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Farmer sentiment on leasing farmland for solar energy production
Fifteen percent of farmers surveyed in the latest Ag Economy Barometer say they have spoken with companies about leasing farmland for solar energy production in the last six months.
Jim Mintert, the survey’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture, says nearly half of those farmers were offered a lease rate of more than $1000 an acre.
“Twenty five percent of the respondents said they were offered a rate of above $1,250 and 22 percent said they were offered a rate of $1,000 to $1,250,” he says.
He tells Brownfield, “that’s a change. Fewer people say they’re being offered rates between $500 and $1,000.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Mintert says more than 30 percent of respondent’s said they were offered lease rates of less than $500 per acre.
“And I think it’s probably important to remember here that this is a national survey, and we don’t qualify our responses based on geographic location. I suspect a number of those folks that are reporting some lower release rates are probably reporting for some areas that are outside the Corn Belt,” he says. “I think the higher release rates are probably more representative of what we’re hearing and seeing in the Corn Belt.”
The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer is a monthly survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers.
Audio: Jim Mintert
Giant solar arrays are a truly horrible use of any land, let alone productive crop land. The idea, of course, is to keep energy production out of the hands of individual homeowners and in the hands of large corporations.