In his paper of 30th May 2021 Dr John Constable, editor of the Global Warming Policy Forum, recommends a change to planning guidance to increase protection for certain categories of agricultural land. His paper argues that food production, particularly for domestic consumption, should be a government priority, and that large solar farms should be discouraged on all farmland except in very special circumstances.

• Current guidance in the planning system relating to ground-mounted solar projects is around ten years old and obsolete.
• Guidance relating to solar power does not give ordinary agricultural land – categories Agri¬cultural Land Classification Grade 3b and below – its due weight in the planning balance, even though such land is preferred for some purposes and valuable, both for reasons of food production, reduction of food miles, and the associated carbon footprint.
• The lack of protection for such land constitutes a loophole in the system, since developers find it relatively easy to secure permission to change the use of large areas of land from agricultural to industrial; consequently there is a strong trend towards mega-scale solar projects, some covering thousands of acres.
• Solar industry data suggests that almost 8000 MW of large-scale, ground-mounted solar capacity has entered development in the UK since January 2019, with 1000 MW arising in just one month, September 2020. These projects will occupy approximately 30,000 acres or more of agri¬cultural land. At a recent Royal Society conference, a speaker from DEFRA observed that renew¬ables targets would require the conversion of 21% of British farmland to bioenergy and solar generation. That is obviously unwise. 
• This pressure adds significantly to the existing pressures reducing quantities of agricultural land: about 100,000 acres per year is being lost to farming, raising concerns about the medium-term levels of food imports required to support a rising population. 
• Brexit and the pandemic have illustrated the fragility of food supply chains, a concern that is exacerbated by climate change itself, which could impede food imports. 
• Recent parliamentary questions reveal that the strong trend towards very large solar projects is not yet appreciated by government. 
• The recent Energy White Paper (December 2020) announced a welcome review of all the National Policy Statements, which could address the problem, but the schedule for the reform is not sufficiently rapid to provide a timely remedy. 

An interim ministerial statement that gave proper weight to the value of agricultural land would assist decision-makers, both at the local-authority and the national infrastructure planning levels, to reach balanced decisions in the public interest.