Thousands of acres of crop land getting turned into solar farms across the Midwest

[Bluumoon]

Look at KY turns out reclaimed strip mines make great elk habitat. Also wells are lot less of a overall footprint on the landscape and pose a lot less of issues to migration routes.

I'm not sure how you think this is a good example. Being from WV, where coal mining is life, if you in any way think it is environmentally friendly I don't know what to say. Almost every creek and river in the entire county where my family lives weret devastated by pollution, many 40 yrs after mining stopped are still running orange. Old Strip mines won't grow forrest b/c top soil is gone, that's why you have grassland to support the elk habitat you speak of, not exactly something to aspire to.

Those coal mines are the backbone this country was built on, but not without consequence.

Just saw where you are from, guess you are aware, just have a different outlook on it.

 

[sram9102]

I just have a question for you, have you ever worked on a farm or in agriculture? Lived in a rural environment or community?

The farmers I know are very passionate about being stewards of the land. Many I know are interested in or practicing no till farming to have less negative impact on the land and water.

I don’t think the solar farm CEO’s have the same attitude.

ETA They are getting priced out and barely scraping by. It’s sad to watch. I don’t know what the solution is, but I know what it isn’t.

Your farmers must me nicer than ours. I grew up in rural southern IN and currently live in rural east central IN. Every farmer I have interactions with is out to make their land as profitable as possible which they should. Around here that is tearing down woodlots to make more tillable and killing off every single plant or insect that could limit yield. Farmers are one of the hardest working groups of people I have had the pleasure of spending any time with but the small family farms that farmed their own land and actually cared about more than the yearly profits are slowly fading away.

 

[Thomas Hermann]

How much is our average temperature going to rise with all of these solar panels on the landscape?

 

[Superdoo]

Those of you who think coal mining can't be done properly need to come out to ND. Every year hundreds of visitors to the mines are asked if they can spot where the mine has been reclaimed versus where the mine never dug. They aren't able to pick one from the other. All of the top soil is stripped and saved for reclamation.
We have some of the cleanest air and water in the nation all while we provide energy to states that hate coal and oil.

A few years ago our legislature passed a law requiring wind developments to meet the same reclamation criteria that our mines do. New wind projects are almost non-existent.

 

[Rifleman86]

Your farmers must me nicer than ours. I grew up in rural southern IN and currently live in rural east central IN. Every farmer I have interactions with is out to make their land as profitable as possible which they should. Around here that is tearing down woodlots to make more tillable and killing off every single plant or insect that could limit yield. Farmers are one of the hardest working groups of people I have had the pleasure of spending any time with but the small family farms that farmed their own land and actually cared about more than the yearly profits are slowly fading away.

Yeah the guys I know are small family operations. Sadly they are being bought out by corporate farms that are exactly as you describe.

It’s part of the reason the once great upland game population we had in Ohio is now virtually nonexistent.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

I'm not sure how you think this is a good example. Being from WV, where coal mining is life, if you in any way think it is environmentally friendly I don't know what to say. Almost every creek and river in the entire county where my family lives weret devastated by pollution, many 40 yrs after mining stopped are still running orange. Old Strip mines won't grow forrest b/c top soil is gone, that's why you have grassland to support the elk habitat you speak of, not exactly something to aspire to.

Those coal mines are the backbone this country was built on, but not without consequence.

Just saw where you are from, guess you are aware, just have a different outlook on it.

Born, raised, and still own property in WV. Go Herd! To compare mining practices of of 40+ years ago to today is not an apple's to apples comparison. Hell they paid miners in company script back then. You point about topsoil is valid, but the land is still accessible to wildlife and provides some value, unlike a fenced off solar farm.

 

[HighUintas]

Agreed .. ... They need to be installed on roofs directly where the power is being consumed.

For what it's worth, the enviro groups do want these installed on buildings rather than agricultural or habitat lands but getting that accomplished with the same amount energy production is a tough problem to tackle.

I agree we need to invest heavily in nuclear and other energy options that don't intrude on agriculture and habitat lands. I like the wind turbines when they're placed appropriately as they're a more serviceable option than panels that will eventually degrade to being useless, but they're often also just massive installations in the wrong places.

 

[Windrunner17]

I just have a question for you, have you ever worked on a farm or in agriculture? Lived in a rural environment or community?

The farmers I know are very passionate about being stewards of the land. Many I know are interested in or practicing no till farming to have less negative impact on the land and water.

I don’t think the solar farm CEO’s have the same attitude.

I grew up on a farm (horse farm by that time) and my grandparents on both sides had farms. Dairy on my mother's side, beef on my father's side. I live within a mile of 5 different dairy farms. I live and have lived most of my life in a rural community. I grew up baling hay, shoveling manure, feeding animals, and splitting firewood. My wife and I conider our home a homestead, raise chickens, have an orchard and a massive garden. I've milked a cow before. I'm not some city slicker who has never seen a plow in real life.

Me circa 1996/1997 :


I'm not talking about local, small-time farmers with 50, 100, 200, or even 500 acres. I'm talking about large monocropped fields that are thousands of acres in size. According to the USDA less than half of the farmland in the U.S. is owned by small family farms. I know that A LOT of farmers do care about the land, being a steward of the land, etc. many of them do the best they can using less detrimental practices. They also face considerable financial pressure to keep their farms productive and that usually means making concessions when it gets to a larger scale of agriculture.

You're speaking my language when you talk about no-till, regenerative agriculture, crop rotations, cover crops, permaculture, etc. I love all of that. I also love buying food local. Conventional factory farm agriculture however, isn't all about that. Only about a third of cropland in the U.S. is no-tilled. Most of cropland is still sprayed with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc. It's just not competitive on a commercial market to raise crops without the use of these things. This isn't an anti-farmer point, its a "the food system is broken and most farmers are victims" kind of point.

I am very pro-farmer, particularly local, small, family-owned farms. However, I'm not going to pretend that the things I mentioned don't exist and aren't very real problems across big swathes of the country. Part of the issue is that larger farms buy up and conglomerate smaller farms who cannot compete with them, particularly without the use of herbicides, pesticides, etc.

 

[Rifleman86]

I grew up on a farm (horse farm by that time) and my grandparents on both sides had farms. Dairy on my mother's side, beef on my father's side. I live within a mile of 5 different dairy farms. I live and have lived most of my life in a rural community. I grew up baling hay, shoveling manure, feeding animals, and splitting firewood. My wife and I conider our home a homestead, raise chickens, have an orchard and a massive garden. I've milked a cow before. I'm not some city slicker who has never seen a plow in real life.

Me circa 1996/1997 :
View attachment 521267
View attachment 521270
I'm not talking about local, small-time farmers with 50, 100, 200, or even 500 acres. I'm talking about large monocropped fields that are thousands of acres in size. According to the USDA less than half of the farmland in the U.S. is owned by small family farms. I know that A LOT of farmers do care about the land, being a steward of the land, etc. many of them do the best they can using less detrimental practices. They also face considerable financial pressure to keep their farms productive and that usually means making concessions when it gets to a larger scale of agriculture.

You're speaking my language when you talk about no-till, regenerative agriculture, crop rotations, cover crops, permaculture, etc. I love all of that. I also love buying food local. Conventional factory farm agriculture however, isn't all about that. Only about a third of cropland in the U.S. is no-tilled. Most of cropland is still sprayed with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc. It's just not competitive on a commercial market to raise crops without the use of these things. This isn't an anti-farmer point, its a "the food system is broken and most farmers are victims" kind of point.

I am very pro-farmer, particularly local, small, family-owned farms. However, I'm not going to pretend that the things I mentioned don't exist and aren't very real problems across big swathes of the country. Part of the issue is that larger farms buy up and conglomerate smaller farms who cannot compete with them, particularly without the use of herbicides, pesticides, etc.

I think we’re on the same page then.

Like I said, I don’t know what the solution is, but I know what it isn’t.

 

[Windrunner17]

Agreed. Kinda got a little off-topic

 

[Rifleman86]

Agreed. Kinda got a little off-topic

Ha! It happens.

Regardless I think we’re seeing the results of environmental policy being decided in back door DC board meetings and corporate board rooms.

Nowhere in the conversation are people with a real connection to the land and its wildlife.

 

[Windrunner17]

Ha! It happens.

Regardless I think we’re seeing the results of environmental policy being decided in back door DC board meetings and corporate board rooms.

Nowhere in the conversation are people with a real connection to the land and its wildlife.

Sadly, I don't see that changing. Corporations and wealthy elites have the power, not the people.

 

[Rifleman86]

Sadly, I don't see that changing. Corporations and wealthy elites have the power, not the people.

Oh so true.

 

[Windrunner17]

That's why it's so important for hunters to work together to protect our interests.

 

[Eagle]

These solar farms are currently planned to be built on thousands of acres in Western Kentucky as well (around Paducah mostly so far as I'm aware). Some group that goes by Bright Night I believe. They are paying farmers/farm owners ridiculous amounts of money to lease their property for a 25-30 year term to install the panels and paying other farmers ridiculous amounts of money to place transmission poles/lines on their property.

Sadly, money talks and a lot of great habitat is going to be ruined here around my home. I can only hope it doesn't happen and something stops it before it gets going, because if it happens, in 30 years when the panels are no longer functional, it's going to be a huge environmental issue for our area.

 

[MallardSX2]

You democrats out there still think natural gas development is bad? lmfao.

 

[4rcgoat]

We are screwed as a country and storm's a comin'.


Eddie

Watch a fading nation crawl......

 

[Patriot2]

My brother has a farm in central Missouri and a third party has signed him up to make it a solar farm. All the previous posts are correct - idiotic to place them on very productive farm ground in the midwest. But the rental agreement, should this project come to fruition is 3 - 4 times what he can get renting to a farmer to actually farm it. Makes it hard to turn down if your farm is used to maintain a cash flow source. Crazy times. I certainly do not care for it.

 

[11boo]

There is a reason we don’t manufacture PV domestically. Cheap labor is not the sole reason. It is a very dirty process, and china really does not care about the environment like we do. Every chicom panel we buy is made with the dirtiest coal fired Power plant energy out there.
Is climate change a real threat? We have closed many of our coal fired, and fairly clean power plants. China brings new ones online every single month, and they don’t bother with the emissions controls we use.
Do their smokestack emissions have no effect on climate? I suppose we don’t care since they are on the other side of the world.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/us-solar-industry-strategy

The United States produces just 5 percent of global polysilicon supply, practically 0 percent of wafers, 1 percent of solar cells, and only 6 percent of solar modules.

 

[journeyman713]

Thousands of acres being converted to solar farms here as well.
Not going away anytime soon, farmers are signing a 20 year leases, for more money than they make at farming. It's a shame.

The unseen cost of powering the ecofriendly battery operated automobiles.