Whenever I post pictures or videos of the cows grazing solar, we are told, with absolute confidence, that cattle CANNOT graze on solar farms. It’s a real headscratcher for me, since we have, in fact, been doing just that. But we’re obviously wrong. Because obviously the cattle WILL destroy the panels, they WILL rip out the wires, they WILL knock over the equipment, and probably dismantle the entire electrical grid and plunge the Eastern Seaboard into darkness while they’re at it. One cow gets a little unruly and we’ve got Mad Max with a little more manure. Now, here’s the thing: as is the case with all dumb comments, there is a little bit of truth there: some cows WOULD do all those things. If you unload a trailer full of cattle that have never seen an electric fence, that aren’t used to being around humans, into a solar array, if you turn them loose and just hope for the best…yeah. You might have a few problems. Which is why we don’t do that. We train our cattle to respect hot wire. We introduce them to fencing in controlled environments, on our pastures back home. We consider their temperament, as well as their stocking density and grazing rotations, with attention to their surroundings. We don’t open the barn door, slap Tina on the ass, and tell her to get out there and enjoy that good clean American energy. It’s called livestock management. And I know this may come as a shock, but different farms can manage the same species of livestock with wildly different results. A cow that has never respected a fence could very well make a mess of a solar array. But a cow like Tina here, who has been properly trained and managed, can graze without incident. Does it mean there’s no risk? Of course not. Cattle are large animals with the occasional decision-making ability of a shopping cart with a broken wheel. But that’s why we manage them. We monitor them. We adjust our behaviors accordingly. Humans have spent generations figuring out how to graze cattle around roads, buildings, expensive equipment, and other things we’d rather they didn’t destroy. Just because YOUR cows might destroy everything doesn’t mean OURS will. Your management is not my management, Linda. And respectfully, we don’t need a 47-comment explanation of what your cousin’s neighbor’s sister’s bull did to a gate in 1998 to understand how cattle behave. We can see it for ourselves.

Over the last few days, I’ve seen a lot of posts about John Rich coming to Upstate New York to help protect and defend “our farmland” from solar development. And I think that’s wonderful news. Because, surely, that means we’ve collectively decided to start helping farmers pay their property taxes, mortgages, equipment loans, insurance premiums, and all the other expenses required to keep “our farmland” in production.  Right? There’s so much irony in this “movement.” There’s the irony that those rallying about the “environmental degradation” wrought by solar have absolutely nothing to say about the proven damages of continued fossil fuel use. Or those who complain about the aesthetics are quite mum about the appearance of a nuclear plant, coal mine, or natural gas refinery.  Or, perhaps one of the more entertaining, watching people who warn ominously of a looming “socialist takeover” of agriculture while simultaneously referring to privately owned farmland as though it belongs to the general public. Have we forgotten what socialism truly is? In New York State, and elsewhere (the exception being solar development on public lands, which does not occur here and largely exists in the West, and is something I've already voiced my opposition to), solar developers can’t just show up, declare eminent domain, and start planting solar panels in someone’s hayfield. Even large-scale solar projects that go before the Office of Renewable Energy Siting must start with agreements from willing landowners. In New York, no farmland is put into solar without the farmer’s sign-off. There is no exception to that rule. Not a single one. So…are we suggesting that farmers are incapable of making informed decisions about their own property? That we’re a bunch of gullible country bumpkins who can’t read our own contracts? That we aren’t capable of consulting our own legal counsel with questions, of understanding the financial implications of a solar lease, or figuring out what’s the best choice for our land and families? Are we planning to pass the hat around to pay for attorneys who can help farmers review those contracts? Because if you’re really, truly worried that we’re too dumb to make these decisions, by all means: I think a dedicated fund for legal counsel would be an excellent use of everyone’s time, money, and energy. Truly, I’m glad that we all have this sudden, passionate interest in protecting farmers’ financial interests. I just wish that enthusiasm extended beyond TikTok and into real life.  I’m tired. I’m tired of listening to people rant and rave, people who have never had to sweat out the terms of an operating loan, or subsist on just four hours of sleep a night for months during lambing or calving or sugaring, or worry about how they’ll make the mortgage payment when milk prices continue to tank. I’m tired of being called “a sellout” by people who have made themselves guardians of somebody else’s acreage while continuing to get their food not from farm stands and CSAs but from Walmart and DoorDash. I am tired of the complete and utter cognitive dissonance. Look. If we want to advocate for farmers, or even for farmland, that’s great. But we sure as hell aren’t going about it the right way. The way to do it is not by saying, “Hey, have you considered making less money so I don’t have to look at solar panels?” You want to support a farmer? Be willing to pay what food actually costs, not what the government says it costs. Be willing to trust farmers when they say they know what’s best for their land. Stop treating us like unpaid caretakers of the rural scenery you enjoy driving past.  And spare me the lectures about solar subsidies. Especially when those lectures come from content creators who are perfectly comfortable using taxpayer-funded agricultural grants to finance their “self-sufficient” barns with in-floor heating that they did not build themselves and have never been used to grow a single ounce of food to be sold to the public.  I’m all for protecting farmland. But I care a hell of a lot more about the farmers who own it.  Not every square inch of farmland needs to be put into solar. I’ve never argued that it should. I HAVE argued that these decisions need to be made by actual working farmers, not neighbors, not politicians, and certainly not social media influencers playacting as changemakers. Farmland doesn’t remain in production through manufactured Facebook outrage, celebrity appearances, or inspirational speeches about how valuable American farmland is.  It stays in agriculture when somebody can afford to continue farming it.