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UC Davis Investigates Using Helicopter Drones For Crop Dusting
cylonlover writes "Researchers at University of California, Davis, in cooperation with the Yamaha Motor Corporation, are testing UAV crop dusting on the Oakville Experimental Vineyard at the UC Oakville Station using a Yamaha RMax remote-controlled helicopter. The purpose is to study the adaptation of Japanese UAV crop dusting techniques for US agriculture, but not all the hurdles they face are technological."
So, what's it like being retarded?
Aerial application is known as "crop dusting" since the '20s when it was invented (first commercially offered by "Huff-Daland Dusters, Inc."). Inflation being what it is ($1M then = $1.3B now), I guarantee you nobody in the '20s would have been paid "spin-doctoring millions" for it, even if it were a clever phrase to fool the public and gain acceptance.
But of course, it was no such thing, for two reasons. First, it's not clever; it's just an obvious term for applying dust to crops. Do note that the verb "dust" in the sense "to sprinkle with dust" is attested from the 1590s, so even before aerial applications, farmers spoke of dusting their crops. Second, in the '20s, there was no need to fool the public, because we were early in the development of our modern "all chemicals, all the time" farming method, and the evidence simply wasn't there yet to show the harm it caused. The public was still optimistic about progress in theory and as applied in practice, or at worst dismissed it as "unnecessary" (not "harmful"), because they hadn't caught on to how progress was being paid for by everyone while disproportionately benefiting a select few. Dumping tons of chemicals on soil to increase productivity per acre? Bring it on!