I cry more when I think about the amount of farmland being used for bioethanol, something which is barely energy positive. If the US would switch the subsidies and regulations propping that up to propping up solar, it would easily free up a huge amount of land.

The standard alternative to a solar farm is a monoculture corn farm producing ethanol. That monoculture corn farm regularly gets sprayed, plowed and harvested, each time decimating its animal population. Your solar farm is probably filled with a diverse selection of grass and weeds, supporting a far higher animal population than that corn farm.

Technology Connections did the math on this and found that if you ONLY replaced fields used for ethanol production with solar panels, the amount of space would be enough solar panels to power the entire power grid in the US.

You need to read about agrivoltaics. This is being used to huge effect elsewhere in the world to improve farming & soil. Here's an example from China:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03014...

This guide to the UK’s Land Use Framework says that the amount of land required for renewables by 2050 is comparable to the amount of land used by golf courses.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-englands-new-land-use-fr...

Also see the amount of land used for beef and dairy. Before industrial farming, Britain was a rainforest.

> A part of me cries a little when I see so much beautiful land and trees cut down and these lifeless panels taking up so much space.

Where are you seeing healthy forests or other "beautiful land" being destroyed for solar farms? There's plenty of low-yield farmland and other similar land that's already been denatured by industry out there, lots of which already has major transmission infrastructure nearby, beautiful land tends to be expensive, and clearing trees costs money. It just doesn't make sense to do something like that outside of isolated areas where there's no other choice.

Here in the midwestern US every single solar or wind farm I've seen has either been on active farmland, former farmland, or a corporate/university campus.

> use up perfectly usable farmland

It's still farmland! They're just farming energy now.

on that easy fix - the land under solar panels can still be used for farming or ranching

Sure but compare that to the amount of land used for oil and gas extraction. The difference is that mines and drills can only go where there's stuff to extract and solar panels can go anywhere. Including near residential areas. That's also due to the fact that they are so environmentally neutral.