Privacy Policy

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute is committed to honoring the privacy of those who visit our website and engage in activities with us. The Privacy Policy governs how we collect, store, and use information about our members, partners, and website visitors. It will be continuously re-examined in the light of new technologies, new business practices, and the changing needs of our visitors. This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by full-time and part-time employees, volunteers when acting on behalf of the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute, and all business processes conducted by the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute.

What Information Is Being Collected?

When you participate in, access, or sign up for membership or any of the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute’s events, services, activities, online content, webinars, online communities, or create an online account, the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute may receive personal information from you. This can consist of information such as your name, email address, employer affiliation, job title, telephone numbers, log-in password, location information, gender, date of birth, educational information, purchasing or payment information, subscription preferences, as well as any additional information you upload or provide to us, in addition to information collected about your use of Agriculture & Food Systems Institute services.

Please note that sometimes we will require you to provide additional personal information, including sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers from US citizens who receive awards or grants from the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute), typically to comply with laws and regulations. When we do this, we will provide further information about why we are collecting your information and how we will use it.

For General Users

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute does not collect any personal identifying information from users just browsing our website. Our server recognizes your Internet protocol (IP) address and the pages that you visit. These data are gathered in an aggregate manner for quality control, statistical purposes, and improvement of our site. This information is never forwarded to any third parties.

For the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute Meeting Registrants and Other Users

Personal information collected from you is used to respond to your inquiries and to fulfill a service such as meeting registration, abstract submittal, or dues renewal. To gain access to the member-restricted information, members are asked to provide their email address and password. Information provided on our Membership Application(s) is used internally to determine eligibility of membership and will not be shared with a third party.

How Your Information Is Used

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute uses this information to respond to your requests, enhance its products and services, and to improve your experience, making the organization better for all who engage with the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. Demographic information is specifically used to monitor or improve the use of and satisfaction with our services. The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute ensures the security and privacy of any personally identifiable information that we collect.

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collect it unless we reasonably believe that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. We will notify you prior to any additional processing.

Legal Basis for Using Your Information

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. If we have a contract with you, may use your personal data to perform the contract we entered into with you. If you failed to provide personal data required to perform the contract, we may not be able to perform the contract and we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us. We will notify you if this is the case at the time.

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute may use your personal data based on your consent. By providing the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute your personal information, you are actively agreeing to interact with us, through participation in Agriculture & Food Systems Institute events and use of our services, and are giving us consent to use your personal data. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. Please remember that withdrawing your consent does not remove the legal basis to use your information to perform the contract where applicable.

Disclosure to Third Parties

Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, your personal data will not be shared or sold to any third parties without your prior approval.

Responses to Legal Requests

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute reserves the right to share your information to respond to duly authorized information requests of governmental authorities or where required by law. The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute will ensure proper communication with regulatory authorities to ensure privacy.

Do We Employ Cookies?

For users who create a user account on an Agriculture & Food Systems Institute website, the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute uses “Authentication Cookies” used by web servers to know whether the user is logged in or not, and with which account they are logged in. Without such a mechanism, the site would not know whether to send a page containing sensitive information, or require the user to authenticate themselves by logging in. Cookies are generated by our website to provide you with a personalized and enhanced online experience. These cookies make your navigation through our sites easier by saving your passwords, preferences, and member profile information. Cookies also show how visitors use our site and enable us to make improvements based on actual visitor traffic patterns. The use of cookies in this manner is an association industry standard. Nonetheless, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

How can I control my information?

You can control the information we have about you and how we use it in several ways:

• If you have received an unwanted email, use the unsubscribe method provided in our various communications and/or manage your subscription preferences online; and
• If you no longer wish to interact with the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute and want your personal information deleted, you can make a request by contacting us by email or as outlined below. the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute will delete your personal information and maintain your participation information in an anonymous fashion, so that any data we hold about how you have interacted with the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute in the past will be made anonymous.

International Transfer

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, in the United States. Your personal data may be transferred to the United States or other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. For the European Union users, the European Commission has approved the use of model contract clauses as a means of ensuring adequate protection when transferring data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). By incorporating model contract clauses into a contract between the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute and the third-party processors that the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute engages, your information can be protected when transferred outside of the EEA to countries which have not been deemed by the European Commission to adequately protect personal data, including the United States.

European Union Privacy Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (also known as GDPR), if you are an individual protected by the GDPR, you have the following rights:

• Access: You may receive information about our processing of your personal data and a copy of your personal data.
• Correct: You may request us to update or correct inaccurate data we have about you. You can also do this by accessing your information as described above.
• Delete: You may ask us to delete your personal information. See above for more detail.
• Opt-out: You may change your subscription setting at any time and stop receiving any direct marketing communications as described above.
• Transfer: You may ask us to transfer your personal data in a machine-readable format to a third party of your choice.
• Restrict: You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information under certain circumstances.
• Object: You may object to our reliance on our legitimate interest as the basis of our processing if you believe it impacts your fundamental rights and freedoms.
• Complain: You have a right to submit a complaint to the supervisory authority in the Member State in which you are located. The list of Data Protection authorities and their contact information are available on the European Commission’s website.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights above, please contact us by email ag@foodsystems.org.

Disclaimers

International intellectual property and copyright laws protect all materials contained on the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute website. “Material” includes all text, graphics, icons, photographs, software, audio, and video. Permission is granted to download, copy, or print material for personal, instructional, or noncommercial use.

Information contained on our website does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. Information found on the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute website should not be relied on as medical, legal, business, farming, or tax advice.

The Agriculture & Food Systems Institute website provides hyperlinks to external sites for the convenience of our visitors. Such a hyperlink doesn’t imply that the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute endorses the content or operation of external sites. You are solely responsible for how you use any external site linked from this website.

The laws of the District of Columbia and the United States of America apply, no matter where this website is viewed. Any suits filed against the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute must be filed in the District of Columbia.

This Privacy Policy may be revised from time to time, and you are urged to review it periodically. Use of this website constitutes agreement to the Policy that is posted at the time of use.