COUNTRYFILE viewers have sunk their claws into a 'virtue-signalling' episode of the BBC Two series.
Multiple protesters clashed over solar panels on the wildlife show and fans couldn't help but get involved.
Tom Heap, 58, fronted the controversial edition of Countryfile where he investigated the rise of huge solar farms and the effects these have on rural farmers.
These industrial sized plants have been erected on green field sites across the country.
But farmers are desperately trying to raise money to stay afloat as the government ploughs on to meet their net zero targets.
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The BBC Radio 4 personality met two women on the opposite ends of the debate.
One was the founder of a group that is protesting against solar farms, the other represents the manufactures of solar panels.
Kathryn Judkins from the UK Solar Alliance first spoke to Tom about why the group is in such opposition to the farms.
She explained: "The beauty of solar is its versatility, it can go anywhere. So where you have choices it's very important that you make the right choices.
"And for me that means rooftops, car parks, and if land must be used then first and foremost, brownfield sites, landfill sites, and generally poor quality farming sites if we need to use some greenfield."
"It's not so much standing in their way. The kind of schemes we're seeing coming through now are massive, thousands of thousands of acres, it's rewriting entire communities, rural communities living here they expect to have a rural surrounding."
She added: "It's part of their identity, who they are, where they live."
But one members of the government's Solar Taskforce, Solar Energy UK, was in disagreement.
Rachel Haynes was representing the association for solar panel producers on the programme and she explained how and why the government are ramping up solar production.
"We're gonna need solar deployed at all scales to meet environmental and climate targets, that means we're going to need solar on our homes, on big commercial properties like warehouses, but we will need farm solar as well," she explained.
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"Currently occupational solar farms represent about 0.1% of solar farm area, to bring that in line with net zero targets then that would move to about 0.4-0.6%. It's less than what we're currently using for golf courses."
Viewers took to X - formerly known as Twitter - in their droves as they slammed the episode.
One viewer wrote: "Solar is more virtue signalling than “essential” France has nuclear & keeps our lights on. #countryfile"
Another stated: "Completely agree with tenant farmer Andrew, stick the solar panels on industrial building roofs, they get cheap electric and we get to keep farm land for producing food win win #Countryfile."
"If you want farms to stay in agricultural production rather than convert to solar farms, maybe try making farming more lucrative instead of constantly squeezing prices paid to producers? #Countryfile," suggested a third fan.
As a fourth commented: "I passed a huge solar farm in the initial stages last week, taking up 4+ fields of good grade agricultural land. As the population is exploding, we need farmland to grow food, totally agree that brownfield and industrial areas are better for solar #countryfile"
Meanwhile another user pondered: "Genuinely interested to know why #solar panels can’t be installed along motorways and other major road infrastructure that already exists. #Countryfile."
And a sixth added: "Watching Countryfile, they're discussing using finest arable farm land with solar farms. WHY are we using any farm land for solar,there are hundreds of thousands of square metres of industrial roofing which should all be used for collection of solar energy before we use farm land."
