Mervin Raudabaugh had a choice. Take $15 million from AI developers, or take $1.9 million from a conservation trust. He took the smaller check.
He has farmed those 261 acres in Pennsylvania for 60 years. Tech companies wanted the land to build a massive data center. They offered over $60,000 an acre to secure the space they need for servers and electrical infrastructure.
Raudabaugh sold his development rights to a land preservation program instead. His fields, wetlands, and woodlands will never be built on. The financial temptation for struggling rural communities is staggering right now. This time, the farmer kept the land.
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