C2 The BulleTin • Sunday, april 25, 2021
WEDDING
ANNOUNCEMENT
Drone startup to offer crop-dusting service
BY SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
Submitted
Luke Galloway and Emily
Saari.
Emily Saari and
Luke Galloway
Luke Galloway and
Emily Saari, of Klam-
ath Falls, will be mar-
ried May 8 at Valley Bi-
ble Church in Rosburg,
Washington with a recep-
tion to follow.
The bride is the daugh-
ter of Robert and Becky
Saari, of Rosburg, Wash-
ington, where she was
home-schooled until
graduating in 2013. She
then graduated from
Northwest University in
Kirkland Washington
where she earned a de-
gree in music ministry.
She is the Children’s Di-
rector at Living Faith Fel-
lowship in Klamath Falls.
The groom is the son of
Timothy and Sharon Gal-
loway, of Sunriver. He is
a 2012 graduate of Bend
High School and earned a
medical degree from Fort
Sam Houston in San An-
tonio, Texas in 2015. He
is training in cyber trans-
port systems at Kingsley
Field in Klamath Falls.
The couple plans to
honeymoon in Hawaii af-
ter the groom finishes his
training at Kingsley Field
in about six months.
They will settle in
Klamath Falls.
Boston-based startup
Guardian Agriculture has
invented an autonomous
crop-dusting drone intended
to complement or replace
crop dusting using low-flying
planes.
Guardian Agriculture came
out of stealth last week, rais-
ing $10.5 million in a seed
round. Ag giants, including
Bayer, Wilbur-Ellis and FMC
Corp., backed the startup.
The company already has $20
million worth of preorders
from growers in California
and Florida.
Guardian Agriculture says
its drones will save farmers
money, reduce overall chem-
ical use by about one-third,
limit pesticide drift, promote
worker safety and potentially
save pilots’ lives.
Critics say the unmanned
devices haven’t been suffi-
ciently tested, aren’t properly
regulated, are inefficient and
may crash into low-flying
planes or helicopters.
“The service we’re market-
ing is an existing line item for
growers,” said Adam Bercu,
CEO and co-founder of
Guardian Agriculture. “We
can offer a vastly upgraded
version.”
Most aerial applications
of pesticides are done by
manned aircraft. In con-
trast, Guardian Agriculture’s
“drone” is an autonomous ve-
hicle called an eVTOL: elec-
tric vertical takeoff and land-
ing.
“You can call what we’re
building a drone, but you can
also call it a serious piece of
equipment,” said Bercu. “It’s
about the size of a pickup
truck in the air — not a little
drone carried in a briefcase.”
The eVTOL travels about
10 feet above the canopy at
20 to 30 mph along a prepro-
grammed route. It can spray
up to 40 acres per hour and
carry up to 200 pounds of wet
or dry product at a time. It
requires no live internet con-
Photos courtesy of Guardian Agriculture
A Guardian Agriculture eVTOL device flies over a field.
An eVTOL device is removed from a Guardian Agriculture vehicle.
nection, is precise within a
few centimeters and collects
data farmers can use to make
growing and spraying deci-
sions.
The eVTOL uses auto-
mated systems to mix, load,
fill and power the vehicle, re-
ducing human contact with
pesticides.
But Guardian Agriculture
does not plan to sell or lease
the drones. Instead, its em-
ployees will run the equip-
ment — “a turnkey service for
farmers.”
Jeff Sparks, the company’s
chief operating officer, said
the service will save farm-
ers money by spraying areas
planes can’t reach, reduc-
ing the volume of chemicals
sprayed unnecessarily and
helping farmers avoid legal
battles related to drift.
Pricing will vary, according
to Guardian Agriculture, but
will be competitive.
But the company has crit-
ics.
Scott Bretthauer, director
of education and safety at the
National Agricultural Avi-
ation Association, said it’s
premature for Guardian Ag-
riculture to provide services
until the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and Fed-
eral Aviation Association, or
FAA, have conducted more
research and testing on un-
manned aerial devices.
“We have concerns about
the safety of it,” he said.
Bretthauer said he’s con-
cerned that because of their
physical design, drones won’t
be able to deposit the volumes
or droplet sizes EPA labels re-
quire for drift control.
Sparks of Guardian Agri-
culture responded that crit-
ics “are rightfully concerned”
because small drones are un-
reliable. But Guardian Ag’s
eVTOL craft, he said, is an
“entirely different class,” larger
and built to provide known
droplet patterns.
Bercu, the CEO, said the
company is working with the
FAA to build a regulatory
framework for this “whole
new type of machine.”
Bretthauer of NAAA said
he’s also concerned that
chemical loading of drones
on-site could lead to environ-
mental contamination, and
added that he’s worried about
drones colliding with aircraft.
“We’re very concerned
about collisions,” he said.
Sparks responded that the
eVTOL is “a hovering ground
rig, not a high-flying ma-
chine.”
Sparks and Bercu say they
believe their business could
provide ag pilots with a safer
occupational opportunity.
According to the U.S. Na-
tional Transportation Safety
Board, in 2018, there were 52
accidents and eight fatalities
in the U.S. involving aerial ap-
plicators.
Bercu and Sparks said some
pilots are already interested
in partnering with them,
and others may stop flying
to finish their careers on the
ground with Guardian Agri-
culture.
“If they want to hang up
their pilot headphones and
work with us, they can,” said
Bercu.
Alex Frederick, senior an-
alyst of emerging technology
at PitchBook, covering private
markets and venture capital,
said although he doesn’t ex-
pect drones to replace planes
anytime soon, he anticipates
the technology will gradually
gain momentum.
“It’s a really interesting
space, and it seems like it’s
heating up,” said Frederick.