Kentucky farm family rejects $26 million offer for 600 acres of land from unnamed AI data center suitor — declines 7x offer, wants to ‘Stay and hold and feed a nation’
There are still some things that money can't buy.
A farming family in Northern Kentucky just declined a $26 million offer for half of their land from an unnamed major tech company. According to Local12, Ida Huddlestone, 82, owned about 1,200 acres of farmland in the area that sells at about $6,000 an acre. However, a realtor showed up at their doorstep last year, offering Huddlestone and her daughter, Delsia Bare, more than 7 times the going rate for the area. Many other people would’ve jumped at the offer, but the family didn’t budge.
“My grandfather and great-grandfather and a whole bunch of family have all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it,” Bare said. “Even raised wheat through the Depression and kept bread lines up in the United States of America when people didn’t have anything else.”
Many tech companies are joining in the rush of the AI infrastructure buildout, and they’re willing to pay top dollar for everything related to it. This includes memory and storage chips, leading to the current RAM and SSD crisis, as well as the land needed to place these data centers. But while AI companies are willing to pay way higher than the average going rate for land where they can put up their data centers, they’re receiving pushback from the community, with one company even resorting to secrecy to avoid backlash from local residents.
AI hyperscalers would often promise jobs and economic growth whenever they enter a community, but Huddleston refuses to believe them. “They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not. We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water — and that poison; well, I’ know we’ve had it,” the 82-year-old said. “I say they’re a liar, and the truth isn’t in them. That’s what I say: it’s a scam.” While building an AI data center does bring in construction jobs in the area, these are often gone after the project is finished. And, unlike manufacturing plants, which may require a good number of people, most data centers require only a few personnel to operate.
Aside from that, the presence of AI data centers has often been cited as the cause for reduced power quality in neighboring areas, as well as increasing electrical costs for the average American. It has gotten to the point that President Donald Trump had to summon major tech companies to the White House and made them promise to “pay their own way” when it comes to their electricity needs.
Unfortunately, despite the family’s refusal to sell, the company just modified its plans to put up its data center on the land of those who said yes to their offer. The unnamed firm has reportedly already filed a zoning request for 28 agricultural pieces of land covering an area of more than 2,000 acres. But as for Huddlestone, she said that she does not need the money and that she plans to die on her land. Her daughter, Delsia, feels the same way: “As long as I’m on this land — as long as it’s feeding me — as long as it’s taking care of me — there’s nothing that can destroy me if I’ve got this land.”
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
-
chaos215bar2 Reply
I mean, if we're going to build data centers anywhere, out in the middle of agricultural land is an ideal location. 600 acres is practically nothing in the scheme of things, and there should be plenty of land nearby which could be used for a mixed use agriculture/solar installation plus battery storage to power the thing.Notton said:Pouring a concrete and asphalt slab over perfectly good agricultural land is so smart.
Even the water issue that comes up around data centers isn't a problem is you simply implement regulations that require more water efficient cooling. (All the talk of data centers in space just proves this — no water in space, and it's much easier to dump heat into an atmosphere than radiate it directly into space. Fresh water is used simply because it's cheaper than a closed cooling loop.)
The problem of course is we mostly don't have those regulations and data centers can end up being horrendous to live near. But again, the problem isn't inherent to data center buildout. The problem is lack of regulation. -
ezst036 Reply
Luckily the world is only getting 1 data center out in the agricultural land.chaos215bar2 said:600 acres is practically nothing in the scheme of things
Crisis averted. -
Mindstab Thrull Kudos to the farmer and his family for saying no to this. Food is a trillion times more important than data: without food, we don't live, and there's already too many people going hungry, whereas we've lived without Big Data for millennia or more.Reply
As for where to put the plant? Put it somewhere where the land condition only matters in terms of creating structures. The Canadian Shield, for example, is nearly impossible to use for farming or similar; tearing out rock, while expensive, would likely be a more acceptable option by the population as a whole. Why do companies need prime agricultural lands just to put up buildings that are factories or similar? They don't. Let them look at other parts of the country, create the infrastructure needed, and go from there. Why is food getting more expensive? Because we're losing the ability to make our own because companies are buying up the land for other things instead of food.
I'm not even talking about what I think of AI or anything else. How much food are we having to import to keep the country fed? A loaf of bread - basic no-name stuff, not artisanal or whatnot - has gone up 25% around me in the last year and 60% compared to just a couple years ago. AI is literally taking food from people just to operate. Move them.
Mindstab Thrull -
hotaru251 sadly, unless they are located in a state that protect that choice...many states have ways that business can FORCE the people to sell their land even if they refuse.Reply
This has been famously done in a lot of stuff in past decades. its messed up but entirely legal ;/ -
Co BIY Numerous data centers close where I live and work. As far as neighbors go they are ok. Quiet and don't create a lot of traffic. As job creators they under perform. Not many jobs but at a higher than average pay level. I'd rather have a datacenter move in than a distribution warehouse. Neither are much to look at.Reply -
beyondlogic Honestly applause to farmers if we keep polluting our fertile lands with concrete and asphalt etc it's just going to cause shortages Ai ain't great if you starve to death lol.Reply -
gschoen Reply
Curious about your post because there are so many people interviewed about their experience living next to data centers who have a negative experience, especially noise. The electric load demand seems to be the crucial factor - only some have massive electric need that necessitate massive cooling operations, as well as backup generation, usually diesel, that introduces pollution. These generators require testing, typically monthly.Co BIY said:Numerous data centers close where I live and work. As far as neighbors go they are ok. Quiet and don't create a lot of traffic. As job creators they under perform. Not many jobs but at a higher than average pay level. I'd rather have a datacenter move in than a distribution warehouse. Neither are much to look at.
The previous data centers, powering the cloud, seem to be good neighbors nobody complained about. The complaints of neighbors of the new breed of data centers seems to justified, as you can hear the noise without being on the property. This is to say nothing of the pollution at self generating centers lacking emission controls.