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There's a lot of farmland and ranch land in the US that shouldn't be farmland or ranch land. They're too dry, too hot, and competing for water resources with pe

There's a lot of farmland and ranch land in the US that shouldn't be farmland or ranch land. They're too dry, too hot, and competing for water resources with people and natural (sometimes endangered) ecosystems. So, maybe it's something that should be encouraged; the food those farms and ranches produce would need to be replaced by food grown in more appropriate climates, and we'd need to rethink our recent "local food" movement, in some regards, but agriculture, and particularly animal agriculture, are an ecological disaster almost everywhere they exist. Couple that with limited water resources (where a lot of agriculture takes place in California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico) and you've got a recipe for serious problems long-term. That said, agriculture could also shift. Less water-intensive foods, more foods that are appropriate for the area they're being consumed in. Anyway, I think solar farms replacing agricultural farms could be a net win for the environment, even before considering the improvements that come from turning off coal-fired plants.

nashashmi 11y ago
Hah! Only if dictatorship could ordain things to be done so correctly. Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic democracy.
- richmarr 11y ago
  Where do you live? How come your goverment isn't able to control taxation, or its regulatory environment?
- SwellJoe 11y ago
  Are you sincere in your belief that only a dictatorship could lead to more environmentally responsible agriculture and land use in the US? It seems like trolling, but if you're sincere, I could point you to some references on how our current laws reward irresponsible water and land use in many cases. There are many things a "capitalistic democracy" (if that's really what we are living in, which I also think is debatable) can do, and many things that are already being done, to guide how land owners utilize their land. The unintended consequences of current agricultural and water-use law in places like some parts of California, which have experienced more years of drought than years of normal rainfall for more than a decade, have been pretty significant. Government at local, state, and federal levels, have helped create the problems I'm talking about, so why shouldn't they be able to help alleviate them?
  - rspeer 11y ago
    Presumably those laws were put in place because somebody benefits from them. Possibly somebody who makes campaign donations. In that case, the government may technically be able to solve the problem in a way that's better for everyone, but not willing to, as the politicians who make the change could lose their campaign donations or their seats.
soperj 11y ago
For farms that are too hot, a possibility might be that they'd be able to alternate crops with solar panels, and it would shorten the day's sun when the crops are in the shadow of the panels.
- hooloovoo_zoo 11y ago
  Solar panels might get in the way of them using their farm equipment if they're close together.
  - retbull 11y ago
    If you completely ignore repairing and paying for the automation you hypothetically could build a farm where the solar panels were on arms that would pull them out of the way of the tractors/combines or whatever.
    - SwellJoe 11y ago
      I wonder if the weight of solar panels would prevent them being mounted on a wheeled device like the rolling irrigation systems used on many farms? Those are pretty robust and don't break frequently or require much maintenance; in the case of solar panels, they wouldn't even need to move frequently (so no need for permanent motors on them; you could just hook them to tractors or trucks and tow them out of the way). Though, there would need to be a lot more of them, and moving a bunch of them for harvest time or other stuff that required them out of the way would take a lot of time.
  - jzwinck 11y ago
    Not a serious problem: Europeans already invented extra-narrow tractors for vineyards. You'd be amazed how much machinery they can drive between rows of plants that appear to be tightly packed. Or you can install the panels on tall stilts and drive under.
krstck 11y ago
My understanding is that transportation is actually a small factor in total food emissions. It seems that promoting "local food" without paying attention to whether that food can be optimally produced locally, might be more environmentally unfriendly than simply producing it wherever it is most efficient to produce and then transporting it.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  For rail or ship delivery especially, yes. For trucks, somewhat less so, and for air, generally not. Ships and rail both favour crops which store well (grains) or can be shipped frozen or refrigerated. For fresh fruit and vegetables, time is critical, and you generally want to be on store shelves within at most a few days. That's where trade-offs between location, farming costs (particularly for greenhoused or hydroponic farming) vs. transport start to get factored in. There are reasons why a generation ago you simply didn't have fresh produce out of season.
danjayh 11y ago
Disagree with agriculture being a disaster everywhere. Here in the midwest (Michigan, in my case) we get so much rain that there's rarely, if ever a need to artificially irrigate. Personally, the land that my horse pastures are on is so good that I threw seed on it and it just started growing. I do put a little bit of fertilizer down every few years, but mostly to replace the nutrients that are removed (baling, etc. will eventually deplete the land if you don't). Stuff grows here with very little encouragement.

nashashmi 11y ago

Hah! Only if dictatorship could ordain things to be done so correctly. Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic democracy.

richmarr 11y ago
Where do you live? How come your goverment isn't able to control taxation, or its regulatory environment?
SwellJoe 11y ago
Are you sincere in your belief that only a dictatorship could lead to more environmentally responsible agriculture and land use in the US? It seems like trolling, but if you're sincere, I could point you to some references on how our current laws reward irresponsible water and land use in many cases. There are many things a "capitalistic democracy" (if that's really what we are living in, which I also think is debatable) can do, and many things that are already being done, to guide how land owners utilize their land. The unintended consequences of current agricultural and water-use law in places like some parts of California, which have experienced more years of drought than years of normal rainfall for more than a decade, have been pretty significant. Government at local, state, and federal levels, have helped create the problems I'm talking about, so why shouldn't they be able to help alleviate them?
- rspeer 11y ago
  Presumably those laws were put in place because somebody benefits from them. Possibly somebody who makes campaign donations. In that case, the government may technically be able to solve the problem in a way that's better for everyone, but not willing to, as the politicians who make the change could lose their campaign donations or their seats.

soperj 11y ago

For farms that are too hot, a possibility might be that they'd be able to alternate crops with solar panels, and it would shorten the day's sun when the crops are in the shadow of the panels.

hooloovoo_zoo 11y ago
Solar panels might get in the way of them using their farm equipment if they're close together.
- retbull 11y ago
  If you completely ignore repairing and paying for the automation you hypothetically could build a farm where the solar panels were on arms that would pull them out of the way of the tractors/combines or whatever.
  - SwellJoe 11y ago
    I wonder if the weight of solar panels would prevent them being mounted on a wheeled device like the rolling irrigation systems used on many farms? Those are pretty robust and don't break frequently or require much maintenance; in the case of solar panels, they wouldn't even need to move frequently (so no need for permanent motors on them; you could just hook them to tractors or trucks and tow them out of the way). Though, there would need to be a lot more of them, and moving a bunch of them for harvest time or other stuff that required them out of the way would take a lot of time.
- jzwinck 11y ago
  Not a serious problem: Europeans already invented extra-narrow tractors for vineyards. You'd be amazed how much machinery they can drive between rows of plants that appear to be tightly packed. Or you can install the panels on tall stilts and drive under.

krstck 11y ago

My understanding is that transportation is actually a small factor in total food emissions. It seems that promoting "local food" without paying attention to whether that food can be optimally produced locally, might be more environmentally unfriendly than simply producing it wherever it is most efficient to produce and then transporting it.

dredmorbius 11y ago
For rail or ship delivery especially, yes. For trucks, somewhat less so, and for air, generally not. Ships and rail both favour crops which store well (grains) or can be shipped frozen or refrigerated. For fresh fruit and vegetables, time is critical, and you generally want to be on store shelves within at most a few days. That's where trade-offs between location, farming costs (particularly for greenhoused or hydroponic farming) vs. transport start to get factored in. There are reasons why a generation ago you simply didn't have fresh produce out of season.

danjayh 11y ago

Disagree with agriculture being a disaster everywhere. Here in the midwest (Michigan, in my case) we get so much rain that there's rarely, if ever a need to artificially irrigate. Personally, the land that my horse pastures are on is so good that I threw seed on it and it just started growing. I do put a little bit of fertilizer down every few years, but mostly to replace the nutrients that are removed (baling, etc. will eventually deplete the land if you don't). Stuff grows here with very little encouragement.