Food or Solar? Farmers Divided Over Land Use

 

Should rural land be used to produce food or energy? It is a question that divides farmers nationwide, and is being debated on the Somerset Levels.

On ancient grazing pastures steel and silicon solar panels are being installed, taking thousands of acres of farmland out of food production.

Across the country, the new Energy Security Secretary, Ed Miliband, has already approved three huge controversial developments, covering 6,200 acres (2,500 hectares) of farmland.

And while some farmers see solar as offering financial stability, others fear the loss of the land that feeds us.

Mr Miliband wants to quadruple the UK’s solar power generation capacity, which he says will “make the UK a clean energy superpower.”

Some farmers are happy to rent their fields to the growing green energy industry.

Others are joining forces with campaigners fighting to keep farms for food.

“We’re losing so much of our farmland,” said Hugh Williams, of Somerset Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

“Once it has gone, the damage is done.”

So why do farmers agree to put their fields under silicon panels? And will it mean Britain has to import more food?

How much does solar pay?

Every week, Sam Small and her family turn down thousands of pounds of guaranteed income. They farm 400 acres on the Somerset Levels, five miles west of Glastonbury.

When I visited her by the immaculate cow sheds, the sun was out – and she could earn a healthy income from that solar power.

Mrs Small showed me a stack of adverts and emails the family have received.

“We get plenty of emails saying, ‘Make a thousand pounds an acre from your land!’ They’re everywhere now.”

If they rented out just a 10th of their land to a solar energy firm, they could earn £40,000 a year.

For 30 years.

For doing nothing.

But Mrs Small just laughs at the idea.

“Very tempting,” she smiles, “but 10% of our land will also feed these cows. You have to look at the bigger picture.

“We produce nearly two million litres of milk a year, and that is what we intend to carry on doing.”

As well as refusing to put her land under solar panels, Mrs Small has joined a local campaign group fighting a nearby development.

Elgin Energy applied to build a 146-acre (60 hectare) solar park at Nythe Rd, near Pedwell, producing enough energy to power 17,000 homes.

There is already a smaller solar installation on the same farm, covering around 40 acres.

Hundreds of local residents also objected, many citing the loss of productive farmland.

“This was a thriving dairy farm”, said Lorna Hattingh.

“To destroy farmland that is being used for food just seems a really negative way of doing it.”

Mr Williams, from CPRE Somerset, joined the group for the same reason.

“We only produce 60% of our food in this country,” he said.

“No-one talks about the carbon footprint of the 40% we import. We’ve had food prices through the roof, we don’t seem to have learned the lessons of relying on food imports.

“And we keep taking farmland away. Why?”

The campaign was successful. In May Somerset Council rejected the solar park proposal, citing a “failure to explore lower quality agricultural land” among its reasons.

But campaigners expect the developers to appeal.

At Washford, on the Somerset Coast, the same company had a 132-acre project rejected by Somerset Council, but then won an appeal and will soon start building.

(Original post by Dave Harvey Business and Environment Correspondent, BBC West)