Farmers Turfed off Prime Land As Net Zero Gold Rush Grips Landowners

As Net Zero targets trump food production across the UK, tenant farmers are being evicted from prime land in a government-backed solar gold rush, writes Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt:

When tenant farmer Nicholas Waller-Barrett decided to explore ways to boost his small potato farm and chip factory in Norfolk, solar panels were an obvious answer.

A few of the energy-generating panels could, he thought, help provide more power to the farm, which employs nine people from the surrounding villages.

But be careful what you wish for. Waller-Barrett’s farm has been targeted for a massive solar plant, which will be called Glebe Farm, and now his landlord plans to take his land away, replacing potato crops with thousands of giant glass panels.

The decision, backed by edicts from Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, favouring solar farms over food production on UK farmland, means his flourishing food business will shrink – and staff will be out of work.

Meanwhile the distant landlord will be quids in, potentially quadrupling their rent with virtually no effort.

“It’s like a bombshell hit us,” says Waller-Barrett, whose family has farmed the land at Horsford, north of Norwich, for seven decades.

Waller-Barrett is not alone. All over the UK tenant farmers are being thrown off their land – much of it prime farmland – to make way for solar panels.

Many other farmers who own their land are selling or leasing it to solar companies – all meaning it will no longer produce food.

The reason is simple: farmland typically generates profits of a few hundred pounds per acre when cropped but three to four times that amount when under solar panels.

That solar income is generated by government subsidies which in turn are loaded on to consumer electricity bills – so the income is guaranteed, often for decades.

It means money taken from consumers is funding the industrialisation of thousands of acres of prime farmland, converting it from producing food to generating energy. …

According to CPRE, formerly the Campaign to Protect Rural England, 59% of England’s largest solar farms are on once-productive farmland, while a third of the area they cover is classified as “best and most versatile” (BMV) agricultural land, ideal for growing crops.

CPRE’s analysis shows that 827 hectares of this prized land has been covered by solar development – the equivalent to around 1,300 football pitches. …

Once covered in solar panels, even the best land effectively becomes sterile, apart from occasional sheep-grazing to keep the grass down.

Roger Mortlock, CPRE chief executive, wants the Government to stop targeting farmland and instead ensure 60% of solar panels are put on buildings or brownfield sites.

Worth reading in full.