More California farms operating on solar power

[jpak]

http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20081221/BUSINESS/812210310

RICHVALE, Calif. - For more than 70 years, California's abundance of sunshine has enabled the Lundberg family to grow rice in the Central Valley north of Sacramento.

Now the sun is helping them churn out myriad rice products, from chips to pasta.

Lundberg Family Farms, which bills itself as the nation's largest producer of organic rice and rice products, is among a small but growing number of California growers and processors who are turning to solar power to help them run their operations.

"It made sense from an environmental point of view and a business point of view," said Jessica Lundberg, whose family has been growing rice in the Richvale area since 1937.

<more>

[polichick]

1. I recently visited a solar powered farm in PA for a fundraiser for my Congressman...

It was so inspiring ~ we are definitely turning a corner!

[Bigmack]

2. The BIG advantage

to a farm's being on solar power where we are in southern California is that water use from private wells can no longer be EITHER monitored or even guessed at. When the farms around here were on the grid AT LEAST there was a basis for an informed guess at how much water they were using. There's NO DOUBT that the farms (and local golf courses) are the main reason for the rapidly depleting aquifer around here. So, on the one hand, solar power is obviously a "good" thing, but on the other hand.....she had warts. Ms Bigmack