Positive Step for Sanitary Transportation by FDA; Ag Drone Market is Going to Be Huge

Officials say the sanitary transportation rule finalized by the FDA last week overall is a positive step, requiring transporters of human and animal food to follow best practices like proper refrigeration, cleaning vehicles between loads and protecting food during travel but it shouldn't exempt the most problematic group, small box trucks. The agency stayed consistent with its other Food Safety Modernization Act rules by exempting businesses that earn less than $500,000 in annual revenue. FDA said it isn't aware of data supporting that small shippers present a greater food safety risk than larger firms.

A market research firm predicts the agriculture drone market to be worth $3.69 billion by the year 2022. The forecast says the market is poised for significant growth over the next few years. The researchers expect the growth to come from the use of cameras on drones for precision farming practices. The study says the use of drones brings transparency to agriculture, along with improved efficiently and higher productivity. The current worldwide market for agricultural drones is $494 million. Meanwhile, Investment of venture capital in agricultural technology start-ups reached $2.06 billion in the first half of last year.