Emily Kenny in New York State of Politics reports that New York lost 253,500 acres of agricultural land to development between 2001 and 2016. A report from the American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit that works to protect farmland, also found that 78 percent of those lost acres were converted to low-density residential properties. So housing, not renewable energy projects, led the conversion of farmland in New York at the beginning of this century. Still, when talking about losing agricultural land, it seems all anyone wants to talk about is solar panels. State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, a Democrat from Saugerties and chair of the Committee of Agriculture, has proposed a bill that would require the Office of Renewable Energy Siting to consider agricultural impacts on active farmland when siting and constructing energy facilities. Read more about this story in New York State of Politics.