US Betting on Energy Shift to Stem Decades of Disappearing Farms
- US prime for overhaul benefiting small farmer, USDA chief says
- Strategy focuses on clean energy, infrastructure investments
Sheep graze underneath solar panels at a farm in Hammond, Minnesota.
Photographer: Ben Brewer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The US is betting the transition to cleaner energy combined with massive infrastructure investments will reverse a persistent decline in family farms, creating new revenue opportunities for growers while boosting their ability to compete overseas.
More than half a million farms across America’s landscape have vanished over the last four decades as policies favored consolidation. While the resulting industrial heft has bolstered the US’s status as an agriculture juggernaut feeding the world, it’s wreaked havoc on smaller and mid-sized producers and the rural economies that rely on them.