US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: 'I'm not for sale'

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/21/us-farmers-datacenters

US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: ‘I’m not for sale’


Families are navigating the tough choice between unimaginable riches and the identity that comes with land

Niamh Rowe
Sat 21 Feb 2026 09.00 EST

When two men knocked on Ida Huddleston’s door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries.

According to Huddleston, the men’s client, an unnamed “Fortune 100 company”, sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement.

More than a dozen of her neighbors received the same knock. Searching public records for answers, they discovered that a new customer had applied for a 2.2 gigawatt project from the local power plant, nearly double its annual generation capacity.

The unknown company was building a datacenter.

“You don’t have enough to buy me out. I’m not for sale. Leave me alone, I’m satisfied,” Huddleston, 82, later told the men.

… more …

(After the last farm is paved over and food disappears …)

[dalton99a]

1. Data centers and bitcoin mines should be put in the backyards of the tech bros.

Make them pay the power and water bills, and make them hear the noise

[Leghorn21]

2. YES PLEASE!!!

[popsdenver]

3. There is also

a bunch of money being taken out of the Stock Market and Investments by the UBER Rich 1%ers and buying up all the real estate in the nation that they can............wonder what they know that we don't??????????

Kroenke? (Walmart money) just made a purchase of land that makes him the largest individual landowner in the entire U.S.
His Walmart "family" also now owns ALL of the Major League sports teams in Denver....(with the exception of the Colorado Rockies major league base ball team......... which NO ONE, in their right mind, would want to buy)

[patphil]

4. Data centers must produce their own energy using renewable means.

Either solar cells, wind power, hydroelectric power, or some other similar means.
The main requirement should be that it does not have any negative impact on anything or anybody outside their data center. Any adverse impact on the environment should not be allowed.
They should also be denied use of any water for cooling that comes from wells, streams, rivers, lakes, or any other natural water resource that is or could be used by the communities around the data centers.
If their AI is so smart, let it figure it out.

[InstantGratification]

5. I live very near this project

Maysville, KY is the Mason County seat and I live directly across the Ohio river in Brown Co, OH. There is a lot of opposition to this. People are pissed that the county commissioners signed the NDA and at the lack of public hearings on this. Eastern KY Power plant is the one referenced in the OP.

Back on this side of the river in neighboring Adams Co. OH, there are 2 planned data centers at the sites of former power plants. Not a lot of public input on those either. In total, there are 4 projects nearby. 2 within a 5 minute drive, 1 about 20 minutes away and 1 about 30 minutes away. Where is all this power coming from?

[gulliver]

6. Standing on principle won't help without political leadership

It stuns me that neither party is leveraging the AI buildout and buildup for the common good. If I were anything other than a sunny, trusting optimist, I would think that either money must be changing hands somewhere, or folks don't know what to do. Perish the thought.

On edit: Bernie has talked about it. I exclude him from my criticism!