The greatest threat to farmland and open space in North America is urban sprawl, hands down.
Farmers are in the crosshairs of big developers who are anxious to see them fail, and have to sell their land, which can then be devoured by subdivisions, strip malls, and gas stations.
Clean energy offers an additional revenue source for farmers to diversify their income with drought proof, flood proof, recession proof cash – usually for 25 to 30 years.
In my experience, if you scratch the surface of any anti-clean energy group, you don’t have to look far to find someone with real estate development in mind.