More than 4,900 data centers are active or under construction, the Farm Bureau reports
Members of the U.S. ag community are raising concerns over construction of data centers and their implications for farmland and rural America.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, for example, on July 24 renewed calls for Governor Greg Abbott to authorize a special legislative session to address this issue.
Diode recently pulled out of an agreement to build a data center near Cedar Creek Lake in Henderson County, but that’s not enough, Commissioner Miller says.
"One withdrawn project doesn't erase the hundreds of data centers already planned or under construction across our state,” he said in a statement. “It doesn't bring back the farmland that's already been lost, reduce the pressure on our electric grid, or replenish the water supplies these facilities threaten."
Many data centers are being built in Texas.
The American Farm Bureau Federation’s analysis shows 580 centers active or under construction in the state out of the 4,925 in the country.
Virginia leads the country with 736 data centers operational or being built.
That’s because Loudoun County, known as Data Center Alley, handles about 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic each day.
In Maryland, the community of Frederick is standing up to a planned data center there.
“I’m okay with data centers in the right place. I’m not okay with them taking prime farmland,” activist Elizabeth Bauer told DW.com.
In June, the University of Illinois released results from a February survey related to sentiment around data centers.
The survey of more than 1,000 people showed rural residents are more concerned than their urban counterparts.
“Rural respondents were also more concerned about the impacts on agricultural land use and electricity costs than urban or suburban respondents,” the survey summary said.
The survey also found rural respondents were “very worried” about how data centers would impact electricity costs.