Hi Reader,

I’ve been thinking a lot about farming these past couple weeks.

The more we look at where data center projects are going, the harder it is to separate the build-out from a much longer history of extraction from rural places.

That history begins with plantations.

Plantation agriculture turned huge swaths of land toward the production of commodities and wealth for distant markets, relying on enslaved labor and extracting tremendous value from the land.

After slavery was abolished, those industries changed, but underlying economic pattern did not.

Oil and petrochemical development brought another wave of industrial investment to rural communities, along with promises of jobs and enormous demands on land, water, and other local resources.

Now, many of those same places are becoming the sites of the infrastructure powering the AI boom—often with little public notice and before communities have a meaningful opportunity to weigh in.

Communities that have already lived through generations of extraction are being forced, once again, to give up local resources for an industry generating enormous wealth elsewhere.

And this newest boom is colliding with agriculture that still exists there today.

Data centers compete for land and water, place new demands on the electric grid, and can contribute to rising land and energy costs.

For small and medium-sized farms already operating on thin margins, those are make or break issues.

That makes the fight over data centers a food systems and farming issue, too.

This week, we’re highlighting some of the farmers and rural communities in the middle of these fights, and looking at what the history of these places can tell us about the boom happening now.

​Click here to view this email in your browser.

This bi-weekly newsletter is a new project from Halt the Harm Network. For more regular updates and meetups on data center organizing, request access to the Stop Bad Data Centers group inside the HHN community space.

What We're Following

From Sugarcane to Data Centers: Building Solidarities Across Infrastructures

If you’re interested in learning more about the historical connection between plantation agriculture and data center development, check out this article by Dr. Jen Liu. In it, Dr. Liu chronologies the transitions between plantation agriculture and industrial development. But these developments were not met without resistance—from uprisings for liberation by enslaved people to push back on data center build-out.

If you've read all the fact sheets and reports you can stand, this article is a welcome break.

And if you really, really need a break, check out Dr. Liu’s zine Ghosts in the Cloud: A Southern Gothic Approach to Studying AI Infrastructure, cowritten with Sheila Tahir.

Op-ed: AI Data Centers Are a Threat to Local Food Systems

Writing for Civil Eats, Anthony Nicome looks at what’s happening in places like Mason County, Kentucky, where farmers are fighting a proposed hyperscale project that could affect thousands of acres of productive farmland. The article connects those local fights to a bigger question: What happens to food access, public health, and rural communities when agricultural land is converted into industrial infrastructure?

Nicome calls for cumulative impact assessments, stronger community oversight, and protections that put farmland and local food-producing spaces off-limits to data center development.

​Read the op-ed here.​

The AI Data Center Boom Is Coming for Farmers

Small and midsized family farms are already being squeezed by Big Ag. Now, Food & Water Watch warns that Big Tech could make it even harder for them to survive.

Developers are offering inflated prices for farmland, pursuing rezoning, and targeting unincorporated rural areas where projects may face less public scrutiny. The result is more pressure on land prices, water supplies, air quality, and the already-thin margins farmers depend on.

But communities are fighting back and winning. Residents have helped stop or restrict projects on agricultural land in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, and Iowa.

​Read the article here.​

How Data Centers Are Eating Up Rural Texas

Texas farmers are already dealing with drought, rising temperatures, corporate consolidation, and the loss of agricultural land. A new investigation from The Austin Chronicle shows how the data center boom is adding even more pressure.

Data centers used an estimated 25 billion gallons of water in Texas in 2025, and that number could reach 161 billion gallons by 2030. Meanwhile, rural communities are watching farmland and water rights shift toward industrial use, often with tax breaks for developers and few long-term local jobs in return.

The article follows farmers and residents organizing in places like Uhland and Caldwell County, where multiple massive campuses are planned. The Texas Farmers Union is calling for an immediate halt to new construction until the state adopts stronger protections for public water and power—and ends data center tax subsidies.

​Read the investigation here.​

Upcoming Events

Tracking the Data Center Industry: Insights from Southwestern Pennsylvania

FracTracker Alliance worked with four Pittsburgh-area students and recent graduates to investigate 12 proposed data centers across Southwestern Pennsylvania. The team reviewed public records, permits, zoning rules, and community impacts.

Join this webinar for updates on four major projects and lessons about behind-the-meter power, community organizing, moratoriums, and transparency.

​RSVP here.​

Event Recap

All event replays can be found in the Recordings Space in the HHN Network.​

What Do AI and Tech Have to Do With Data Centers? Presented by MediaJustice

Understanding the connection between AI and data centers is key to understanding why hyperscale data centers are being built with such damaging impacts on people and the planet.

This interactive workshop shares information on the tech industry’s agenda in building hyperscale data centers, including how the rise of AI is directly connected to the rapid expansion of data centers and how communities across the country are fighting back.

​Watch the replay here.​

We Want Your Input on the Stop Bad Data Centers Gateway Webinars

Nearly 500 people joined our latest Stop Bad Data Centers Gateway webinar series to explore tools for influencing projects—from land acquisition and utility connections to permitting, financing, and oversight. Participants also contributed more than 40 resources, which we’re using to update the Gateway toolboxes.

Now we want to hear from you. Take our four-question survey to tell us what helped and what support you need next, or email Tamara@halttheharm.net.

Closing Comment

When we talk about food systems, we’re talking about the relationships that make life possible. After this week’s round of resources, it’s clearer than ever that those relationships reverberate throughout our lives and communities, including the ways that data center development might some day impact what we eat.

Those networks of relationships are massive, and like ripples in water, seem to touch everything. If it feels overwhelming, try grounding yourself in the generational, ancestral struggles for freedom and thriving. We've always been here.

More soon,

Elissa

P.S. We’re building a referral system for new network members! If you host or participate in a statewide or regional coalition call, listserv, working group, or other ongoing space for people organizing around data centers, we want to know!

Our goal is to build a system for connecting people to those already organizing in their area.

Please email me directly with details and how to get in touch: elissa@halttheharm.net​

Elissa Yoder ​Organizing Fellow, Halt the Harm Network ​View Profile​

​