The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will no longer support solar energy projects on productive farmland or allow the use of equipment manufactured by foreign adversaries in USDA-backed programmes, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on Tuesday.
The announcement was made in Tennessee during a press event with Governor Bill Lee, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, Representative John Rose, and USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden.
The Department said the decision aims to protect agricultural land, reduce taxpayer costs, and prioritise American-made products. The policy change takes immediate effect and applies to USDA’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Programme, which will exclude wind and solar projects. Additional restrictions will also be applied to solar developments under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
“Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with Green New Deal-subsidised solar panels,” Rollins said. “We are no longer allowing businesses to use your taxpayer dollars to fund solar projects on prime American farmland, and we will no longer allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in our USDA-funded projects.”
The USDA said the reforms aim to eliminate market distortions created by energy subsidies and ensure that agricultural land remains accessible, particularly for younger farmers. According to the Department, Tennessee has lost over 1.2 million acres of farmland in the past three decades, a trend the new policy is intended to address.
Governor Lee supported the move, calling farmland “our national security, our economic future, and our children’s heritage.” Senator Blackburn added: “Tennessee farmland should be used to grow the crops that feed our state and country, not to house solar panels made by foreign countries.”
In a statement, the USDA said the changes would “protect farmland so important to our economy, strengthen American agriculture, and put energy independence first.”
