This time of year, farm and ranch families, for the third year in a row, are desperately looking for additional farm revenue to make their cashflows work as they meet with agricultural lenders.

Rising farm inputs and low commodity prices will again squeeze some farm and ranch operations out of the business they love, those their families helped build over many generations.

Many more families will sink further into debt. Since family living and ag production input costs are not likely to come down, the focus is on finding additional farm income.

Instead of passing a new and better Farm Bill with an updated income safety net that farmers need, Congress has passed three deadline extensions. The uncertainty continues.

Ag matters to Nebraska

How important is agriculture to our state? Nebraska is third in cash receipts from all farm commodities, generating $31.6 billion of value in 2022.

Agriculture is our state’s largest industry. It is deeply connected to the health of the state’s economy.

Last summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a report estimating a 31% decrease in net national farm income for 2024 compared to 2022. Prospects for 2025 are more of the same.

As president of the second-largest general farm organization in the state, I ask: “What can be done to help increase farm incomes and struggling farm and ranch families, as well as rural communities?”

I see an unprecedented economic opportunity for our state, our farmers and ranchers and rural communities. Nebraska is seeing the fastest spike in the need for more electrical energy since the end of World War II.

New growth opportunities

Our 100% public power state is scrambling to find enough new electrical generation soon enough to meet the needs of our skyrocketing load growth.

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Fortunately for us, Nebraska has the third-best wind resources and the 13th-best solar resources in the nation. Based on this wealth of renewable energy potential, our state can produce much of its own home-grown energy in the energy market.

If we fail to harness and harvest our own wind and solar resources, our Nebraska public power owners’ money will be sent to neighboring states to buy the power we need.

Last May, the Omaha Public Power District bought 600 megawatts of electrical capacity from rural Kansas. That should be a wake-up call to rural Nebraska.

With due respect to our neighbors, I think a majority of Nebraskans would rather put their public power dollars to work building rural Nebraska.

For Nebraska to take advantage of this tremendous energy market opportunity, our county officials must put and keep the “welcome mat” out for renewable power generation.

They must protect public health, safety and welfare, while also respecting landowners’ private property rights and putting reasonable zoning regulations in place that allow legal, economically and environmentally beneficial renewable energy facilities to operate in their counties.

Value can be added

Nebraska Farmers Union began championing the “value-added” benefits of clean-burning biofuels and ethanol production in the 1940’s, because we could see the upside potential of this self-help way to expand the value and farm income benefits of using our major cash crop to produce fuel as well as feed.

Once developed, value-added agriculture provides economic benefits year after year, and often sparks additional economic activity tied to the base activity.

Nebraska is now the second-largest ethanol producing state in the nation. It has brought over $5 billion in new tax base and thousands of good-paying jobs to rural communities.

To date, Nebraska’s 3,520 megawatts of developed wind energy has brought over $6.159 billion of new property tax base to rural Nebraska, and $17.6 million in new local tax revenues.

Real impact

It also put $17.6 million of additional and dependable annual income into Nebraska landowners’ pockets for the next 20 years.

In addition to the financial benefits to landowners and local governments, renewable energy provides new good-paying jobs with benefits in struggling rural communities.

There are currently 2,500 clean energy workers in Nebraska. Energy generation is a local and regional economic development driver, attracting new investment, new business and new jobs.

As we’ve seen with ethanol and biofuels, developing renewable energy isn’t simply providing new power sources today. It’s growing and diversifying our economic base for years to come.

As a state, we should embrace the opportunity to harvest our wind and solar renewable energy resources to strengthen farm and ranch families, rural communities and our state.

John Hansen has served as president of the Nebraska Farmers Union since 1990.