Europe’s skies may soon be buzzing with more drones, but this time the targets are insects, not enemies. Brussels is moving to relax a long-standing EU ban on aerial pesticide spraying, clearing a path for agricultural drones that have become standard in fields from the US to Asia but are mostly off-limits in Europe, per Politico. The change is tucked inside a broader, contentious “food and feed” package, yet the drone piece is proving oddly uncontroversial, with 15 countries pushing for it.
Farm groups say drones can cut chemical use and emissions. “Drone use has immense benefits for spraying,” a Euronews columnist noted earlier this year. “As a way to improve technological use in agriculture, and by mere virtue of comparing ourselves to our trading partners, it is essential.” Environmental critics, meanwhile, have been relatively quiet, while still warning about data privacy and a tech gap between large and small farms. One catch: If the wider package collapses in political fights over pesticide approvals and import rules, the drone update goes down with it. Purdue’s College of Agriculture has more on the different ways that spray drones can be used, as well as their benefits and challenges.