LB665, introduced in January of last year, was a bill intended to initiate a crucial discussion on both data security and food sovereignty in Nebraska agriculture, particularly related to the use of EID technology. This conversation continued during last week's October 31st Agriculture committee hearing on my LR153, a study aimed at helping policymakers and producers understand the risks associated with electronic identification (EID) technology concerning data privacy, cyber vulnerabilities, and foreign interference.

Agricultural technology offers many benefits, yet the exponential growth of collected data, now a strategic asset, lacks consistent protection, unlike medical or financial records. LR153 explores if a similar framework used in those healthcare and financial data systems, is needed for agricultural data. While stand alone EID tags appear to be secure, once connected to the larger system through readers, databases, cloud servers and software networks, they are vulnerable to interception, cloning, or malicious code, specifically if manufactured by a foreign adversary of the United States.

The concern lies in the total digital infrastructure. If communication and electrical grids are protected from foreign interference, agricultural data systems should be too. My LR153 seeks to inventory the various EID devices/systems available to producers in the United States, identify manufacturing origins and data storage, assess vulnerabilities, evaluate protection standards, as well as examine foreign exposure.

Experts from the FBI, NCITE (National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education center), MicroAge, and Nebraska Farm Bureau provided testimony which highlighted growing cybersecurity and data privacy concerns, noting foreign interest in U.S. agricultural models and data. Testimony included discussion on how adversaries such as nation-states, criminal groups and extremists, could potentially manipulate things like disease reporting, disrupt market access or take advantage of data tracking location and movement in a bioterrorism attack. It is becoming very clear that excessive data collection increases privacy risks. LR153 prioritizes the need to protect producer choices while maintaining security for both individual operations as well as national food security. Nebraska has long been a leader in Agriculture production and we now have the opportunity to be a leader in data protection and national food security.

Stay connected: Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/TanyaStorerForLegislature; Email: tstorer@leg. ne.gov; Phone: (402) 471-2628 Respectfully, Senator Storer