A Mason County farmer has rejected $26M to join the fight against data centers

A dairy farmer in Mason County, Ky, says her family turned down millions from an unnamed tech company for their land amid growing backlash against AI data centers across the U.S.

According to a local news outlet, WKRC, the company offered Ida Huddleston and her family $26 million for about 1,200 acres of land near Marysville, about half of the property.

Despite the eye-watering amount, about 10 times what the property is worth, Huddleston and her family said no thanks.

“$26 million doesn’t mean anything,” Huddleston’s daughter, Delsia Bare, told the outlet, compared to the farm’s role in feeding the nation.

Bare added,

My grandfather and great-grandfather and a whole bunch of family have all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it. Even raised wheat through the Depression and kept bread lines up in the United States of America when people didn’t have anything else.”

via WKRC

Meanwhile, Huddleston, 82, said she rejected the company’s pitch that the data center would bring economic growth in the area. “I say they’re a liar, and the truth isn’t in them. That’s what I say. It’s a scam.”

AI data center pushback intensifies

Across the U.S., communities are increasingly resisting the rapid expansion of AI data centers, citing concerns over energy use, water consumption, and local quality of life. Outside of Kentucky, residents in Palm Beach County and Summit County have staged protests, pressured local officials, and called for construction moratoriums, arguing that these massive facilities strain power grids, deplete freshwater supplies, and disrupt neighborhoods.

Like the Huddlestons, critics also question whether promised economic benefits, including jobs, actually materialize for local communities. Tech companies and some policymakers defend data centers as essential for AI innovation and economic growth, but grassroots activism has slowed or halted projects in multiple states.

Environmental groups and citizen coalitions contend that the ecological and social costs of AI data centers outweigh their benefits, calling for stronger oversight and greater community involvement.

The friction between corporate expansion and local resistance underscores mounting tensions over the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence.

Bernie Sanders joins the fight

Around the same time that the Huddleston family spoke to the press about their decision to reject the data center buyout, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted a chat with AI model Claude, probing how artificial intelligence collects and uses personal data.

In his post, Sanders wrote, “I spoke to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that information is being used to violate our privacy rights. What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up.”

Claude responded by describing extensive corporate data collection, saying companies gather “browsing history, location data, purchase patterns” to build detailed profiles.

When Sanders pressed Claude on whether meaningful AI regulation is possible, the chatbot initially suggested standard safeguards like consent requirements and transparency.

Sanders countered by pointing to political influence from tech industry money, insisting “It ain’t going to happen soon.” Critics noted that Claude’s answers tended to align with Sanders’ premises — a characteristic of large language models designed to conform to user prompts — but the exchange successfully highlighted Sanders’ concerns about data privacy, corporate power, and the need for stronger AI oversight.