Kentucky Farmers Reject $26M Data Center Offer

In northern Kentucky, an 82-year-old farmer and her daughter have rejected a $26 million offer from an unnamed technology company to convert portions of their generational farmland into a data center, prioritizing the land's role in food production over financial gain.

Ida Huddleston and Delsia Bare own about 1,200 acres outside Maysville in Mason County. The offer, received in April 2023, targeted roughly half the property: approximately $4.26 million for Huddleston's 71 acres and more than $22 million for Bare's 463 acres. Local farmland values average around $6,000 per acre, making the proposal equivalent to about 10 times the market rate. The family declined, citing deep historical ties to the property, which has supported them for generations.

Bare emphasized the land's enduring value in an interview with local reporters. "If it's my way, I'll stay and hold and feed a nation," she said. "26 million doesn't mean anything." She described how her grandfather and great-grandfather raised wheat on the farm during the Great Depression, contributing to bread lines across the United States when food was scarce. "As long as I'm on this land, as long as it's feeding me, as long as...