U.S. ag secretary targets solar grants for producers and backs Tennessee cuts

Source: Nebraska Examiner

By: Sam Stockard - August 18, 2025 2:48 pm

NASHVILLE — U.S. Agriculture officials announced a new initiative Monday to stop subsidies for solar energy panels that take up farmland while supporting cuts in agriculture grants to Tennessee universities.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins introduced the initiative by the Trump administration after a Future Farmers of America breakfast at the State Fairgrounds in Lebanon where she said the federal government will make new grants to bolster Tennessee farming while targeting grants that don’t help farmers’ production.

Rollins criticized the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and “market distorting incentives” for solar panels, which she said are eliminating Tennessee farmland.

The secretary made the statements even though a study by the nonpartisan Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations found that solar facilities aren’t likely to be the “primary driver” of development on farmland for decades. The study also determined that land can be returned to farming once a solar facility goes out of use.


Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L Robbins U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins spoke at a Future Farmers of America event Aug. 18, 2025 at the Tennessee State Fair. (John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Photograph by John Partipilo/ Tennessee Lookout ©2025

Read more: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/08/18/u-s-ag-secretary-targets-solar-grants-for-producers-and-backs-tennessee-cuts/