The CDAF vision is to develop a platform for secure data collaboration among all members of the agri-food value chain; addressing issues of data standards, data interoperability and data security; seamless sharing of data and information between stakeholders in complex environments; providing an ecosystem for open innovation.

We feel strongly that operating as an independent third-party organization will be critical for acceptance of the services we will offer.

The Platform: The collaboration platform has been built on an open source development environment – FIWARE (IoT ready), and is hosted on a secure, scalable, flexible, Canadian cloud infrastructure. CDAF has also made great progress with our FIWARE environment and thus far our team of developers are very impressed with the capabilities of the software/platform. Our Canadian hosting company, Long View is required by law to meet security standards for Canadian financial and health sectors. The hosting environment is strictly Canadian. Thirdly, we are in the process of building CDAF’s governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) framework. The CDAF GRC Framework in development moves beyond the framework prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). CDAF takes security very seriously, aligning with leading IT security and governance practices.

The Organization: A workshop has been held to identify suitable terms of incorporation for the establishment of CDAF as a Not for Profit Corporation.

Pilots: We are currently executing five pilot projects across two commodity groups and nine participating stakeholders.

This project was supported by LRIC, Niagara College, OFA, Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance, BIC, U of Waterloo, U of Guelph, OABA and GFO, and funded in part through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of GF2 in Ontario.