On Friday, April 24, over six dozen farmer-members, elected officials, community partners, and FFA students met to talk agriculture, legislation, and regulations. Thank you to Robinette’s for hosting the Kent County Farm Bureau Legislative Breakfast again—and for making their famous donuts just for us.
There were three main topics of conversation: the Farm Bill, deer herd management, and data centers. Today, we’ll focus on the data center conversation.
Michigan currently has 22 small data centers. The data centers that are the center of the current political storm are mega data centers under consideration in Gaines, Solon, and Lowell Townships, and near Sparta. Besides concerns about electric grid and water usage, and noise pollution, elected officials and farmers are concerned about the loss of agricultural land. All of the mega centers are looking at hundreds of acres of farmland that would have to be rezoned by township commissions.
Sen. Thomas Albert noted that Michigan has lost over 600,000 acres of farmland in 20 years. The proposed Kent County data centers alone could mean over 800 acres of farmland lost within a few years.
While Albert acknowledged that, “They’re coming,” he advised residents to pressure their township commissions to rescind tax breaks they may have been voted in and make Microsoft and other companies “compete in the marketplace like everyone else.” He also said, “Zoning is so important. You can put in stipulations around industrial and solar farms. We need to make sure we have local control.”
Rep. Luke Meerman was positive about the value data centers will bring, and looks to their huge energy needs to “help us demonstrate that green energy won’t work, so they will help us get out of the green energy plan sooner.”
The Michigan Farm Bureau District 4 Director, Jeff Sandborn, sees mega data centers as ultimately hopeful. He said, “These huge data centers won’t just be aimed at what we use AI for now, but for things like curing cancer.” He noted that other countries are building mega data centers that do not require water cooling, so new technology may address some of our current concerns.
Township meetings have already seen record attendance as residents make their voices heard, and it looks like this will be the case for years to come.