Same problem in Australia. Massive groundwater and surface water problems, with a power issue around coal. If we paid farmers to take land out of direct production or to reduced intensity, (income stream) and therefore reduce water consumption (groundwater restored) and rest land (reduced soil erosion) its a big upside.

And thats two economies, California and Australia. You think there are no other places facing tensions around land use, water and farmer income?

Remember that time you somehow managed to hook TiVos together to a video camera so it created a psychedelic looped stream of the present? I'll never forget that one... Derek

Modern panels are wired so that they're not quite so devastated by having an edge of the panel occluded. You can observe this with newer folding panels as well; they're often wired such that only a half or quarter of the panel being exposed leads to a linear reduction in output as opposed to a catastrophic failure.

Besides, it's not like farming is human-labor free. It's certainly comparable human labor to imagine keeping solar panels relatively dust free compared to growing strawberries.