Collaboration, Cooperation Squeezes Out Every Ounce of Value

Representing their respective organizations for the signing of the memorandum of understanding were (left) Daniel Lefebvre, President, ICAR, and Brent Kemp, President and CEO, AgGateway.

From the President

ICAR Agreement Aligns with our Long-Standing Commitment to Collaboration

By Brent Kemp, President and CEO

Reuse before buy before build. AgGateway’s work follows this principle for information technology architecture. When Jeremy, Jim or I introduce AgGateway to others, some form of this concept is shared. “We don’t believe in reinventing the wheel.” “We don’t have a ‘not-invented-here’ mindset.” “If there’s a tool or standard that is well adapted for agriculture and our members’ needs, we’ll support it.”

This isn’t simply our policy so we can work and play well with others. It is foundational because, frankly, you the members have other things to do with your time than build new schemas every time a variation of a purchase order appears. It’s why the industry created AgGateway in the first place. It’s why AgGateway added ICAR to our list of collaboration partners three weeks ago.

As we prepare for the North America and Europe Mid-Year Meetings, the expectations of customers, consumers, and other stakeholders challenge us to consider what this principle means in terms of the data we generate and exchange. For example, food processors are standing up services that they hope will enable them to prove claims of greenhouse gas reduction and sustainability. These services, and the agreements that support them, rely on collection, exchange, and consumption of data. Managing these services at scale requires standards for data quality, precision, and format. AgGateway’s members have an opportunity to reuse the work already done and implemented to speed delivery of data to these new systems.

You have already developed the messages and exchange processes to link sales of products through the supply chain to a planting or application activity in the field. The data available to farmers and their trusted partners through processes supported by ADAPT and ADAPT Standard enable cleaner record keeping and decision making. If asked, we can point to the message schemas and APIs like Product Catalog, In-Field Product ID, and the core documents of the SPADE and PAIL projects as key elements needed for tracking the products that are of interest to food processors. The provenance data enabled by AgGateway tools and processes can help growers partner better with their downstream customers when they pair data and product to provide new insight and increased value.

I’ve had the opportunity to share some of the work you’ve done together with other segments of agriculture, most recently with the dairy industry at the ADSA DISCOVER Conference. One of the takeaways I had was how well prepared AgGateway members are to provide data based on the relationships you already have with each other. Some of the trust issues that exist in other segments are addressed through in-person meetings like our regional conferences, as well as the track record of working together to solve business problems and build mutual value. I’m optimistic about AgGateway’s ability to contribute to solutions for problems outside our direct sphere of work, and to support farmers’ economic, environmental, and social sustainability. I look forward to the conversations we’ll have in Altoona and Osnabruck this month, and the work that emerges from each event.

See you soon!