this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024

-22 points (31.0% liked)

News

23014 readers

5 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

-22

As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk (www.reuters.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Dave Duttlinger's first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen. About 445 acres of his fields near Wheatfield, Indiana, are covered in solar panels and related machinery – land that in April 2019 Duttlinger leased to Dunns Bridge Solar LLC, for one of the largest solar developments in the Midwest.

On that blustery spring afternoon in 2022, Duttlinger said, his phone rang with questions from frustrated neighbors: Why is dust from your farm inside my truck? Inside my house? Who should I call to clean it up?

According to Duttlinger's solar lease, reviewed by Reuters, Dunns Bridge said it would use "commercially reasonable efforts to minimize any damage to and disturbance of growing crops and crop land caused by its construction activities" outside the project site and "not remove topsoil" from the property itself. Still, sub-contractors graded Duttlinger's fields to assist the building of roads and installation of posts and panels, he said, despite his warnings that it could make the land more vulnerable to erosion.

"I'll never be able to grow anything on that field again," the farmer said. About one-third of his approximately 1,200-acre farm – where his family grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa for cattle – has been leased.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 months ago (3 children)

“I’ll never be able to grow anything on that field again,” the farmer said. About one-third of his approximately 1,200-acre farm – where his family grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa for cattle – has been leased.

Got bad news for you, dude. You are making your field unfarmable.

https://www.umass.edu/news/article/midwestern-us-has-lost-576-billion-metric-tons-soil-due-agricultural-practices

That has nothing to do with solar farms, that has to do with farmers in America not giving a shit about doing things sustainably.

How many acres of this guy's farm do you think he lets lie fallow? Enough to replenish the soil? Or does he try to maximize his harvest every year by using as much of his land as possible?

But no, the problem is the solar farms. Totally.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

So this article mentions this Indiana dude as an anecdote and then talks about Reuters discussing this with experts who then tell them whatever data they do have (which they don’t share in the article?) is too small to make any conclusions from.

This article seems bad. What’s the mechanism of erosion that solar farms threaten? Construction seemed to be their only explanation, but that’s not exclusive to solar farm. This almost reads like environmentalism fearmongering

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's not only construction. It's also about having windbreaks (ie: hedgerows, small clumps or full lines of bushy trees, etc) that stop the soil from blowing away in the wind.

I know this because I grew up on the Canadian prairies where backhoes yearly dig up all the topsoil that's accumulated in the ditches, which the farmers then respread on their fields.

There are a lot more windbreaks now than when I was a child.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

If only there was some sort of manmade structures that could act as a windbreak while also producing electricity, that would an amazing advancement...

[+] [email protected] -6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Why would a farmer spend money on building a structure when trees will grow freely at minimal cost?

Smdh

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Because it produces usable electricity for the farmer.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A wind turbine is not a wind break.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

What do windmills have anything to do with solar panels? Don't try to change the subject...

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I misunderstood you then.

What kind of structure would you have the farmer spend money to build then?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The same thing we've been talking about this whole time...solar panels.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Dave Duttlinger's first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen.

The wind picked up the sand the solar power company laid on the property after leveling it.

Crews reshaped the landscape, spreading fine sand across large stretches of rich topsoil, Duttlinger said. When Reuters visited his farm last year and this spring, much of the land beneath the panels was covered in yellow-brown sand, where no plants grew.

So please explain to me how solar panels act as windbreaks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The wind picked up the sand the solar power company laid on the property after leveling it.

Which ends immediately after they finish leveling it.

So please explain to me how solar panels act as windbreaks.

Big wide solid panels in rows. Like really, is this that hard to understand?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Big wide solid panels in rows. Like really, is this that hard to understand?

Solar panels are tilted facing south (angling uowards/downwards depending on seasonal sun locations).

If prevailing winds are coming from the WNW/NW/ or N they are funneled under the panels .... thereby picking up the sand. If the wind is swirling at all the sand will be taken upwards and spread.

So again, please explain to me how solar panels can be a windbreak.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You're complaining about a very easily solved problem. You can just put up another type of barrier at the ends of the rows. This is not the gamestopper that you think it is.

Seriously, just complaining helps no one. Stop looking for problems that don't exist...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You're the one who said solar panels could act as windbreaks.

If only there was some sort of manmade structures that could act as a windbreak while also producing electricity, that would an amazing advancement...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes. I did say that. Which they do. I feel that you're not really paying attention here.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel like you don't actually understand what a wind break is. Here's a pic for reference.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Look at all those big empty fields gathering lots of sunshine.

Hint...you can plant trees and shrubs at the edges of a solar panel field as long as you keep the south open.

Its like you're going out of your way to be obtuse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You mean why would farmers build wind turbines...like they already do and make money from? Is that a serious question?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A wind turbine is not a wind break. Please learn the difference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

My apologies. I thought OP was talking about wind turbines which do help slow down wind, BTW but would not be considered a windbreak. What can be a windbreak though is vertical solar panels which is likely what they were talking about.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't know about corn, specifically, but it's been shown that solar panels are actually beneficial and can increase yields: https://www.wired.com/story/growing-crops-under-solar-panels-now-theres-a-bright-idea/

The only mention of corn in that Wired article is a concern for the height (since corn grows tall).

Height, too, is an issue: Corn and wheat would need taller panels, while shrubby soybeans would be fine with a more squat variety.

Thanks to those gaps, crops grown under solar panels aren’t bathed in darkness. But, generally speaking, the light is more diffuse, meaning it’s bouncing off of surfaces before striking the plants. This replicates a natural forest environment, in which all plants, save for the tallest trees, hang out in the shade, soaking up any sunbeams that break through.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

I've read similar things about growing crops under solar panels. But even if you couldn't, American farmers are digging their own grave and this guy shouldn't be pointing fingers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

He leased the land knowing what was going to be done with it... If he didn't know, he's either an idiot for not asking, an idiot for not thinking when he saw the opportunity for a cash grab, or an idiot for not reading the lease after it was drawn up.

Either way... Still an idiot. This is entirely on him.

Also, dude's got cattle on 1200 acres(almost 2 miles of land) and looking for more... That's the size of my town and the next town over combined. Not even the slightest bit of sympathy.