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217 Today: Solar farming is taking land once used to grow food. Researchers are looking for ways to do both

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A man with a white shirt and a baseball cap stands in front of a field.
Scott Thellman grows a mix of organic produce and conventional crops on land adjacent to a planned utility-scale solar farm north of Lawrence, Kansas. He says the project would take good farmland out of production.
  • Photo: Frank Morris / Harvest Public Media

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Today’s headlines:

  • A popular state tax credit used by millions of Illinoisans will be going up for the 2024 tax year.
  • Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker joined Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey for a press conference yesterday to express their support for the Right to Contraception Act.
  • A Sangamon County judge heard arguments Monday on a Republican request to block a state ban on election slating.
  • Dozens more former youth inmates are suing over alleged sexual abuse they endured at Illinois detention centers.

In today’s deep dive, we’ll learn more about a growing field of study searching for ways to get calories and kilowatts off the same land.

217 Today is produced by Stephanie Mosqueda. Reporting today contributed by Dave McKinney, Jade Marceau and Frank Morris.

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Stephanie Mosqueda

Stephanie Mosqueda is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with minors in Spanish and public relations. She is the 217 Today producer and a reporter for the Illinois Student Newsroom.