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Natural Resources

Farmer support and opposition for wind energy in Iowa and Nebraska is shaped by technology scale and ownership Weston Eaton*, Weston Eaton, J. G. Arbuckle, Mark Burbach,

The prospect of on-farm energy from wind turbines may provide farmers with means to affordable, reliable power, considering competing energy demands driving up costs and more frequent power interruptions. On farm wind energy can include utility scale systems, where agricultural landowners lease land to wind developers, community scale, where area residents have opportunity to invest in and benefit directly from local wind projects, and individual scale where one or a few smaller turbines located on-site provide energy directly to power the farm operation with the option of selling excess power to the grid. While farmers are key decision-makers for on farm energy across these scales, their attitudes toward and perceptions of wind across these scales have yet to be explored in depth and the growing body of research on social acceptance of wind tends to ignore the nation’s windiest states. This paper responds to this gap by reporting results from survey research conducted in 2025 with farmers in Iowa and Nebraska, two states with both high wind resources and strong deployment of wind turbines across all scales. Our research questions engage core concepts in the literature to extend insights into farmer perspectives. We ask whether positions of support and opposition vary by the scale of the energy system; whether support and opposition for each energy system varies according to proximity; and whether positive and negative beliefs about wind energy correlate with proximity. This paper will share results of farmer perspectives in Nebraska and Iowa.