Letter to the editor: Solar facilities are not 'farms'

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https://triblive.com/opinion/letter-to-the-editor-solar-facilities-are-not-farms/

Letter to the editor: Solar facilities are not 'farms'

Tribune-Review | Sunday, September 7, 2025 9:00 a.m.

Regarding the article “Derry Township residents object to proposed solar farm, cite concerns about health, water” (Sept. 3, TribLive), I suggest that using the term “solar farm” is inappropriate. There is no farm here. Instead, there is utility-scale solar energy generation.

Please consider the phrase “solar energy facility” as an alternative. I believe the term “solar farm” was chosen to make placement of these facilities that take farmland out of production sound innocuous … corn farm, soybean farm, solar farm. After all, a shovel is a shovel and not a dirt displacement device.

Vince Phillips

Bradenton, Fla.

The writer is a retired Pennsylvania lobbyist from Mechanicsburg.

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