Ohio farmer with $1m medical debt sold land after officials blocked solar lease

An Ohio farmer facing $1 million (£750,000) in medical bills had to sell land and farm machinery from his family farm after local officials blocked a solar energy project on his property. Wayne Greier, a sixth-generation farmer in Mahoning County, Ohio, planned to lease 600 acres of his farmland to a solar development company in 2021. The deal would have paid him $540,000 a year in lease payments, giving him a vital source of money as debt threatened his livelihood. "It was our saving grace," Greier told the Associated Press. "It wasn't a scary picture that everybody likes to paint about solar and the loss of farmland." The deal fell apart after township officials put local restrictions in place under a state law, stopping the renewable energy project from moving forward. Losing the income left Greier unable to keep his full farming operation running.