The Italian government is injecting common sense into its energy policies to protect against a “threat to … food sovereignty,” while Michigan heads in the opposite direction.

Like Michigan, Italy’s goals for renewable energy are encouraging many across the country to convert farmland to solar fields, a situation Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni describes as a “threat to our food sovereignty,” Financial Times reports.

Last year, Meloni issued an emergency decree to ban ground-mounted solar panels from lands zoned for agricultural use as a “pragmatic measure that corrects … the ideological eco-follies of which Italy and its farmers have been victims,” she said.

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While Italian climate change crusaders contend the move will hamper the government’s goal of 80 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2030, 1.6 million farmers represented by lobbyists at Coldiretti believe using the land for food would be more productive.

Rather than solar, the government should invest in improved irrigation to expand and preserve useful farmland, the group suggests.

“We cannot accept the shortcut of photovoltaics,” Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, Coldiretti director of international politics, told the FT. “We don’t want to accept the inertia of an administration that decided not to invest and improve irrigation. We want to again realize the full productive potential of that land.”

The competition between development – particularly large solar farms – and farmland is a concern in America, as well, according to the American Farmland Trust.

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The trust’s Farms Under Threat 2040 report “shows we are on track to convert over 18 million acres of farmland and ranchland from 2016-40 – an area the size of South Carolina.”

The report notes the U.S. lost or compromised 2,000 acres of farm and ranch land every day from 2001-2016, and “without further policy intervention, 2.9 million acres of utility-scale solar are expected to be built between 2020 and 2040.”

“States should … ensure new transmission is not planned for areas with high concentrations of quality farmland,” AFT researchers suggest.

The 2022 report predicts Michigan could lose between 483,800 and 696,700 acres of farm land by 2040, due to solar and other commercial and residential development.

That was before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democrats who controlled the Michigan legislature approved legislation that shifts control over the siting of large commercial solar, wind and battery facilities to state bureaucrats.

The move was designed to circumvent local opposition during the permitting process that has repeatedly thwarted renewable energy projects critical to Whitmer’s climate goals.

Whitmer signed the legislation into law in November 2023 alongside other bills that forced a 100% clean energy standard by 2040, created a new office dedicated to transitioning workers to the industry, and tasked the governor-appointed Michigan Public Service Commission with considering “climate and equity” in energy decisions.

The law – which applies only to large solar, wind and battery storage developments that can span hundreds of acres – allows developers to seek local approval for projects first, but it severely limits how local officials can regulate those facilities, while also providing a mechanism for developers to appeal for a permit directly to the state if denied.

Local officials can secure specific rights and benefits, including $2,000 per megawatt payments from developers, if they enact zoning ordinances that are no more restrictive than state law, known as Compatible Renewable Energy Ordinances.

The MPSC in October finalized rules to implement the new law.

“We are deeply concerned that the MPSC’s ruling undermines the democratic process by removing the voices of local residents and local officials in decisions that directly impact their communities,” said Michael Homier, attorney at Foster Swift Collins & Smith who is representing 75 Michigan counties in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the changes, said in a statement.

“Local governments have a longstanding responsibility to ensure that developments align with their unique priorities, and this decision threatens to leave them powerless in the face of large-scale renewable energy projects.”

While Whitmer insists the “Clean Energy & Climate Action Package” she signed into law in November 2023 will “lower household utility costs by an average of $145 a year, create 160,000 good-paying jobs, and bring nearly $8 billion of federal tax dollars home to Michigan for clean energy projects,” Republicans opposed the “brown-out bundle” they predict will do the opposite.

In addition to accelerating the consumption of farm land, Republicans suggest the move will result in more power outages, and increased energy prices, assertions backed by federal regulators, regional grid officials and a study of “net zero” energy plans that predicts it may be lights out in Michigan by 2032 if the state doesn’t change course.