America’s farmers and cattle ranchers are raising red flags about the potential drain on resources that the data-center construction boom poses to rural regions of the farm economy. The agriculture industry is warning that the AI-focused facilities are gobbling up farmland acreage, electricity and water needed to raise livestock and grow crops.
The Wall Street Journal (July 11, 2026) reports that tech companies are investing unprecedented sums of money to finance a construction boom across the U.S. of huge data centers to fuel America’s AI ambitions, largely in rural areas. Data center projects have been touted as a new source of growth for small towns and flyover country.
There are about 5,000 finished or under-construction data centers across the U.S. Farmland is an attractive target for technology companies. Data centers need large amounts of flat land and access to water and energy, the same as farmers do. Tech companies have faced backlash from locals concerned about power usage and the strain on their local grids. Lawmakers in about two dozen states are considering banning or restricting their development.
Farmers fear new data centers, some of which consume power equivalent to that of a midsize city, will drive up their utility bills when America’s farmers are already struggling with higher costs.
But data centers aren’t the only reason farmland is declining in the U.S. Expanding residential development, farmer consolidation and ranch land being converted to hunting grounds in western states have been happening for years. Farming acreage declined by an area about the size of Maine between 2017 and 2022.
Two sidebars on the growth of data centers:
- A group of 96 families in Salem Township, Pa., sold 1,700 acres of land to data-center developer QTS for $586 million.
- Meta has expanded its Northeast Louisiana data-center project to 5 gigawatts of capacity, raising the cost to more than $50 billion!
Classroom discussion questions:
- The Data Center Coalition, a trade group for technology companies constructing the facilities, said : “When it comes to losing farmland, nobody is forcing farmers to sell.” Comment on this industry response.
- Why are famers opposed to rural data centers? Are these fears justified?