II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2487 

To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to authorize the Secretary of 

Agriculture to provide certain data on conservation practices, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2018 

Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself and Mr. THUNE) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to authorize the 

Secretary of Agriculture to provide certain data on conservation practices, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Agriculture Data Act 

5 of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DATA ON CONSERVATION PRACTICES. 

7 Subtitle E of title XII of the Food Security Act of 

8 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841 et seq.) is amended by adding at 

9 the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 1247. DATA ON CONSERVATION PRACTICES. 

2 ‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to in3 crease the knowledge of how covered conservation prac4 tices or suites of covered conservation practices impact 

5 farm and ranch profitability (such as crop yields, soil 

6 health, and other risk-reducing factors) by using an appro7 priate collection, review, and analysis of data. 

8 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

9 ‘‘(1) COVERED CONSERVATION PRACTICE.—The 

10 term ‘covered conservation practice’ means a specific 

11 conservation practice or enhancement that is de12 signed to protect soil health, farm and ranch produc13 tivity, or both (including the protection of wildlife 

14 habitat) while maintaining or enhancing crop yields 

15 in an economically sustainable manner (including 

16 such a conservation practice or enhancement that is 

17 supported by the Department or used independently 

18 by a producer), as determined by the Secretary. 

19 ‘‘(2) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘Department’ 

20 means the Department of Agriculture. 

21 ‘‘(c) DATA COLLECTION, REVIEW, ANALYSIS, AND

22 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary, acting through 

23 the one or more applicable Under Secretaries that head 

24 mission areas relating to farm and ranch productivity and 

25 conservation, in coordination with the Chief Economist 


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1 and the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and 

2 Economics, shall carry out the following activities: 

3 ‘‘(1) Not less frequently than once each year, 

4 review, and publish a summary of, existing research 

5 of the Department, institutions of higher education, 

6 and other organizations relating to the impacts of 

7 covered conservation practices on enhancing crop 

8 yields, soil health, and otherwise reducing risk and 

9 improving farm and ranch profitability. 

10 ‘‘(2) Identify currently collected data relating to 

11 the impacts of covered conservation practices on en12 hancing crop yields, soil health, and otherwise reduc13 ing risk and improving farm and ranch profitability 

14 generated or collected by the Department, including 

15 the Farm Service Agency, the Risk Management 

16 Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, 

17 the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Eco18 nomic Research Service, the Forest Service, and any 

19 other relevant agency, as determined by the Sec20 retary. 

21 ‘‘(3) Collect any additional producer data, base22 line data, or other data relating to the impacts of 

23 covered conservation practices on enhancing crop 

24 yields, soil health, and otherwise reducing risk and 


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1 improving farm and ranch profitability necessary to 

2 achieve the purpose described in subsection (a). 

3 ‘‘(4) Ensure that producer data identified or 

4 collected under paragraph (2) or (3), respectively, 

5 are collected in a compatible format at the field- and 

6 farm-level and in a manner that places the lowest 

7 practicable burden on producers and improves the 

8 interoperability of the data collected by the Depart9 ment for the purposes of this section and optimizes 

10 the interoperability to the extent practicable with 

11 conservation practice-related data generated by other 

12 organizations and other activities of the Department. 

13 ‘‘(5) Establish procedures for producers to vol14 untarily elect to be contacted to participate in or 

15 submit additional research and to provide supple16 mental data that may be useful in analyzing the im17 pacts of covered conservation practices on enhancing 

18 crop yields, soil health, and otherwise reducing risk 

19 and improving farm and ranch profitability. 

20 ‘‘(6) Integrate and analyze the data identified 

21 or collected under this subsection to consider the im22 pacts of covered conservation practices on enhancing 

23 crop yields, soil health, and otherwise improving 

24 farm and ranch profitability. 


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1 ‘‘(7) To the extent practicable, integrate, col2 late, and link data identified in this subsection with 

3 other external data sources that include crop yields, 

4 soil health, and conservation practices. 

5 ‘‘(8) Establish a conservation and farm produc6 tivity data warehouse in order to make the results 

7 of the data collection and analysis under this sub8 section available to academic institutions and re9 searchers determined appropriate by the Secretary 

10 under subsection (d)(1). 

11 ‘‘(9) Widely disseminate the research, analyzed 

12 data, and other information obtained through car13 rying out this section that demonstrates the impacts 

14 of covered conservation practices on enhancing crop 

15 yields, soil health, and otherwise reducing risk and 

16 improving farm and ranch profitability in a manner 

17 that makes it easily used and implemented by pro18 ducers and other stakeholders. 

19 ‘‘(d) COLLABORATION WITH RESEARCH ACADEMIC

20 INSTITUTIONS OR RESEARCHERS.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out this section, 

22 the Secretary may enter into one or more agree23 ments with one or more academic institutions or re24 searchers determined appropriate by the Secretary— 


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1 ‘‘(A) to provide technical assistance, exper2 tise, and technology infrastructure, as needed, 

3 to develop the data warehouse established under 

4 subsection (c)(8); 

5 ‘‘(B) to provide to those academic institu6 tions and researchers access to data collected in 

7 carrying out this section; and 

8 ‘‘(C) to establish procedures for producers 

9 to voluntarily elect to be contacted to partici10 pate in or submit additional research and to 

11 provide supplemental data that may be useful 

12 in analyzing the impacts of covered conserva13 tion practices on enhancing crop yields, soil 

14 health, and otherwise reducing risk and improv15 ing farm and ranch profitability. 

16 ‘‘(2) PROCEDURES TO PROTECT INTEGRITY AND

17 CONFIDENTIALITY.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Before providing ac19 cess to any data under paragraph (1), the Sec20 retary shall establish procedures to protect the 

21 integrity and confidentiality of proprietary pro22 ducer data. 

23 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—Procedures under 

24 subparagraph (A) shall provide appropriate priVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:41 Mar 07, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2487.IS S2487

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1 vate protections to the producer data, includ2 ing— 

3 ‘‘(i) prohibiting the sale of any indi4 vidual producer data; and 

5 ‘‘(ii) requiring any published research 

6 to release only aggregated data. 

7 ‘‘(e) PRODUCER TOOLS.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years 

9 after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec10 retary shall provide technical assistance, including 

11 through internet-based tools, based on the analysis 

12 conducted in carrying out this section and other 

13 sources of relevant data, to assist producers in im14 proving sustainable production practices that in15 crease yields and enhance environmental outcomes. 

16 ‘‘(2) INTERNET-BASED TOOLS.—Internet-based 

17 tools described in paragraph (1) shall provide to pro18 ducers, to the maximum extent practicable— 

19 ‘‘(A) confidential data specific to each 

20 farm or ranch of the producer; and 

21 ‘‘(B) general data relating to the impacts 

22 of covered conservation practices on enhancing 

23 crop yields, soil health, and otherwise reducing 

24 risk and improving farm and ranch profit25 ability. 


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1 ‘‘(f) EFFECT ON PRIVACY PROTECTION LAWS.— 

2 Nothing in this section affects the applicability to this sec3 tion of— 

4 ‘‘(1) section 1770; 

5 ‘‘(2) section 1619 of the Food, Conservation, 

6 and Energy Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 8791); 

7 ‘‘(3) section 502(c) of the Federal Crop Insur8 ance Act (7 U.S.C. 1502(c)); 

9 ‘‘(4) section 552a of title 5, United States 

10 Code; or 

11 ‘‘(5) any other applicable privacy law that pro12 tects personally identifiable information of pro13 ducers. 

14 ‘‘(g) REPORTING.—Not later than 1 year after the 

15 date of enactment of this section, and each year there16 after, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Ag17 riculture of the House of Representatives and the Com18 mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Sen19 ate a report that includes— 

20 ‘‘(1) a summary of the analysis conducted 

21 under this section; 

22 ‘‘(2) the number and regions of producers that 

23 voluntarily submitted information under subsections 

24 (c)(5) and (d)(1)(C); 


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1 ‘‘(3) a description of any additional or new ac2 tivities planned to be conducted under this section in 

3 the next fiscal year, including— 

4 ‘‘(A) research relating to any additional 

5 conservation practices; 

6 ‘‘(B) any new types of data to be collected; 

7 ‘‘(C) any improved or streamlined data col8 lection efforts associated with this section; and 

9 ‘‘(D) any new research projects; and 

10 ‘‘(4) in the case of the first two reports sub11 mitted under this subsection, a description of the 

12 current status of the implementation of activities 

13 under subsection (c).’’. 

Æ 


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