One Kentucky-based farmer told a group of Artificial Intelligence data center developers to "kick rocks and don't come back." After being offered millions for their land.
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Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston, had plans to sell their plots on their farm in Kentucky to an unidentified A.I. company. That all changed when they learned what their plans were for the property. They told the company to scram because they were no longer interested.
Farm Owners Decline to Sell Land Plots to AI Data Center
Bare said that part of the reason that she declined the offer to sell her plot to the AI company was for religious purposes.
"What I believe in is something called Jesus Christ. And he said to occupy, wherever you're standing, you occupy until he returns," she said to theWall Street Journal."If I step off of this piece of property and it becomes something for an AI hub, then I have failed to occupy. And I can be held accountable for that on the Judgment hour."
But Bare and her mother have taken their action against the unknown data company a step further. They pursued legal action against the company. One of which forced them to sue their neighbors. Of course, it has caused some tension between the mother-daughter duo and their Maysville, Kentucky contemporaries. Namely because the lawsuits have halted the sale of the land. And in turn have stopped the residents from receiving the "tens of millions of dollars" they expected to receive upon the completion of the deal. This has expectedly sent those sellers into an uproar.
"Now everybody's mad at me," Bare added.
AI data centers are dependent on properties like farms because of the massive amounts of land use, power, and resources. AI data centers need vast, cheap land, massive cooling water, and enormous electricity to operate. This draws them to rural farming areas. Where they buy farm land, compete for local water, and tap into rural power. But it is sometimes viewed as unethical because it pulls resources from the members of the community where the data center is based.
