Farmers, ranchers and livestock producers are working with solar companies in Iowa to find multiple uses for land once used only to plant corn and soybeans. Some are investing in what s known as "dual-use solar" or agrivoltaics. They are cultivating profitable crops, grazing livestock, even raising healthier honeybees, all in the shadows of solar panels. .
By Sky Chadde and Johnathan Heddinger for the Investigate Midwest, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Investigate Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration. In early 2019 in Illinois, a farmworker, his wife and his son lived in a moldy house. Attempting to keep the winter cold at bay, he’d spray-foamed the windows shut. .
The U.S. Department of Agriculture touts its conservation programs for farmers, but a new study from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found last year, three of four applications for the programs were denied. The Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program help farmers handle flooding and drought. .
Rising interest rates depressed refunding opportunities, but new money issuance rose amid demand for infrastructure to serve the region's growing population.