said Oswald.  “It should always be his and no corporation should be able to say it’s theirs just because the farmer shares it with them.”

After being discussed a year ago, policy regarding Big Data was officially adopted by the Missouri Farmers Union at their annual meeting in Macon, Missouri, this month.

AUDIO: Richard Oswald (9 min. MP3)