The choice is: enough land for food production or enough land for energy production.
Not too much of a choice, really.
“This, in turn, had presented the authorities with a choice between continuing to use arable land for wind and solar, or using it for food.”
Essentially, what it comes down to is that if we use all the available land area to place solar panels and windmills, then someone is gonna starve.
Smaller countries are gonna have even bigger issues.
One can have carbon-free renewable energy. Or, one can have enough food to feed the population. You cannot have both using current methods. (and that is with current farming practices using pesticides and chemical fertilizers. If you go “organic” then the numbers are even worse)
Starve, or live in the dark and cold. That is the choice the Greens would have us make.