Terms of Use

Effective Date: 08.05.2026

Welcome to OAFT — Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, accessible at oaft.org. OAFT is a Canadian non-profit organization and agri-tech accelerator operating as an independent online science journal, dedicated to advancing agricultural innovation, agri-food technologies, and sustainable farming across Ontario and beyond. Accessing, browsing, or otherwise engaging with this website means you have read and agreed to the Terms of Use set out below (“Terms”). If you are unwilling to be bound by these Terms, please exit the site and refrain from using any of its features or services.

Access and Acceptable Use

Age and Legal Capacity. To use this platform, you must be at least 16 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into binding agreements in your jurisdiction. By accessing OAFT, you confirm that both conditions apply to you.

Permitted Use. This website exists to provide educational and informational content related to agri-food innovation, agricultural technology, sustainable farming, funding opportunities, and related industry developments. You agree to use the site exclusively for personal, non-commercial, and lawful purposes that are consistent with that educational mandate.

Prohibited Activities. While using this platform, you are not permitted to:

• Reproduce, redistribute, publicly display, or modify any content on the site without obtaining prior written authorization from OAFT
• Upload or transmit malware, viruses, spam, or any other material that could disrupt, damage, or compromise the site or its users
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of our systems, servers, databases, or user accounts
• Interfere with the site’s normal operation through excessive automated requests, scraping tools, or any other method designed to place undue load on our infrastructure
• Conduct any form of commercial activity through the platform that has not been expressly authorized under these Terms

Intellectual Property

• Ownership of Site Content. All content published on oaft.org — including but not limited to articles, photographs, graphics, logos, data visualizations, design elements, and written text — is the property of OAFT or our respective licensors and is protected under Canadian and international copyright, trademark, and intellectual property law. Any unauthorized use may expose you to legal liability.
• Contributed Content. When you submit an article, opinion piece, research summary, commentary, or any other material to OAFT, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive license to publish, edit, display, archive, and distribute that content in connection with our platform and organizational mission. You retain ownership of your original work, but by submitting it you confirm that it is your own creation, that it does not infringe upon the rights of any third party, and that it complies fully with our contributor guidelines as outlined on the Write for Us page.
• Sponsored and Commercial Content. All advertising and sponsored material published on OAFT is clearly and visibly identified in order to preserve our editorial independence and transparency with readers. OAFT retains full and final authority over the acceptance, placement, and presentation of all commercial content.

Editorial Standards and Content Contributions

• Open to Contributions. OAFT welcomes original, evidence-based submissions from agricultural researchers, agri-tech entrepreneurs, agronomists, food systems scientists, policy analysts, and other qualified professionals working in fields relevant to our mandate. Full submission guidelines are available on our Write for Us page, or you may reach our editorial team directly at [email protected].
• Review and Editorial Discretion. Every submission received by OAFT undergoes a thorough editorial assessment covering factual accuracy, relevance to our subject matter, clarity of writing, and alignment with our standards and values. We reserve the right to edit accepted pieces for readability, structure, and style, or to decline publication entirely, at our sole discretion.
• Ethical Standards. OAFT enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy with respect to plagiarism, fabricated data, misleading claims, and any other form of editorial misconduct. Contributors bear full personal responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all material they submit.
• Author Attribution. All content that is accepted and published on OAFT receives appropriate author credit, including the contributor’s name, professional role or credentials, and a short biography, unless a different arrangement has been agreed upon in advance.

Partnerships, Advertising, and Sponsorship

• Collaborative Partnerships. OAFT works alongside universities, research institutes, producer associations, government bodies, private accelerators, and other organizations that share our commitment to agri-food innovation and knowledge dissemination. All partnership inquiries should be directed to [email protected]. Any organization entering into a partnership with OAFT must respect our editorial independence and uphold our commitment to scientific accuracy and public benefit.
• Advertising and Sponsored Content. All advertisements and sponsored features published on OAFT must comply with our disclosure standards and be unambiguously labeled as commercial content. OAFT reserves the right to reject or require modification of any advertising or sponsored material that does not meet our editorial, ethical, or mission-based standards. For advertising and sponsorship inquiries, contact [email protected] or [email protected]. No advertiser or sponsor holds any influence over OAFT’s editorial decisions or content.

Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, OAFT, its staff, contributors, board members, and affiliated parties accept no liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising from your use of this website or your reliance on any content published here. While we make every effort to ensure that our content is accurate, current, and well-sourced, we do not warrant that all material is free from error, complete, or continuously up to date. This website and all content within it are provided on an “as is” basis, without warranties of any kind beyond those required by law.

Changes to These Terms

OAFT reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use at any time to reflect changes in our operations, legal obligations, or the services we provide. Updated Terms will be published on this page with a revised effective date. Your continued use of the site following any such update will be taken as your acceptance of the revised Terms. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact Us

For any questions relating to these Terms, content submissions, partnership opportunities, advertising arrangements, or any other matter, please use the contact details below:

OAFT — Ontario Agri-Food Technologies
381 Elmira Rd N, Unit 1 Guelph, Ontario N1K 1L5 Canada

Emails:

By continuing to use the OAFT platform, you confirm that you have read these Terms of Use in full, that you understand their content, and that you agree to be bound by them.