Maine Monitor Editor Kate Cough wrote an informative piece last month about the need for “compensation rules for solar on farmland.” Questions were raised about amounts of compensation to farmers, as well as the potential for “’dual use’ panels that allow for some agricultural activity to continue, like growing blueberries or grazing sheep.”

In the article, I learned that “about 10% of the state’s nearly 22 million acres are considered ‘soils of statewide importance.’ Of those soils, 800,000 acres are considered ‘prime,’ or land that is ‘of major importance in meeting the nation’s short- and long-range needs for food and fiber, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.’”

I beg to differ. As one of nearly 22,500 Brunswick residents exposed, on Aug. 19, 2024, to the sixth largest PFAS spill in the United States, I offer this paradigm shift: Every inch of our Maine soil is prime. Every inch of our soil on this planet is prime, whether for agriculture, forest, solar or housing. None of it should be seen as anything less than prime.

I ask that we broaden our thinking, rather than compartmentalize it for the convenience of human expediency. In the Department of Agriculture’s suggestion that only 10% of our Maine soils are of statewide importance, the implication is that we place our lands into a hierarchical pyramid of elevated importance. This same hierarchical thinking has destroyed millions of people and their cultures, brought the natural world to the brink of extinction and polluted the only home we have.

Abbie Sewall
Brunswick