Data centers threaten Texas' farmland, echoing similar battles across U.S. rural areas

Texas agriculture is facing off against an increasingly heard-about foe: data centers. Construction of the facilities requires large swaths of cheap, open, flat land, and rural Texas has it in spades. Nearly 250 data centers are slated to be built in the state, reports Jayme Lozano Carver for The Texas Tribune.

The story connects with dozens of others from around the country's rural areas, where communities are facing similar pressure from data center developers. Carver writes that a recent Pew Research Center study  found that 67% of data centers nationwide are in rural areas. The tax revenue promised to local governments by such development is increasingly difficult to pass up for many that are struggling to keep essential services going with a declining tax base.

"Texas agriculture has been an illustrious behemoth for decades, generating more than $963 billion in total economic output and driving nearly $15 billion in exports annually. Texas also has more farmland than any other state — 126 million acres as of 2021," Carver writes. Data center development is adding stress to other issues Texas farmers have faced in recent years, such as rising costs of growing crops, drought, and loss of croplands. 

“They’re building them on our most valuable, most fertile farmland,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told Carver. “Once our farmland is gone and paved over, we’ll never farm it again.”