To the editor:

On Dec. 19, many citizens appeared before the Planning Commission to weigh in on the proposed solar site near Midland Junction. Some opposed the plan due to the loss of “prime farmland.”

How many people have any idea where their food comes from or what is actually happening with “prime farmland” in Douglas County?

Drive the roads by the proposed site. You will not see any evidence of food grown for human consumption on this “prime farmland.” Instead, all you will see is stubble from hog corn on otherwise bare ground subject to wind and rain erosion.

Further, because this corn has been farmed conventionally to feed animals, you can assume that the soil has been nuked repeatedly during previous growing seasons with herbicides, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Some expressed concern about how the solar site would affect their groundwater while totally ignoring how Atrazine is poisoning their water now.

In the spring, the ground will be tilled deeply to remove the stubble, destroying the structure of the soil.

If anything, the solar site will allow the land to heal, nourished by native plantings, responsible grazing or specialty crops.

Many expressed support for renewable energy, but somewhere else, not in my backyard. Yet because the land is level and close to a substation and transmission lines, this site is ideal.

Although it is difficult, we all must embrace inevitable change, be realistic about how destructively the land is being farmed now, and work together to find solutions. If not, the catastrophic effects of global warming will be in everyone’s backyard, and there will be no escaping them.

Margaret Kramar,

Big Springs