President Donald Trump has appointed country music artist John Rich of the duo Big & Rich as a special envoy for American landowners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Rich says his role is to serve as a voice for farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners by listening to their concerns and helping bring those issues directly to USDA leadership. One topic that’s coming up repeatedly is the rapid expansion of data centers into rural America.
He says, “There are thousands of data centers right now scheduled to be built. Secretary Rollins made a really great comment two days ago in Washington, D.C. She said we need data centers in America. The president has declared them as national security assets. OK, so they’re important that we have them. She said, however, there is a right way to build them, and there’s a wrong way to build them. And I believe she is going to work on a framework around data centers, specifically.”
Rich says many landowners are being approached with lucrative offers to sell or lease farmland for massive data center projects.
“It is maybe far and away the largest topic right now to landowners is, hey, what’s going on with this data center? And again, we have to have them per the president. I mean, a national security asset is a big deal. But we also have landowners. What about them? And I think to her point, there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. And I would be expecting news on that in the very near future,” Rich added.
Rich says he’ll continue traveling the country, meeting with producers and landowners to hear their concerns and advocate for policies that keep American agriculture strong.
