A grassroots revolt against data centers spreading through rural agricultural communities appears to have picked up a new high-profile ally: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy recently criticized the data center boom’s impact on farmlands, airing a position that aligns him with coalitions of farmers and MAHA moms nationwide fighting the projects in their own communities. But his concerns are at odds with President Donald Trump’s push to boost artificial intelligence infrastructure and meet its rising energy demands.
“I think our priority at this point has to be food production and preserving farmland, and we’re seeing threats from data centers,” Kennedy said last month to The Midwesterner, a conservative, Michigan-based outlet, pointing also to “government subsidy programs that are distorting the marketplace and making it difficult for farmers to actually farm their land … by giving incentive to energy developers.”
Opposition movements are cropping up in deeply red, rural areas, from Texas to West Virginia. They worry the facilities will drain local water, spike electricity costs, degrade lands and leave few lasting jobs. Polling shows higher energy bills have made data centers unpopular to a majority of U.S. voters.
