Garrett Hawkins, writing for the Farm Bureau, complained about electrical transmission lines across Missouri in the June 23 edition of the News-Leader
June of 2024 will probably be the hottest month in recorded history, part of a year that will be the hottest in recorded history following the hottest year in recorded history. Most Americans spend 95% of their time indoors, but not farmers. Our crops require mild and predictable weather; year in and year out. But globally, farmers suffer from wild fires. Drought. Derechos. Hurricanes. Topsoil destruction. Tornadoes. Ocean rise. Storm surge. Catastrophic floods. Aquifer collapse. Polar vortexes that kill apple blossoms in April. Pollinator destruction. Desperate immigrants fleeing ruined farms. The common cause: bad weather.
The Farm Bureau plays politics, but their actuaries know the truth. Why are insurance companies abandoning lucrative markets in Florida and California? Why are they leaving the eastern and southern coastal regions of the U.S.? Why are they losing their shirts from billions of dollars in new claims caused by bad weather? Why are they raising everyone’s property rates? The bean counters will tell you: Carbon gas pollution in our atmosphere causes global warming and that leads to weather catastrophes. Burning more coal and natural gas as Mr. Hawkins recommends makes our problems much worse, ruining farms here and around the world.
Bad weather means bad farms and less food. Farmers feel the effects of bad weather first and worse than anyone. Instead of fighting renewable energy and spewing carbon pollution, Missouri farmers should be the Guardians of Good Weather. We should be green energy zealots: innovating new strategies for renewables and minimizing carbon pollution because it’s a disaster for us if we don’t.
Wind and solar installations produce cheap and reliable energy throughout the Great Plains and utility scale battery banks make them as reliable as any form of energy. Transmission lines like the Grain Belt Express bring critical jobs to Missouri and deliver cheap, renewable energy to every Missouri town along the line. Crops grow below wind generators and utility scale solar arrays enrich the farmers lucky enough to own land near transmission lines.
Someday the Farm Bureau will work for farmers’ well-being and leave science-denying climate propaganda to weirdos who don’t know a plow from a pork chop. When?
Finally, Missouri farmers are old. If we want bright, young, ambitious and educated folks to settle in rural Missouri we should pay attention to them. They care about our overheated planet and they want the mild weather we enjoyed when we were their age.
Dan Chiles is co-owner and operator of Rockspan Farm west of Springfield and board president of Renew Missouri.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Chiles: Farmers can’t retreat indoors, ignore climate change
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