mr. randall lord -- vanderwerff, that other countries are using other drones in agriculture. mr. vanderwerff: that is my understanding, yes. sen. booker: can you imagine the united states catching up to that? ms. gilligan: we might make the case for an exception, but we need to understand the other operations in the area. the u.s. has a very active general aviation community. we have a very active agricultural committee who has raised their own's concerns about the use of drones in the airspace they are operating as well. we do need to make sure what the risks are and that we are mitigating them properly. sen. booker: you just feel like the other countries like germany, france, new zealand -- they are all just being far more risky than the united states. they are taking unnecessary risks while the united states is much more cautious. ms. gilligan: i do not know if they are taking on unnecessary risks, but they're are far less general aviation and their airspace. they have a much less complex as bae systems generally. there are risks are different from ours. i assume they are addre

mr. jeff landry worth -- jeff vanderwerff. mr. vanderwerff: thank you for having me. i raise soybean, apples with my farm. it was purchased by my great grandfather, a dutch immigrant. today, my wife and i are proud to be raising a fifth generation on that farm. i am responsible for the day-to-day activities including agriculture. as a farmer who uses precision agriculture, i'm here today to discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of unmanned aircraft systems for my farm system. last summer, i attended a precision agriculture demonstration. the demonstration concluded with an explanation of the images and that data. i walked away knowing that this was the next dissolution in precision agriculture on my farm. as a farmer who relies on precision agriculture techniques i rely on data to produce accurate information. accurate information is critical to the decisions i make. these affect my yields, the environmental impact, and ultimately the viability of my operation. using an unmanned aircraft has the potential to provide you with the tool and making decisions to maxi

mr. vanderwerff here from the american farm bureau. certainly i know some of our ag folks back home can see the value of finding a lost cow when we have more cows than people back home which i'm grateful for. in your testimony you question who owns and controls the data collected by an unmanned system. an example you used with the contractor flying the unmanned system and potentially being able to share or even sell that data with outside parties including the federal government frankly is chilling. what do you think is the best means of regulating this data, and more importantly how can we ensure enforcement? >> thank you for the question, senator. when we speak about the issue of data privacy, i guess i would refer you to our overall stance as american farm bureau and agriculturalists. in terms of our data privacy. we are concerned about what is being collected, who potentially is viewing it, whether it was epa or a third-party environmental groups. we believe that that data ultimately belongs to the farmer who created it and that th

mr. vanderwerff here, certainly our folks back home can understand finding a lost cow. you question who owns and controls the data collected by an unmanned system. an example you used with the contractor flying the up manned system and being able to share or sell that data with outside parties, including the federal government, frankly is chilling. what do you think is the best means of regulating this data, and more importantly how can we ensure enforcement? >> thank you for the question, senator. when we speak about the issue of data privacy i guess i would refer you to our overall stance as american farm bureau and agriculturalists. we are concerned about what is being collected, who potentially is viewing it, whether it was epa or a third-party environmental groups. we believe that that data ultimately belongs to the farmer who created it and that they should have the right to determine who is able to use that data and for what purposes they would use it for. >> any thoughts on ensuring enforcement? >> i would refer that to the full written comments we will have wit

mr. jeff vanderwerff. >> thank you. my name is jeff vanderwerff, and i am a farmer from michigan. i farm with my family raising corn, wheat soybeans and apples. i am a 4th generation farmer i am responsible for day-to-day activities and operations is a farmer who uses precision agriculture i am here to discuss potential benefits and pitfalls of unmanned aircraft systems for my farm in michigan. last summer last summer i attended a demonstration that included unmanned aircraft. the demonstration concluded with an explanation of the images and data. i walked away knowing that this was the next step in evolution of precision agriculture on my farm. i rely heavily on data to produce accurate information critical to the day-to-day business decisions i make which affect yield, environmental impact and the economic viability of my operation. using an using an unmanned aircraft has the potential to provide me with an accurate tool. one take away i had was its ability to provide detailed scouting information. currently i spent 12 hours a week. while this method is effective, it is not effi

mr. jeffvanderwerff. vanderwerff: thank you. i am a farmer from michigan. i farm with my family where i raise corn wheat soybeans, and apples with my father, uncle and brother. i am the fourth generation of my family to work on the farm. today my wife and i are proud to be raising a fifth generation. within our farm, i am responsible for the day-to-day activities including agronomic's. as a farmer who uses precision agriculture, i am here to day to talk about benefits and pitfalls of unmanned aircraft systems. last summer i attended a demonstration that included an unmanned aircraft gathering data. the demonstration included the data. i walked away knowing this was the next evolution of agriculture on my farm. as a farmer who relies on precision agriculture, i rely on the data to produce accurate information. accurate information is critical to the date of day business decisions i make. these decisions affect my yields, impact, and viability. using an unmanned aircraft has the potential to provide me with another accurate tool to make optimum decisions. one