While farmers are generating over 10 MB of data per acre during their normal field operations, they may be unaware that satellite imagery is collecting additional data about their land and practices without requiring their consent, according to agricultural experts cited in an AgWeb article.
“Many farmers are not completely cognizant that imagery is being collected by multiple sources that are freely available such as Sentinel from European Space Agency,” explains Terry Griffin, professor in the department of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and sole proprietor of Griffin Consulting LLC.
Since 2017, the Sentinel-2 L2A satellite system has been capturing free 30-foot resolution images approximately every five days. These images, through analysis of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) values, can reveal crop types, planting dates, harvest dates, and various farming practices.
Because these images are captured from public airspace, farmer consent is not required to collect this data.
Todd Janzen, an attorney with Janzen Schroeder Agricultural Law LLC based in Indiana-USA, notes that while farmers expect privacy for the data they generate themselves, publicly available data has no legal protection: “There’s still a big expectation of privacy in the data farmers generate themselves. But for data that is available publicly, there’s no court that would say there’s an expectation of privacy in that data.”
Janzen cites the Open Fields doctrine, which states that anything visible in an open field that can be seen by the public comes with no expectation of privacy.
Griffin explains that these two data sources—farmer-generated data and publicly available satellite imagery—are being combined to develop models for various land management applications, including yield modeling, carbon measurement, water usage tracking, and more.
For his consulting work, Griffin uses satellite data as a “magic eye in the sky” that allows him to look back at specific times for cases like herbicide drift. He can determine planting and harvest dates within days and assess management practices such as irrigation, cover crops, and tillage.
While the 30-foot resolution imagery is available for free, more detailed 3-foot and 1-foot resolution imagery can be obtained with paid subscriptions.
“What none of us know is how detailed the military satellites are or what kind of resolution can they reach,” Janzen notes. “But regardless of whether it’s with a satellite, airplane or drone, if someone wants to collect the data they can do it from the public air space.”
Griffin warns: “Farmers need to know the satellites are watching. You are more vulnerable than you realize, and this data can be used against people. When it comes to this data, the farmer and landowner aren’t the customers—they’re the product.”
Some farmers have already acknowledged this surveillance, with Griffin noting that many farmers find themselves on Google Earth during harvesting or planting and use screenshots as social media profile pictures. However, the applications for this data extend far beyond social media use.
