USDA Halts Funding for Solar Projects

By Sam Stockard Tennessee Lookout

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- USDA officials announced a new initiative Monday to stop subsidies for solar energy panels that take up farmland while supporting cuts in agriculture grants to Tennessee universities.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the ban by the Trump administration after a Future Farmers of America breakfast at the State Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Tennessee, where she said the federal government will make new grants to bolster Tennessee farming while targeting grants that don't help farmers' production.

Rollins criticized the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act and "market distorting incentives" for solar panels, which she said are eliminating Tennessee farmland.

On social platform X, Rollins said USDA was protecting family farms by rescinding all programs for building solar panels on farmland. Rollins added USDA would no longer fund wind projects on farm ground as well and would end the use of solar panels made in China.

"Millions of acres of prime farmland is left unusable so Green New Deal subsidized solar panels can be built. This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country," Rollins said.

The secretary made the statements even though a study by the nonpartisan Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations found solar facilities aren't likely to be the "primary driver" of development on farmland for decades. The study also determined that land can be returned to farming once a solar facility goes out of use.

Earlier this year, the federal government made dramatic cuts to higher education grants, including eliminating more than $31 million in funding to the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, which houses agricultural research and resources for Tennessee farmers and communities in 95 counties.

Rollins defended the reductions, saying, "Those cuts were being made in programs that did not align with the president's vision of putting farmers first."

Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden of Tennessee described the reduction as a "repurposing" and said changes were made in research funding based on whether a grant "helps a farmer in the field make more money." Projects aimed at "clean energy" or based on "racial criteria" were eliminated, he said.

In addition to stopping solar panel development on farmland, Rollins announced nearly $89 million will go toward 13 rural development projects in 28 Tennessee counties to "promote partnerships" and infrastructure investments for rural education. The department has distributed nearly $100 million this year to more than 10,000 farmers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, according to Rollins.

Some farmers have said they expect prices to increase because of President Donald Trump's tariffs. Rollins said Monday the administration has signed eight new trade agreements expected to boost the nation's economy.

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DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton contributed to this article.

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