Building massive solar and wind projects on Washington state’s prime farmland should be avoided. That’s one idea on which nearly all farmers, ranchers and politicians should agree.

That only makes sense. Giving up farmland, the source of our food and fiber, would be wrong-headed under any circumstances, but it’s especially so when plenty of non-arable land is available elsewhere on the west side of the state.

Take, for example, places like Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. Those and other cities are littered with office buildings and other developments. Solar and wind farms could be built on their rooftops. Better yet, about 14% of the office space in the Puget Sound region is empty, so many of those buildings could be demolished and replaced with solar and wind farms.

In Europe, some clever folks are putting solar panels on top of lakes, so Lake Washington would be an obvious choice for a new installation. And Puget Sound would be a good spot for lots more wind turbines.

There is no need to damage farmland when there is a nearly unlimited amount of land, rooftops, lakes and ocean in and around Washington’s cities.

Building solar and wind projects on prime farmland damages it. The Washington State Department of Agriculture has provided factual arguments against sacrificing farmland to the climate cause.

Kelly McLain, a policy adviser for the WSDA, recently sent an email to the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council laying out the problems with building solar and wind projects on prime farmland.

The main problem is once the useful life of a solar or wind farm has passed after 25 years or so, the land will have to be rehabilitated before it could be farmed.

“The project impact is not short term or transitory in nature because not all damage will be remediated at the point of decommissioning,” McLain said. The soil is compacted and deprived of sunlight and organic material. On wind farms, massive blocks of concrete are used to anchor turbines that can be 300-plus feet tall. Digging them out one-by-one would be a huge undertaking.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee chalks up much of the east side resistance to solar and wind projects to “nimbyism.” He has spoken against “nimbyism” when folks oppose his efforts to save the planet by installing solar panels and wind turbines in eastern Washington. Nimby is an acronym for “not in my backyard.”

Let’s see what Inslee and his friends think of installing solar panels and wind turbines across Seattle and the Puget Sound region. Only a small fraction of the houses and businesses there have installed solar panels so far.

Central and eastern Washington shouldn’t have to lose vast acreages of farmland and see their economies damaged when the good people of Seattle have the perfect spots for all of those solar and wind projects.

Right, governor?