From smartphones in the field to driverless tractors, farming is rapidly evolving. The next logical move, some say, are drones.

“UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles, i.e. drones] are the natural extension of increasing the yield and the quality of the products we grow,” Phil Hamm, agricultural drone evangelist and plant pathologist at Oregon State University, tells National Geographic’s video team. That’s because drones can fly over individual crop rows in vast fields and let farmers know which specific plants are infested with beetles or which ones could use more fertilizer, he says. This may prevent farmers from blanketing too many plants with nitrogen and water, saving them time and money in the end.

In fact, drones have the potential to change a lot about our food system, from