Solar development absorbing Calif. farmland

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 2/2/12 | Tracie Cone

[ProtectOurFreedom]

With California mandating that 33 percent of electricity be generated from renewables by the end of the decade, there are 227 proposed solar projects in the pipeline statewide.. Coupled with wind and other renewables they would generate enough electricity to meet 100 percent of California's power needs on an average summer day...

Developers are flocking to flat farmland near power transmission lines, but agriculture interests, environmental groups and even the state are concerned that there is no official accounting of how much of this important agricultural region's farmland is being taken out of production.

Planning department records in four of the valley's biggest farming counties show about 100 solar generation plants already proposed on 40,000 acres... Planners in Fresno County say their applications for solar outnumber the ones they received for housing developments during the boom days.

Solar developers have focused on the southern San Joaquin Valley for the same reason as farmers: flat expanses of land and an abundance of sunshine. Land that has been tilled most often has fewer issues with endangered species than places such as the Mojave Desert, where an endangered tortoise slowed solar development on federal land.

Much of the solar development is proposed for Kern, Tulare, Fresno and Kings counties, which are home to more than 400 crops that pump $30 billion into the economy...

...the farmland trust released a report projecting that by 2050 more than 570,000 acres across the region could be lost to development as the Central California population explodes. Farmland losses due to housing, solar development, a warming climate, cyclical drought and ongoing farm water rationing to protect endangered fish, plus the state's signature transportation project—the High Speed Rail—are all issues the trust is trying to monitor.

[tbw2]

I cannot remember the quote, but it was that an African’s greatest moment of autonomy was saying, “You don’t feed me. I feed myself.”
Turning prime farmland into desert and increasing food costs gives the average person incentive to lower their birth rate AND gives the government that controls SNAP more power to control the poor it wishes didn’t exist except at election time.

[ridesthemiles]

NOW we know the biggest reason why Western Watershed —headed by Rovert Kennedy Jr— worked so hard to shut off the water to the farms in Fresno County & surrounding areas.

Now, they can buy up the formerly VERY productive land for pennies on the dollar to set up solar farms. They don’t need water!!

The side-effect of solar panels is that they blind pilots. Pilots in the landing pattern at LAX have been complaining for years about private homes with solar panels. How much problem will solar FARMS provide for these pilots???

How many planes will go down with all aboard before someone yells about that???

[ridesthemiles]

400 cops gone.

$30 BILLION gone from the Calif economy.

Produce items no longer on YOUR grocery shelves.

Who will cry about that? ONLY the farmers who have been bankrupted.

[eyeamok]

Why, they can’t do that in the desert, it might disturb the famed Kangaroo Rat or Desert Tortoise, which is why anyone that could find some of these should immediately drive to Fresno and populate the Solar Farm sites and the proposed site for the Train to Nowhere with ENDANGERED SPECIES. Just to PISS THEM OFF

[NormsRevenge]

Let them eat sun beams.

stupid is contagious.. or at least it would appear so in some areas.