Small farms with thin margins are always in peril. Equipment is expensive. Broadband is often nonexistent. Supportive infrastructure is weakening. These are some of the challenges today’s farmers face. With the Farm Bill up for renewal this year, Congresswoman Spanberger, who is on ethe House Agricultural Committee, has made a considerable effort through visits and town halls to understand the needs of farmers. After all, argi-business is one of Virginia’s major industries.
One way to retain small farms and support Virginia’s rural life, may be to find ways to connect small farms to a steady auxiliary income. Whether a 900-acre corn-soybean operation, a mid-sized cattle grazing farm, or a 10-acre vegetable farm, using just 5-10% of the acreage for solar field can substantially improve profitability and economic resilience. It also reduces pressures to sell the land, because income become more dependable. And it helps address the challenge of dealing with dramatic swings in weather and climate.
So, what is stopping this from happening in Virginia?
First, there are state-mandated limits on how much solar power a landowner can generate. Current Virginia code caps the amount of energy that can be generated to only 150% of the previous year’s power consumption. Secondly, the price farmers or other landowners could get for the electricity they would produce beyond their own needs is severely limited. Farms can get a credit against energy they would use, but the purchase price paid by utilities back to the farmer for any excess power is very low — below the wholesale price.
And why is that?
Because Virginia’s utility companies can influence state legislators to set rules that ensure their control over energy production and distribution – and throw up roadblocks to locally-owned, small-scale commercial solar. The irony is that these are companies who are granted monopoly power for their service areas in return for being regulated by the state.
The place to start to stabilize rural incomes and put the farmer in the driver’s seat would be for our state legislators to develop a new set of policies — that substantially realizes the benefits of dual-use, rural small-scale solar, including financial and tax incentives, better prices for energy generated by farms, directing agricultural extension services to provide technical support to farmers seeking to start dual-use solar, and low-interest loans to enable farm operations to own their own solar installations.
As we look at the representation of Culpeper, Orange, Madison and Green counties in the House of Delegate we don’t see a lot of interest in the needs of our farming communities. Our current delegate Nick Freitas isn’t even on any agricultural related committees. In his three terms in office, he has not submitted one bill relating to the needs of the agricultural community. He has not hosted panels on agricultural issues, nor focused on the amazing work of the Carver Center. Even though he owns 10 acres in Cardova Precinct.
To give the agricultural community a break will require a state government that thinks differently – one that does not deny to rural communities the economic benefits of locally owned and controlled alternative energy production while stacking its boards and administration with folks from carbon burning industries or who just want to protect the status quo.
Government can open doors or close possibilities. Having a representative at the table who is sympathetic to your values and needs is part of making the government work for you.
Dave Reuther
Editor’s Note: this op-ed originally appeared in the Culpeper Star Exponent, and is re-posted here with the author’s permission.