•Current ethical discussion circles around three themes: (a) data ownership, accessibility, sharing and control, (b) power (re)distribution, and (c) Impacts on human life and society.•Discussions about these themes did not reach a satisfying conclusion yet, but primarily signal consequences that are expected to come about.•We suggest that effort should be done not only to anticipate the expected consequences, but to take a more active role in (co)shaping the future in more desirable ways.•To do this, it is important to discuss what purposes farming should serve and make sure that the choice of data and data algorithms support trustworthy data sharing communities. Sensors, drones, weather satellites and robots are examples of technologies that make farming ‘smart’. In this article we present the results of our review of the literature that concerns the ethical challenges that smart farming raises. Our reading suggests that current ethical discussion about smart farming circles around three themes: (1) data ownership and access, (2) distribution of power and (3) impacts on human life and society. Discussions that fall under these themes have however not yet reached a satisfying conclusion, as there seem to be different ideas at work in the background regarding the purpose and function of digital farms in society. The pros and cons of these rivalling ideas are rarely foregrounded in the discussion. We suggest that future research should focus first on the content of these goals, especially on the content of societal and commercial goals and whether and how they can be combined in differing contexts. This will offer a lead to think about what data ought to be shared with whom, to set preconditions for trust between stakeholders and –eventually- develop appropriate guidelines and codes of conduct for future farming digitalization trajectories.