Drones that armies use to spy on enemies are being
adapted to spying on farmers.
A report from Europe indicates they are in
widespread use there to catch farmers who are cheating on subsidies. In 2010,
the spies in the skies are estimated to have conducted surveillance on 70 per
cent of the farmland.
Scanning a farm
with a satellite costs about one third as much as sending an inspector on a
field visit - £115 ($180; 150 euros) rather than £310 ($490; 400 euros), says
the United Kingdom’s Rural Payments Agency (RPA), which is responsible for
disbursing the subsidies in the UK and checking for irregularities.
"The
RPA follows up only on those claims where there is some doubt about accuracy,
and then only at the specific fields for which the doubt exists," the RPA says.
"This saves time, lifts the burden on farmers and reduces cost to the
taxpayer."
Satellites
can rapidly cover a huge area in detail and quickly return to photograph it
again if necessary.
In
2010, about 70% of the total required controls on farm payments in the EU were
done by satellites, which photographed more than 210,000 sq km (81,000 sq
miles) of land in all.
This reminds me of an interview I had in about 1971 with an official in the federal agriculture department in Ottawa, a man who showed me aerial photographs of farms and told me what they revealed, including a booze factory at the back of one farm and which way the family usually headed at the end of the farm lane.
Of course, it's well known that the Canadian Wheat Board uses satellites to watch crops around the world. It can guess yields and by spotting any large areas under stress, can guess who's going to be eager to buy Canadian harvests.
So, what with spies in the skies and the Harper government set to snoop into e-mails, what are the chances of keeping anything confidential these days?
