America’s Data Centers Are Devouring Our Farms—And Rural Communities Are Paying the Price

How the Spread of Data Centers Is Forcing America’s Farmers Off the Land—And Turning Rural Communities Into Digital Sacrifice Zones

When Progress Means Sacrifice—But Always Someone Else’s

In rural America, there’s a phrase few city dwellers have ever heard: “sacrifice zone.” It’s the term farmers and ranchers use for communities and landscapes written off for the sake of “progress”—where livelihoods, legacies, and landscapes are surrendered to the demands of a growing, digital world. And nowhere is this more evident than in the explosive spread of data centers across once-quiet farmland.