Ricketts Introduces Legislation to Protect Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Data

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced the Agricultural Data Privacy Act. This bill would codify that agricultural producers are the sole owners of the data they produce. It would also prohibit companies from using or selling producers' data without written consent.

"Excellent agriculture requires excellent knowledge," said Senator Ricketts. "Farmers and ranchers who work a lifetime to build their knowledge should own it. It is only fair that we protect their data and intellectual property. This bill would do just that."

The Nebraska Corn Growers Association and the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation endorse this bill.

"This is a meaningful step forward for Nebraska farmers. As agriculture continues to adopt new technologies, data has become an essential part of how farmers make decisions and keep our operations running efficiently. This legislation provides clarity and puts common-sense protections in place to ensure farmers maintain ownership and control of their data," said NeCGA President Michael Dibbern, a farmer from Cairo.

"Nebraska Farm Bureau has been a longtime supporter and leader in pushing policy that protects the massive quantity of data modern farms and ranches produce. The protection of this data is vital both economically and from a national security level. We thank Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts for bringing this conversation to the federal level and we look forward to working with him as this legislation moves forward," said Mark McHargue, President, Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation.

The Agricultural Data Privacy Act would:

• Make agricultural producers the sole owners of agricultural data originating from their farm, land, device, or equipment.
• Prohibit companies from using or selling a producer's agricultural data without written consent from the producer.
• Apply data privacy protections across six categories of data (agronomic, climate and weather, land, livestock, management, and sustainability data).
• Ensure producers retain access to their data for future use.
• Implement the first-of-its-kind national standard to protect producers' data privacy rights.

In April 2026, Governor Pillen signed LB 525, the Agricultural Data Privacy Act, into law. Nebraska became the first state in the nation to implement data privacy protections for producers.

Iowa, Colorado, and Missouri have since introduced similar ownership-based legislation modeled after Nebraska's law.

Senator Ricketts' bill would codify this law at the federal level and make agricultural data privacy protections a national standard.

Read the bill here.