Solar ‘farming’ is in fact industry

Letter from Cindy Hillard  to the Orillia Packet and Times March 16 2011

Our government conveniently uses the term solar “farm” to give landowners the false impression that they are actually continuing to be farmers.  Once a land owner signs a contract for a large scale solar “farm” (ie. 60 acres or more), they are no longer farming.  They have made the decision to give up, and enter into the solar energy facilitation business.  This is industry.  It is industrial use of agricultural land.

So I encourage everyone to think carefully about that.   The landowner’s income now comes from their solar business.  Therefore we are not supporting farmers when we suggest that solar “farms” are helping farmers survive.  These contracts refer to farmers as landowners, and that is all they are.  The next time anyone is approached by one of these solar companies (who have been given contracts by the Ontario Power Authority) to lease the land for 20 – 40 years, be aware that you are making the decision to quit farming it.  The landowner is taking the land out of production.

All of us need to show our support for farmers.  To do this we can buy local (straight from the family farm is best) and shop at farmer’s markets.  Get to know the farmer you purchase your food from and create a relationship of community. I say “Thank-you” to the farmers today who have not given up.  I encourage the youth of today to be proud of their farming roots and continue the family farm tradition.  We need them to support local communities.  

We can write to our local town council and attend council meetings and urge them to support and enforce existing and future policies that protect farmland. Our MP Garfield Dunlop, has informed the group, Ontario Farmland Preservation (ontariofarmlandpreservation.org) that so far, 75 municipal councils in Ontario have taken a stand to oppose large scale solar farms.  On March 17, Severn Township Council will be voting to determine their positon, and I encourage surrounding municipalities to do the same. The meeting is open to the public.   All classes of agricultural land are important to protect.  The Green Energy Act protects only class 1 and 2.  There are 7 classifications of farmalnd.  Class 6 is a potato farm.  Biodiversity and conserving energy is key.

 On my property, I can choose to put solar panels along fence lines or on rooftops.  I can grow potatoes in the poorest soil and fruit trees facing Northeast.  In the best soil I can choose to grow tomatoes.  I can farm flowers.  These are the options for farmers.  Farmers grow things.  They have a mutually enhancing relationship with the land.  When they choose to fill acres of land with poles, cement, and solar panels they have lost that connection.  They are now connected to money.  The problem with money is that we and our future generations, cannot eat it.  Farmland and the earth are finite when we choose to exploit them as a ‘resource’, rather than nurture them as the inescapable inter-connected web of life that we are.