As a former farm kid, I have always been sensitive about productive farm land being taken out of food production. I am not concerned about the aesthetics of solar panels or windmills but hope they can mostly be built on unproductive land.
They could start by ripping up all the corn used for ethanol production. Solar is a lot more efficient way of getting energy. 12 times as much per acre according to this article.
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Corn for ethanol production is one of my pet peeves. One of the last things my dad said to me is that corn should be eaten by humans not by cars.
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The NSA put one in Utah specifically because of the electrical power infrastructure available. Most of those against it were against it because of how much water it would use and how few jobs it would create.
There is quite a difference in land usage. Once a wind turbine is up, itâs footprint is only a few acres. Farmers plant very close to the base.
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I get this for solar panels, but not so much for wind farms. They seem to pair well with productive farm land as they can co-exist with on-going agriculture activities. The main thing that youâd need to do is have some thoughtful placement so you donât waste a bunch of land on access roads and the power cables are buried deep enough to avoid farm equipment.
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Yeah, there is a lot more we should probably do in general to manage in that direction. The western plains in the US are productive because they pump large quantities of water out of the Ogallala aquifer to grow crops and more water is needed going west of the 98th meridian. All the fields are irrigated circles. As we start trading ethanol fields for solar fields, we should work from that direction. Seems like it could cause a short term imbalance when the aquifer starts running dry in certain areas, crop production plummets, prices rise, and solar fields in the wetter midwest turn back to crops. The real risk just seems to be if AI disrupts energy costs so much that we start feeding data centers instead of people. It seems we have plenty of food now and places for solar farms.
So fair concern.
It doesnât have to be an either/or choice. The panels can help shade to crops and cattle. Itâs a win-win.
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One interesting thing to me is solar grazing, which seems to work well with sheep. The sheep control the vegetation, and the shade provided by the solar panels helps the welfare of the sheep.
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I can see that. Grazing animals need shade.
Grocery prices really seem to have shot up over the summer. I really didnât think the inflation we had in 2021 was that bad, or it seemed like it mostly hit prepackaged food like soda and snacks that I did not tend to buy a lot of. Produce, meat, butter, coffee are all up 10-30% in recent months.
Gee I wonder why? T, ta, tar, democrats!
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How about olive oil and beef prices?
Climate Change (supply down)
Tariff barriers (supply down, prices up)
Labour costs (prices up)
Food inflation is going to get a bit nasty in the US for the next 12 months given demand isnât going anywhere.
Beef price is definitely up. Donât have a close eye on olive oil prices.
It absolutely skyrocketed for the last year or two and. Is starting to come down now.
We currently pay $0.46/KWh Canadian in the UK
Triple your prices.
Its one of the drivers of inflation in the UK. Very high cost of energy.
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One wonders how everyone pays for more of everything if there is no extra money in the Economy.