A recent editorial by Ohio Director of Agriculture Robert Boggs notes that precision agriculture is helping to fuel the “green energy revolution” in his state and nationwide.

Farmers, the founders of environmental stewardship, not only work hard to make every day “Earth Day,” they also adapt with the times to work smarter, increase efficiencies, and produce superior products that are good for the producer, good for the people, and good for the environment.

Ask any farmer and you will find that conservation farming practices such as no-till, riparian buffers, grassed waterway maintenance, and windbreaks to control erosion are common practices in the industry. In addition, precision farming, using satellite maps and computer models, allows farmers to use fewer fertilizers and pesticides while producing higher quality, higher yielding crops. These advancements sharpen the efficiency of agriculture and help maintain agriculture’s strong, beneficial presence in Ohio.