What Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins Gets Wrong About Solar
According to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, "subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.”
Really? Not from where I'm standing.
**J&R Pierce Family Farm is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to allow sites to earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. I often link to Amazon when recommending certain products, and if you choose to purchase, I may earn a small percentage of the sale. It costs you nothing extra, and all recommended products are ones that I personally vouch for.**
The Problem With That Stance On Solar
"Millions of acres of prime farmland is left unusable so Green New Deal subsidized solar panels can be built. This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country."
Are they?
Because without these solar panels, our farm would not be in business (to say nothing of soil health, which I discussed in my last post).
Roughly 424,000 acres of rural land were "affected" by wind or solar in 2020 according to a 2024 USDA study. That study found much of that same land (about 0.05% of the 900 million acres used for farming) remained in agricultural production after solar or wind was installed.
Can you say the same about any other kind of development on rural land?
Farmers can't afford land but it's not because of renewables. It's because land prices are universally high and we're doing a crappy job of maximizing land use by minimizing monocultures (both in terms of food and energy). Farmland was too expensive and inaccessible long before renewables entered the chat. They're just an unwitting scapegoat.
The administration is gutting renewable development under the guise of "leveling the playing field" for the energy industry and "making it easier for farmers to succeed.
Remove all the subsidies you want. But call a spade a spade: if you want to level the playing field, stop funding the oil and gas industry, too. If you want to make things easier for farmers, actually listen to farmers.
Not agribusinesses. Agriculture and agribusiness are not synonyms.
Big Ag isn't terribly fond of solar and wind. Actual farmers - the people who work the land day in and day out (you know...agriculture), not the people sitting behind a desk at the Tyson headquarters - see the value in systems that can help them cut costs, generate lease revenue, or gain access to land (like us).
The Solution
If you want to level the playing field for farmers, don't force them to rely on the energy "status quo" by removing funding for REAP (Rural Energy for America Program), which has helped farmers lower energy costs by installing their own renewables, among other things.
This move is yet another example of what I like to call "reverse greenwashing" - blaming our country's many problems on the wrong culprit, to a population so angry and disillusioned they aren't willing to dig deeper.
The enemy to farmers isn't renewable energy development. The enemies are people with power making rules that will only benefit Big Ag and Big Oil, but doing so under the guise of "saving farmers."
I don't think this move will save any farmer.
But what do I know? I'm just a farmer.
Want to learn more about raising sheep? Check out these featured articles!
Subscribe to our email newsletter for regular tips and tricks on homesteading and farming – wherever you are. You can also follow us on Instagram (@jrpiercefamilyfarm) and Pinterest (J&R Pierce Family Farm) for frequent updates. Happy farming!
