(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Farmer Explains Turning Down $15M From Data Center Developers [1] ["Rachael O'Connor", 'See More Of Our Trusted Coverage When You Search.', 'Prefer Newsweek On Google', 'To See More Of Our Trusted Coverage When You Search.'] Date: 2026-09 An elderly farmer turned down millions of dollars offered to him by developers which would have seen his family farm "destroyed" and turned into data centers. Mervin Raudabaugh, 86, from Cumberland County in Pennsylvania, declined an offer of more than $15 million from developers, who wanted to buy the land he had farmed on for decades. Raudabaugh spoke to Fox43 News where he explained he had farmed for 70 years, much of it on the 261 acres of Silver Spring Township land. And when, last year, developers for data centers wanted to buy each acre for $60,000 each, he turned them down. Read More on Life "I was not interested in destroying my farms. That was the bottom line," he said, adding that the economic aspect wasn't as important to him as keeping the farm going. Instead, he sold land to the Lancaster Farmland Trust for under $2 million—to ensure the farm's legacy would continue, and would never be used for any purpose other than farming. Worrying about the future cost of family farms, with rising costs of equipment and large-scale developers' offers driving up the price of land, Raduabaugh predicted that, in the future, "only the land that's preserved here is going to be here." "The rest of it, every square inch, is going to be built on. The American farm family is definitely in trouble," he said. ... American farmers face escalating challenges, from extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and wildfires, to volatility in global trade. These pressures have threatened the financial stability of farm operations, rural communities, and the nation’s food supply, and in November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that farmers hit by natural disasters would benefit from a new $16 billion funding package. In January, U.S. cattle farmers voiced concerns about the tariff war escalation between the U.S. and China, as Beijing brought in higher tariffs on American beef imports after President Donald Trump imposed a 35 percent duty on Chinese imports as part of his so-called Liberation Day tariffs, on top of other tariffs already imposed against China. The United States Cattlemen’s Association told Newsweek at the time: "Tariff battles—especially when they’re volatile and inconsistent—create uncertainty that makes it harder for ranchers to plan, invest, and pass their operations to the next generation." These new tariffs mean that American cattle farmers face higher costs and a more limited market, at a time when tariffs earlier this year were already increasing financial pressure and uncertainty. In December 2024, a government report warned that the electricity use by data centers in the U.S. could triple by 2028. A study by the Department of Energy, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, estimates that data center energy use tripled over the past decade and is expected to either double or triple again by 2028. Data centers consumed about 4.4 percent of all the electricity produced in the country in 2023, the study found, and they are expected to consume approximately 6.7 to 12 percent of total electricity by 2028. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.newsweek.com/farmer-explains-turning-down-millions-data-center-developers-11540045 Published and (C) by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailyyonder/