Farmer Rejects $15M Land Offer
Published: Friday, February 27, 2026
"It is my life. I was not interested in destroying my farms," said Mervin Raudabuagh, 86-year-old Cumberland County, Pa. farmer whose refusal to sell his farm as a data center is sweeping headlines across the nation.
Offered $60,000 per acre for his 261-acre farm, he refused the $15 million dollar payout to preserve at least one American farm caught in the crosshairs of development. Instead, he sold development rights to his farm for just under $2 million to the Lancaster Farmland Trust, a guarantee that his land will never be used for any purpose other than farming.
The land is rife with wildlife and natural beauty and is part of more than 1,300 acres of creek frontage.
"You won't find that anywhere else," Raudabaugh said. "It's a mecca for wildlife, and everything from deer to turtles."
His farm was part of a three-farm package sought by data center backers.
For more than six decades, Raudabaugh far-med the acreages in Silver Spring Twp., building a life and family.
"It was my life. This is a special situation here with my family," he said.
"It breaks my heart to think of what's going to take place here, because only the land that's preserved here is going to be here," Raudabaugh said. "The rest of every square inch is going to get built on.
"The American farm family is definitely in trouble."
Jeff Swinehart of the Lancaster Farmland Trust supports the families who wish to preserve their farms.
"We see from farm families all the time the desire they have for the land to remain in farming and preserve the quality of life for themselves and their families and communities."
Once in a lifetime financial offers are being made to farmland owners for development purposes for energy and data centers, land that will never return to production agriculture, wildlife habitat and open space. Raudabaugh points the finger at these entities in part for driving land costs up and making good, productive soils, inaccessible to another generation. Raudebaugh observed that retention rates of farmers are falling, and costs for equipment are rising, resulting in a situation where the lure of big financial gains becomes attractive.
"Some farms are just not in the position to turn it down," he said.
Another data center also in Cumberland County but in Middlesex Twp. is weighing yet another proposal, the area's largest thus far. The $15 billion campus is proposed for a 700-acre plot of land.
Raudebaugh's neighbors are happy and relieved to know that their landscape will not be shattered with the new construction and the pressure it will bring to the local infrastructure and community.
"I've made a lot of people happy," he said.
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