Guardian Agriculture featured in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2024; NAAA Sends Letter to the Editor Regarding Inaccurate Statements

Congratulations to NAAA member Guardian Agriculture for being featured in Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2024 online post titled Fully Autonomous Crop Dusting. The post provided readers with a synopsis of Guardian Agriculture’s SC1 uncrewed aircraft system (UAS).

Unfortunately, Time’s post contained several inaccuracies written by author Jared Lindzon about the aerial application industry as a whole. Earlier this week, NAAA sent a letter to the editor of Time pointing out inaccuracies, including the writer’s statement about the performance of crewed agricultural aircraft and that “their less-than-targeted application can destroy landscapes.”

In the letter, NAAA explained that modern agricultural aircraft are equipped with high-tech application systems that control spray droplet size (critical for keeping spray on target), measure weather, and accurately guide the aircraft with sub-inch precision. When working near especially sensitive areas such as endangered species habitat, aerial applicators use these and other technologies to ensure such habitat is protected from the pesticides being applied. The letter also stated that the EPA recently accepted NAAA’s proposal to refine how aerial applications are modeled in EPA’s endangered species risk assessments because of the proven accuracy of modern agricultural aircraft.

NAAA’s letter also pointed out that instead of destroying landscapes, ag aircraft not only help feed the world and protect the environment by stating that “the enhanced yield provided by aerial applications on corn, soybean, wheat, cotton, and rice prevents the need for converting 27.4 million acres of natural areas into cropland – an area the size of Tennessee. The CO2 sequestered every year by cover crops seeded from agricultural aircraft is the equivalent of removing over 400,000 cars from the road.” The letter also stated that farmers do not rent crewed agricultural aircraft to treat their crops, as was stated by the writer; rather, farmers hire commercial agricultural aviators who professionally spray, fertilize, and seed their crops. The post’s statement, “choppers are too big,” doesn’t fit the actual state of the industry. The most common agricultural aircraft in the U.S. is also the largest – the Air Tractor AT-802, which has a 9,249-pound payload capacity and can spray well over 3,000 acres per day.

NAAA has requested a correction to the online article.