The USDA is removing funding for wind and solar from loan programs to farmers and rural communities. On August 19 the agency announced the cuts to federal funding for solar on prime farmland from the Rural Development Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program and for those ground mount systems not “right-sized for their facilities” – over 50 kilowatts- from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
While the rationale provided is to safeguard prime ag land for food, one third of land used to grow corn in the US is for corn ethanol production that the government subsidizes. In total, 0.05 percent or 424,000 acres of the US total 897 million acres in pasture, rangeland, and crops (328 million acres of US cropland in 2024) are used for wind and solar based on a 2024 USDA analysis. Findings were that the land usually remained in agriculture after development.