NAAA Objects to Texas Observer’s Assault on Aerial Applicators’ Reputation
NAAA has responded to the Texas Observer over its slanted portrayal of the industry in a cover story that accuses aerial applicators in Texas cotton country of damaging property and making residents sick due to rampant and indiscriminate spraying. Dubbed POISON PLANES in thick all-cap letters, the cover of Texas Observer’s April issue features an illustration of a man shrouded in a thick stream of spray from a passing ag plane. The headline writers pushed the envelope even further inside the magazine by titling the article, “Death From Above.”
We won’t recount everything in the article here, but NAAA was troubled by the way it portrayed Texas crop dusters and took issue with many of the claims levied by author Christopher Collins, a reputed independent investigative journalist. The Texas Observer is a bimonthly magazine published by the Texas Democracy Foundation. The nonprofit news organization purports to cover issues “that are often ignored or underreported by other media.” And yet, for a magazine that strives to “expose injustice and to produce the kind of impact journalism that changes people’s lives for the better,” the Observer has done a grave injustice to aerial applicators in Texas and the industry at large.
NAAA sent a letter to the editor of Texas Observer yesterday expressing our displeasure over its offensive cover story. NAAA Executive Director Andrew Moore’s letter is reprinted in full below.
April 19, 2017
The Texas Observer
Attn: Forrest Wilder, Editor
54 Chicon Street
Austin, TX 78702
Dear Mr. Wilder:
Christopher Collins did a great disservice to the aerial applicators of Texas by portraying them as lawless pilots “indiscriminately spraying chemicals” across Texas farm country in an article that was not only sensationalized but titled for maximum effect as “Death From Above.” Far from being reckless, ag pilots are highly-trained professionals committed to doing their job in a safe, efficient and responsible manner. In truth, Texas Observer’s April cover story was long on allegations, unsubstantiated complaints and inflammatory prose and short on evidence.
In Texas’s Cotton Country, crop dusters are ubiquitous for good reason—cotton would be impossible to produce on a mass scale without aerial support throughout the growing season. Ag pilots are aware of how visible they are and mindful that it makes them an inviting target, which is why they are anything but indiscriminate in how they dispense the plant health products they are hired to apply. As for applying “thousands of pounds of the herbicide Sendero” onto mesquite trees by air as the author inaccurately states, the rate for Sendero is 28 liquid ounces per acre; everything else in the spray tank is water.
The author asserts that from 2013 to 2016 complaints to the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) involving aerial applicators outnumbered cases involving ground-based applicators almost six to one. Complaints are not the same as findings of wrongdoing. Signs of paraquat damage are unmistakable, making such claims easy to prove or disprove. Readers have no way of knowing if the drift allegations levied against local aerial applicators are true or not, but TDA’s pesticide compliance division has a duty to find out. Until an investigation is complete, we would caution against passing judgment. An analysis of TDA’s actual findings would have been a fairer way to examine chemical drift. On a national level, pesticide drift occurrence studies conducted by the Association of American Pesticide Control Officials indicate aerial application accounts for less than 20 percent of all drift complaints.
As for the notion that some crop dusters see fines from TDA “merely as the cost of doing business,” we find that unlikely given that aerial applicators can only get so many fines before they lose their pesticide license. State penalties and fines could also affect their insurance rates, which is one of the biggest annual expenses for any aerial application business. If aerial applicators were as sloppy as the article contends, they would be dropped by insurance companies and out of business, or TDA or EPA would suspend or revoke their commercial pesticide licenses.
The aerial application industry is staunchly committed to mitigating drift through the precise application of products using cutting-edge drift reduction technologies and techniques. Technology has advanced greatly since the ’80s and ’90s. Today’s aircraft utilize sophisticated precision application equipment such as GPS, GIS (geographical information systems), flow controls, half-boom shutoff mechanisms, real-time meteorological measurement systems and smokers to determine wind speed and direction, advanced nozzles and precisely calibrated spray equipment. GPS is used in 99 percent of all crop dusting and allows for the precise application of pesticides and fertilizer, reducing environmental impacts.
NAAA works to educate aerial applicators nationwide on environmental professionalism and drift mitigation through our industry education program PAASS— Professional Aerial Applicators’ Support System. The program is supported by the EPA and reaches nearly 2,000 aerial applicators annually across the nation. Operation S.A.F.E. clinics allow ag pilots to properly calibrate their aircraft’s equipment and the output of each individual nozzle to ensure the aircraft spraying system is properly set up to make a targeted application. Statistics prove the industry’s diligence is paying off, as off-target pesticide applications have decreased by 26 percent since the introduction of PAASS in 1998.
Mr. Collins’ article ended ominously with the specter of violence, noting a woman monitoring a crop duster flying nearby with a pair of binoculars and a double-barreled shotgun in tow. Unfortunately, many ag pilots have been shot at simply for doing their jobs. Destruction of an aircraft is a federal offense, and as some Lone Star State residents have found out the hard way, they will be prosecuted for shooting or shooting at an ag aircraft. Two Texans were convicted in 2013 in separate cases. One was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after being found guilty of shooting an ag plane flying over his land. Another was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $297,000 in restitution for shooting at an ag plane working near his property. Reference to the gun-toting aerial application observer in the article was both journalistically irresponsible and shamelessly inciting in inviting violence.
Texas’s aerial applicators deserve better than to be threatened and have their reputations marred for providing a sorely needed service that helps farmers produce a safe, affordable and abundant supply of food, fiber and biofuel. They have been providing this service in the United States for 96 years.
Sincerely,
Andrew D. Moore
Executive Director
National Agricultural Aviation Association
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Nominations Open for 2017 NAAA Awards
NAAA is now accepting nominations for the 2017 NAAA Awards. Do you have a rising pilot within your ranks? Do you admire certain NAAA members for their outstanding service to the industry or their community? Then don’t delay and send your nominations today!
The aerial application industry is filled with exceptional individuals who go above and beyond, often with little fanfare. Please think about the special people you have known and worked with over the years and tell us why they deserve an NAAA Award.
This year’s award recipients will be honored at the Excellence in Ag Aviation Banquet Dec. 7 at the 2017 Ag Aviation Expo in Savannah, Ga.
There are nine NAAA Award categories and one NAAREF award, the Evans-Christopher Operation S.A.F.E. Award. The Awards Nomination Form is available as print-only and fillable PDFs. To make a nomination, email or fax completed entries to NAAA at information@agaviation.org or (202) 546-5726. For typed submissions, please use the fillable form. Please call (202) 546-5722 with any questions. The nomination deadline is Sept. 8.
NAAA Award Categories: Deadline Sept. 8!
- Agrinaut Award: Honors an agricultural aircraft operator or operating organization that has made an outstanding contribution in the field of ag aircraft operations. The recipient for the award must have been actively engaged in commercial agricultural application with an agricultural aircraft and the achievement cited shall have contributed to the "state-of-the-art" for the benefit of the agricultural aircraft industry as a whole.
- Allied Industry Individual Award: Presented to NAAA members or staff and/or an allied industry individual who has significantly contributed their efforts for the benefit of the allied industry and the aerial application industry.
- Delta Air Lines “Puffer” Award: Presented to the individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the design of agricultural aircraft and/or related equipment.
- Evans-Christopher Operation S.A.F.E. Award: Recognizes individuals or entities that have made outstanding contributions to the Operation S.A.F.E. program. This Award is presented by NAAREF.
- John Robert Horne Memorial Award: Honors a pilot with five years or less experience in the agricultural aviation industry who has an exemplary safety record and/or has contributed to safety in ag aviation.
- Larsen-Miller Community Service Award: Recognizes outstanding contributions by a member to his/her community.
- Opal & Bill Binnion Memorial Award: Acknowledges those who contribute to NAAA in its efforts to educate the public about aerial application.
- Outstanding Service Award: Awards outstanding service to the commercial agricultural aviation industry or to its association.
- Related Industry Award: Recognizes outstanding contributions by an allied industry member and their company.
- William O. Marsh Safety Award: Recognizes significant achievements in safety, safety education or an outstanding operational safety program.