Comment from Rachel Baras

When an industry operates outside public view, independent documentation is often the only mechanism that reliably brings hidden conditions to light and prompts reform. In 1906, Upton Sinclair documented conditions in Chicago meatpacking plants, leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Modern industrial agriculture is, in many respects, similarly closed to public view — physically remote, largely inaccessible to inspection, and shielded in several states by “ag-gag” laws restricting undercover investigation. Drone photography serves the same function Sinclair’s reporting once did: giving the public accurate, timely information about practices conducted on their behalf but out of their sight. Restricting this method of observation would remove one of the few remaining tools available for public accountability in an industry with limited transparency, at precisely the moment when independent verification is most valuable to consumers, regulators, and animal welfare oversight alike. I urge the FAA to reconsider this rule or narrow it substantially to preserve the public’s ability to observe and document these facilities.