Representation by James Golding
- Date submitted
- 17 March 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
As a UK arable farmer I see the need for the UK to become more self-sufficient in food production. Importing food is not carbon friendly, often provides substandard food, gives the UK little or no say in use of chemicals and additives and raises human rights issues in labour. Taking food producing, high quality farmland out of production and giving it to renewable energy providers, based in Europe, for profit making purposes seems madness. The government will not own the energy or the solar farm itself and will be charged peak cost prices. There are other, more reliable and less disruptive ways of producing energy in the UK (hydro, wind and roof top solar). New houses and industrial units should by law be built with rooftop solar panels. With the money saved from “buying in” our own UK produced energy we could instead offer small grants to help with installation of rooftop solar.