In Mason County, Kentucky, 82-year-old farmer Ida Huddleston and her daughter Delsia Bare have turned down a combined $26 million offer from a developer linked to a major tech company that wants to build a massive data center on their land.
The family owns hundreds of acres of farmland near Maysville, where land typically sells for a fraction of what they were offered—making the deal roughly 10x above market value.
Despite promises of jobs and economic growth, they refused. For them, the land is generational—worked by their family for decades and still producing food.
“$26 million doesn’t mean anything… I’ll stay and hold and feed a nation,” Bare said, while Huddleston added simply: “I’m staying put.”
The proposed data center could still move forward using nearby land, but their decision has struck a chord—highlighting a growing tension across rural America as Big Tech expands into farmland and families weigh profit against preservation.
The family owns hundreds of acres of farmland near Maysville, where land typically sells for a fraction of what they were offered—making the deal roughly 10x above market value.
Despite promises of jobs and economic growth, they refused. For them, the land is generational—worked by their family for decades and still producing food.
“$26 million doesn’t mean anything… I’ll stay and hold and feed a nation,” Bare said, while Huddleston added simply: “I’m staying put.”
The proposed data center could still move forward using nearby land, but their decision has struck a chord—highlighting a growing tension across rural America as Big Tech expands into farmland and families weigh profit against preservation.
In Mason County, Kentucky, 82-year-old farmer Ida Huddleston and her daughter Delsia Bare have turned down a combined $26 million offer from a developer linked to a major tech company that wants to build a massive data center on their land.
The family owns hundreds of acres of farmland near Maysville, where land typically sells for a fraction of what they were offered—making the deal roughly 10x above market value.
Despite promises of jobs and economic growth, they refused. For them, the land is generational—worked by their family for decades and still producing food.
“$26 million doesn’t mean anything… I’ll stay and hold and feed a nation,” Bare said, while Huddleston added simply: “I’m staying put.”
The proposed data center could still move forward using nearby land, but their decision has struck a chord—highlighting a growing tension across rural America as Big Tech expands into farmland and families weigh profit against preservation.
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