Quotes

"Agriculture has always been close to the heart of Pinduoduo since its inception. Investing in smart agriculture is an extension of what we do and guided by our goal of promoting digital inclusion."

"Farmers own their own data — full stop. They can choose to share their data with others and request that their individual farm data is deleted."

"There's a huge appetite [for local products] and I think it requires not just us, but a number of people to step their game up to do what we need in Canada."

"Started by farmers for farmers" — founder Matteo Vanotti's framing of xFarm Technologies' origin story (2017).

"I could smell the acrid stench of pesticide from afar and I thought maybe my unmanned aircraft could help... At least drone spraying would limit the farmers' exposure to the chemicals."

"Agricultural drones have become essential farm equipment around the world. Thanks to research-based policies and a clearer process for operator training, adoption among young people and women has grown significantly."

"Is Amazon going to be our food producer 50 years from now, or Microsoft — or are we still going to have small farmers that provide for their local communities, grow culturally relevant crops, and have resilient community food systems?"

"Using open source and developing digital commons are the obvious solution — and something farmers, who invented the mutual model and cooperation, know how to do."

"Unicorns do not exist in agriculture. The French agri-tech industry is not doing well, and funding from private investors remains insufficient."

"To understand how AI works, we need to move from a culture of proof to a culture of probability, while reducing the margin of error to almost zero. Farmers tolerate very little margin of error."

"Manifestations of open are seen in our agricultural heritage, owned by all and fabricated over generations. The boundless mixing of genetic materials seen in open pollination boosts the overall vigour of plants and regenerates the abundance of nature. There is also a long history of open in many traditional cultures around the world. Local knowledge, often collectively inherited, shared orally, and passed over jurisdictional borders and geographies, is the backbone of traditional agriculture and biodiversity preservation as farmers save and trade seeds — and it's been at work for centuries. It is impossible to imagine claiming any presumptive ownership of our agricultural heritage; yet copyrights, patents, and breeders' rights hinder the spread of indigenous seeds and continually fail to protect local knowledge."

"The Ag Data Transparent certification is based upon the Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data, a set of guidelines for companies collecting, storing, and analyzing farmer data."

"AI adoption in Canadian agriculture and food is not constrained by technology availability, but mostly by ecosystem factors."

"CARE Directs Us Home" — warns against treating the CARE Principles as a static compliance checklist. Reasserts CARE as high-level guidance designed to direct researchers toward the distinct, community-specific protocols of the Indigenous Peoples involved.

"The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance are people and purpose-oriented, reflecting the crucial role of data in advancing Indigenous innovation and self-determination. These principles complement the existing FAIR principles encouraging open and other data movements to consider both people and purpose in their advocacy and pursuits."

"This recommended practice supports the appropriate disclosure of Indigenous Peoples' relationships and/or links to all data."

"The publication of this national strategy is an important milestone for Canada's AI ecosystem."

"We are an independent data platform that believes in agricultural innovation with heart and soul — but only if you, as a farmer, can make the most of it."

"OADA will create a secure data ecosystem that enables data security, privacy and interoperability for the entire agriculture industry. OADA will achieve this through an open standards software effort to establish secure data exchange protocols."

"Open-source technological solutions are revolutionizing agrifood systems not simply as a technological phenomenon. It democratizes access to innovative tools and fosters collaborative approaches to address global challenges. It is an excellent example of Open innovation, a collaborative approach that brings together external ideas, technologies, and resources to solve problems more effectively. It is a way of working to create better solutions that enable farmers, researchers, and policymakers to freely adapt through a more inclusive and equitable approach to agricultural innovation."

"I've read the terms and conditions. But giving some of that information to the person that I'm having to buy a three-quarter of a million-dollar machine from just doesn't sit quite right."

"It is incomprehensible for a farmer what he is sharing and collecting in terms of data. It's good to have an independent party that monitors this. You don't want data to just end up with another party undesired. They could have a different interest. I often see that an entrepreneur shares his fertilization or accounting data with, for example, the purchaser of milk or potatoes. But those parties only require that once. The lines don't have to be open all the time."

"If we didn't invest in new technology, there wasn't going to be succession. That's what it came down to."

"It's unbelievable how many agencies can request and view my milk production just like that. Good thing that with JoinData, us farmers can now decide for ourselves who is allowed to look."

"Only 2% of vines damaged with JO, compared to over 10% with tractor drivers."

"Open source AI has reached a turning point. It's no longer about expanding access to models; it's about who has the power to shape, audit, and improve them. Without investment in the infrastructure, tooling, and governance around open models, we risk locking in a system where only restrictive, closed AI can scale – and that doesn't serve the public interest, or sovereignty over tech policy decisions."

"Canada's AI strategy stops at city limits."

"Move from AI-for-agriculture to Green-AI-for-agriculture, where computational sustainability is integral to mitigation and adaptation."