At what cost a solar harvest?
UKIP MEP highlights ‘scandal’ of Peterborough City Council’s plan to turn 900 acres of prime farmland into solar farm.
During a debate in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee about the challenges of renewable energy (20.02.13), Stuart Agnew, the UKIP MEP and spokesman on agriculture has highlighted the “scandal” of Peterborough City Council’s plan to take 900 acres of prime agricultural land out of food production and replace it with solar panels.
Speaking to fellow MEPs on the Committee, Mr Agnew said: “We’re talking about challenges to agriculture with renewable energy and I am going to give you an excellent challenge. Peterborough City Council owns 900 acres of farmland and it wants to put all of it into solar panels. This means that the tenants on that farmland will lose their livelihoods. This isn’t rough old grassland, this is grade one land – no stones, dead level and high fertility. It is an absolute scandal and, furthermore, this operation is subsidised by electricity consumers of all income levels to hand money to a municipal council. I can’t think of a bigger challenge to agriculture.”
