Just 0.1% of farmland is currently taken by solar panels – similar to the area claimed by Christmas trees (says Sky). But if solar developers get their way, backed by climate-obsessed politicians, tenant farmers could be facing a fate like the notorious Highland clearances when crofters were forcibly evicted from their smallholdings to make way for sheep farming. Goodbye to the bother of rent collection, hello bigger profits.
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It’s a frosty morning on Kidsley Farm in Derbyshire, a rare thing in this unusually warm winter, says Sky News.
Andrew Dakin’s beef herd is housed in the old brick barns, their breath steaming in the chill air. Alongside scuttling chickens and tractors of varying vintages, this is the very image of a traditional farmyard.
But for how long? Andrew is a tenant farmer and his landlord, who owns the land, wants to turn his pasture into a solar farm.
“Our old way of life will be gone forever. And I’ve worked on this farm all my life, seven days a week. I’ve not been on holiday since I was 15. Not because I didn’t want to, but I like being here on the farm.”
His family has worked the land here for 94 years. His mother still lives with him in the farmhouse. Although he would be allowed to stay in his home and is being offered some compensation, with the grazing replaced by photovoltaic panels, the job would be gone.
“It’ll all be fenced off with 10ft-high deer fencing. I think solar panels have got a part to play on house roofs, factory roofs and brownfield sites.”
But both political parties have huge ambitions for solar: the government wants five times as much power from the sun by 2035 and delivering that without touching farmland is implausible according to many experts, including Chris Hewett from Solar Energy UK.
Full article here.
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FarmingUK says: Tenant farmers work approximately one third of all farmed land in England.
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From the DEFRA Farming blog…
John W Baxter posted on 09 January 2024
My biggest fear is that the electricity generators, in cahoots with landlords are the biggest threat to the tenant farming network that produces so much of the food in the U.K.
The threats from these alliances cast a long shadow over long time relationships between tenants and landlords and without support, tenant farmers stand to be overpowered by the bandits in the system which currently needs more tenant rights protection.
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The Team
https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/01/08/supporting-tenant-farmers-in-england/
Totalitarian insanity, no different from Mao’s war on sparrows. Forcing people to change their lives in worship of technocratic fantasies and delusional, meaningless targets.
a wag on Delingpoole’s old web page called them subsidy farms. Watch how fast they dump them when the subsidies die off.
More sun for UK solar panels.
Trend line has some obvious similarities with the one below 😎 – both crossed the 1991-2020 line at about the same time, for example. (But this one starts 25 years earlier than the one above, for no stated reason).
Data source — https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-temperature-rainfall-and-sunshine-time-series
Why don’t the landlords offer a reduced rate for sheep farming tenants?
A ‘dual tenancy’ would permit fewer sheep because less grass grows there, but the sheep would keep the grass ‘cropped’ and ensure that the ‘taller grasses’ don’t ‘shade’ the solar panels.
However, this says nothing for agricultural farming!
Kind regards, Ray Dart (AKA suricat).
Greenpeace says ‘ Farming and solar panels can work together – here’s the proof’
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/farming-and-solar-panels-can-work-together-heres-the-proof/
You call that farming ? Huh even the Arable Crofters up here would be laughing. Jings, even the Horsey Wifies have tractors bigger than portrayed: and who is going to come up here to pick all those berries? Athletic bored Poultry will be p-poopin on the panels ( roofs to them) and the Supports will be getting in the way of the machine overhangs …. the same way as telegraph poles do in the middle of a field – Rubbing /Itching sticks for the Bull – and what does that do ? Everything in the field is super green for them. Time to change the Camera settings ! I think they’re watching ( or producing it? ) “Farming Life ” style progs on the telly, by all accounts.