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By Thomas Westerholm
Life & Trends Reporter
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A Kentucky woman and her daughter turned down an offer for $26 million from an unnamed artificial intelligence (AI) company to build a data center on their land.
Ida Huddleston, an 82-year-old resident of Northern Kentucky, and her daughter Delsia Bare told the tech company they weren't interested in selling roughly half of the 1,200 acres they own, according to Local12.
'Stupid old farmers'
Huddleston told the station the AI company was a "liar" and, "the truth isn't in them," when they said the plan would bring jobs to the area.
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"They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not,” Huddleston told Local12
“We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water—and that poison. Well, we know we’ve had it.”
According to Bare, the family has farming on the land for generations.
"Stay and hold and feed a nation,” Bare told the station.
“$26 million doesn’t mean anything.”
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According to Bare, other neighbors did sell, which means the data center could still be built.
Data Centers
Data centers have been shown to have major environmental impacts.
The centers cause noise and light pollution, humming at levels that can exceed 90 decibels. They also require all-night lighting, which can have impacts on both circadian rhythms in human neighbors as well as major impacts on wildlife.
Data centers also emit air pollutants including methane and fine particulate matter. A 2025 model showed that in 2030, data centers could contribute to more than 600,000 cases of asthma.
Perhaps most notably, data centers use a lot of fresh water—from three to seven million gallons for the hyperscale centers, according to a September study that said the centers contribute to water insecurity and poor hygiene in affected regions.
Two data centers in San Antonio have used more than 463 gallons of water in the last two years.
In 2024, a data center in one Iowa suburb was responsible for one-fifth of the town's water usage.
'Money clearly can't buy everything'
Commentators on a TikTok video outlining the situation lauded the family's decision not to sell.
"Why on farmland," one wondered, "There's plenty of empty office building and lots in every city."
Meanwhile, "We don’t need AI, we need less AI," a critic declared.
"We needs ALL of the farms. Leave families alone, let them live their lives without people bothering them for their land."
Elsewhere, "AI is such a scam at this point," an individual shared.
"It’s so inefficient that you have to convert farmland and create imbalance with nature to justify its existence."
Finally, one contributor felt a lot of respect for the family: "I like her, she standing on something that means something to her.
"Money clearly can’t buy everything."
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