I believe farmers have a social responsibility to be sustainable. I’m always searching for more sustainable ways to power my operations. If you’re a farmer who doesn’t believe in being ethical and sustainable, then what are you doing? The change in the environment starts with us. How we treat animals starts with us. We are essentially the start of the food chain supply. If we can get things right from the start, hopefully, these ethical and sustainable practices will soon funnel down.
I had been considering getting solar panels for quite some time, but an overarching skepticism continued to hold me back. I wasn’t sure if the commercial solar installation cost would actually be as cost-effective made out to be. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that this was probably not the correct mindset to have. Yes, I was trying to operate in a more sustainable way, but farmers had already been struggling. The cost of running a sustainable and ethical farm had already caused us to take a huge financial hit, but I knew that solar panels were the correct way forward. I just needed further confirmation that they would be reliable enough to meet my needs. If a farm isn’t allowed to operate for a day due to an outage, it can cause serious detriment not only to our operations, but also the safety of our animals.
I decided to speak to other farmers who had made the switch. They recommended commercial solar panel providers based in Melbourne. It was great to have an exhaustive list of providers to get quotes from. It turns out that it wasn’t going to be as expensive as I thought, and it would in fact turn out to be a cheaper long-term option. After hearing this, I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I took the leap. I invested in a commercial solar panel system to power my entire farm. We are now operating totally independent from the grid, and only generating clean energy. Full disclosure; it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.