Please join us on Wednesday January 11th between 11:30 and 12:30 to learn how American Farmland Trust is advancing Smart Solar principles in New York. The session will include highlighting cutting edge research led by Cornell University and its Sustainable Solar initiative.  We will invite questions and discussion for an interactive session intended to inform farmers, farm advisors and others interested in the future of New York farmland.  Please register for the event here: https://forms.office.com/r/meZcV1Yaph 

The US Department of Energy estimates we need more than 10 million acres to scale up solar energy by 2050, and AFT projects over 80 percent could be sited on agricultural lands.  With passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and ambitious clean energy targets now set in state law, New York is at the forefront of this energy transition and associated land use challenges. This growth will create opportunities, but it also threatens farmland, and the conflict between using land to grow food and using it to produce energy is generating public backlash against renewable energy deployment overall.   

Farmland in New York and across the Northeast is already under threat from residential and commercial development - nationally, poorly planned development and rural sprawl consume 2,000 acres of agricultural lands daily.  American Farmland Trust's most recent study Farms Under Threat 2040: Choosing an Abundant Future shows if we continue this business-as-usual development over 450,000 acres of New York farmland could be converted or lost by 2040.   Implementing smart solar principles and advancing critical research will help New York  to accelerate solar energy development, strengthen farm viability and safeguard land well-suited for farming.  

1 CCA CEU will be available