Farmer turns down $15.7 million offer from data center developers: ‘It breaks my heart … the rest of every square inch is going to get built on’

Preserving farmland for future generations was so important to a farmer in Pennsylvania that he rejected a deal worth more than $15 million from data center developers, according to Fox 43.

Instead, 86-year-old Mervin Raudabaugh sold development rights for less than $2 million to a trust that will preserve his land.

“I was not interested in destroying my farms,” he told the TV station on Monday. “That was the bottom line. It really wasn’t so much the economic end of it. I just didn’t want to see these two farms destroyed.”

After farming for more than six decades in Silver Spring Township, which is outside Harrisburg, Raudabaugh recalled being offered $60,000 per acre by the developers for his 261 acres—amounting to $15.7 million.

But in December, the Lancaster Farmland Trust bought the development rights for just under $2 million, guaranteeing that Raudabaugh’s land will only be used for farming.

“We see from many farm families their desire to ensure that that farm remains a farm forever and that it contributes to the local community and that local quality of life,” Jeff Swinehart, chief operating officer for Landcaster Farmland Trust, told Fox 43.

Raudabaugh described his land as a mecca for wildlife and expressed concern about the impact of a separate data center being constructed in nearby Middlesex Township.

He also acknowledged that other families can’t pass up a similar opportunity to cash in, especially as the data center frenzy drives land prices higher while the cost of farming goes up.

“It breaks my heart to think of what’s going to take place here, because only the land that’s preserved here is going to be here,” Raudabaugh said. “The rest of every square inch is going to get built on. The American farm family is definitely in trouble.”

In fact, financial conditions in the agriculture economy are flashing more signs of strain as farmers’ costs remain high while prices for their crops stay low.

Several factors have spiked costs recently. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made key imports more expensive; Russia’s war on Ukraine boosted fertilizer prices; and the Federal Reserve’s earlier round of rate hikes lifted borrowing costs. On the demand side, Trump’s trade war essentially halted Chinese orders for U.S. soybeans until late last year.

Separate data have shown that U.S. farm bankruptcies soared last year, and the National Corn Growers Association raised alarms over the summer about “the economic crisis hitting rural America.”

Meanwhile, a backlash again data center construction is gaining momentum, as local residents sound the alarm about massive amounts of electricity, water, and land the developments are consuming.

Angry residents are filling up town hall meetings to push back, with more proposals to build data centers being defeated.

“Would you want this built in your backyard?” Larry Shank asked supervisors in Pennsylvania’s East Vincent Township recently, according to the Associated Press. “Because that’s where it’s literally going, is in my backyard.”

Jason Ma is the weekend editor at Fortune, where he covers markets, the economy, finance, and housing.

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