Projects
Data Interoperability
Interoperability is foundational to supply chain visibility in agriculture.
To address supply chain and logistics issues—in food and agriculture and applicable to other industrial sectors—Farm Foundation has been a founding member of the Supply Chain Optimization & Resilience (SCORe) Coalition. The SCORe Coalition is building an ecosystem of supply chain participants, including port and rail operators, carriers, government and intergovernmental organizations. An element of the SCORe Coalition is the establishment of standardized digital data solutions for supply chains in a process being led by ASTM, the 100-year-old leading institution in standards formation.
Through this work, Farm Foundation is bringing its proven Interoperable Data to Enhance Agriculture (IDEA) Approach to the development of digital supply chain solutions that can be standardized by ASTM and promoted through the SCORe Coalition for adoption across industry. IDEA aligns the efforts of organizations like the Farm Foundation, Purdue University’s Open Ag Technology & Systems (OATS) Center, OpenTEAM, AgGateway and others. The IDEA Approach has been used for transportation supply chains including land, rail, ocean, and port, as well as for products like fresh produce (strawberries), livestock (pork, cattle), soil health.
Related Events
March 2021,The Great Pork Hackathon Series
This was the first of a three-part hackathon series intended to solve problems for the pork industry through creating lasting code that will improve data flow and processes through open source interoperability.
August 2021, Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up
The Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up gathered a large, diverse, and global group of regenerative ranchers, landholders, value chain partners, software providers, conservationists and land trust representatives, scientists, academics and more to link the information flows necessary to implement and scale the practice of regenerative grazing. Participants placed ‘sticky-notes’ on a virtual whiteboard to develop a community-led understanding of the regenerative ranching sector and highlight common data challenges.
August 2022, Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack: Gathering for Action
Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack: Gathering for Action was a two-day virtual conference that was held August 23-24, 2022. It was comprised of three interwoven activities: a soil sampling campaign, a soil data hack, and the “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” virtual conference. The “Soil Health Tech Stack” is a term coined by Seana Day in an article that outlines the challenges she sees based on, among other things, her work co-authoring the USFRA Transformative Investment report about how technology and finance could scale climate smart, soil-centric agriculture practices as well as on information gathered during the Farm Foundation Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up. The “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” activities will build upon those efforts and others. As such, the event will leverage pasture/rangeland data but with the goal of extending solutions to all soil-based agriculture production ecosystems.
November 2022, Where’s My Stuff?: Supply Chain Virtual Event Storming
Farm Foundation, in partnership with the Supply Chain Optimization and Resilience (SCORe) Coalition/ASTM standards development process, held a multistakeholder, virtual event on November 7 and 8, 2022, that focused on creating shared understanding of the role standardized, interoperable digital data can play in the supply chain.
October 2023, Building Beta Data Management Protocols for Soil Carbon GHG Quantification
To assist USDA in initial designs for their “Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Quantification Program,” Purdue Open Ag Technology and Systems Center (OATS), Semios, The Mixing Bowl, and Farm Foundation are hosting the Building Beta Data Management Protocols for Soil Carbon GHG Quantification virtual “event storming” which will take place on October 24, 2023.