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An 86-year-old American farmer turned down $26 million from a data centre developer saying he is not interested in “destroying my farm”.
Mervin Raudabaugh said he would rather preserve his land than sell it off to the highest bidder, he told his local television station, Fox 43.
The unnamed developeroffered the Pennsylvania farmer $100,000 per acre for his two farms totalling 261 acres. They also approached three of his neighbours about purchasing their land.
Raudabaugh said farming was his life and he didn’t want to see the two farms destroyed.
“That was the bottom line. It really wasn’t so much the economic end of it.”
Instead of banking the windfall, Raudabaugh sold the land for $12,000 per acre, or about $3.1m to Lancaster Farmland Trust, a group that works to guarantee permanent protection and continued stewardship of farmland if sold again.
Mervin Raudabaugh's farmland in red which has been preserved for in perpetutity as farmland. Photo / Silver Spring Township Facebook
He now wonders whether ,he family-owned farm is still possible in the modern age.
He said with machinery becoming more expensive many farmers were forced to sell.
In January, the New York Times reported that nearly every major crop in the United States was selling for less than what it costs to produce.
Luckily, Raudabaugh was in a position to preserve his farm.
Raudabaugh told Lancaster Farming the farm near Silver Spring Township was full of memories, saying he was in the milking shed when “my mother died in my arms”.
“I’ve had a wonderful life on this farm,” he said. “I’ve often thought, ‘There’s nothing on God’s green earth [better] than a well-managed productive farm.’ It’s priceless.”
Part of the reason this was possible was because of a referendum passed in 2013 creating a land preservation fund. This reserves a small portion of the town’s income tax to go towards conserving farmland, forests and open spaces.
This money goes towards covering the costs of surveys and legal work so farmers can transfer their land to organisations like Lancaster Farmland Trust. The average cost to each household is around $200 a year.
“I think these two farms should have a future for a farm family that will hopefully buy them in the future and love the land like I have,” Raudabaugh told Lancaster Farming, holding back tears.
Raudabaugh has put the farm into the trust but still lives and works the farm.
“I hope to hang on a little here yet. There’s an old saying: ‘If you love what you do you’ll never work another day in your life.’
