Ohio’s Farms Are Not Sacrifice Zones for AI Data Centers
Right now, Ohio’s leaders are playing a dangerous game with resources we can never replace. You can’t "innovate" your way out of a drained aquifer. You can’t "disrupt" your way back into prime farmland once it’s been paved over. Yet, that is exactly the gamble being taken as politicians rush to roll out the red carpet for massive AI data centers across our state.
They talk about "growth" and "the future,” but they are not telling people about the fine print. These facilities are incredibly thirsty and will be consuming millions of gallons of water and enough electricity to power entire cities. Rural Ohioans will be the one that deal with the fallout. With tens of billions in new AI Center development planned by 2030, every Ohioan should be asking: who is actually winning here? Because it isn't our farm families.
This isn’t just a policy debate for me; it’s my history. I grew up between Shade, Ohio in rural Athens County and Cleveland, moving wherever my parents could find work. My family eventually lost the farm. So, when I hear developers and lobbyists talk about "turning Ohio into an AI infrastructure hub," I don't hear a golden opportunity. I hear a warning. I hear that the people who work this land are, once again, being asked to step aside so a handful of powerful interests can pad their bottom line.
The scale of what is being pushed through is staggering. We’re seeing projects like the SoftBank and AEP partnership, which is a massive 10-gigawatt campus that would rank among the largest in the world. This is a resource-heavy industrial takeover that will fundamentally change our rural and farm communities.
Across Ohio, people are already fighting back. Nearly 20 municipalities have already looked at moratoriums because they see the math. They know these facilities can suck millions of gallons of fresh water a day just to keep their servers cool. In central Ohio, industrial water demand is projected to skyrocket 120% by 2050, right alongside a surge in agricultural demand.
We are on a collision course. If you’re a farmer and a drought hits, your ability to keep your livestock alive and your crops in the ground shouldn't be a secondary concern to a tech giant’s cooling system to your leaders. In rural Ohio, water isn't a luxury. It’s survival, and the difference between holding onto your land or losing it.
The strain on our power grid is just as alarming. AEP Ohio has already contracted enough data center power through 2035 to nearly double its current peak demand. I want to know: who is going to pay for that massive grid expansion? If history is any guide, it won’t be the tech billionaires; it’ll be ordinary Ohio families through higher utility bills.
Even the Ohio House has admitted—by forming a Data Center Study Commission—that the state has let this buildout move way faster than public accountability. We should not be handing out tax breaks and open-ended political favors to projects that drain our water and strain our grid.
Every single project must face full public scrutiny. We need total transparency on water use, electricity demand, and the long-term impact on our aquifers. Tech companies should be required to pay the full cost of the infrastructure they demand. We have to be brave enough to say that some of these projects are simply too big and too extractive to belong near our farms at all. A project can be profitable for a Silicon Valley company and still be a disaster for Ohio. Our rural communities have already carried more than their fair share of burden. They shouldn’t be asked to sacrifice their future so Big Tech can claim more land and more power.
Our water is not theirs to drain. Our farmland is not theirs to consume. Rural Ohio is not a sacrifice zone.
