A New Crop for Rural America

Listen to the highlights of this interview above or keep reading.

In growing pockets of rural America, where the landscape is a patchwork of generations-old farms and tight-knit communities, a new kind of crop is emerging. 

It’s a crop of wind turbines and solar panels, one that’s increasingly becoming a savvy supplement to landowners’ yields. It’s an opportunity to harvest a new kind of energy—the power of financial stability and community investment. 

Here, leasing underperforming land for renewable energy projects is providing farmers with a stable income and generating tax revenue that’s reinvested directly in the community, supporting better schools and public services. 

But this opportunity remains little-known and sometimes even misunderstood. 

“A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity for Rural America”

“We need to do a better job telling the story of the benefits that rural communities are accruing as a consequence of wind and solar projects and the types of investments that they’re able to make,” according to Wisconsinite and farmer Scott Laeser. 

I had the opportunity to speak with Scott and hear some of these stories—what he calls a “once-in-a-generation opportunity for rural America and for farmers.” 

Scott is in the midst of wrapping up the 13th season of his and his wife’s farm, Plowshares & Prairie, located in the small town of Argyle, about an hour outside of Madison. They grow over 35 types of organic vegetables, everything from spinach and lettuce in the spring to carrots, beets, and broccoli in the early fall.