As society evolves over time, things must change. In the recent decade, an increase for warehouses, factories, housing complexes and data centers has been very prominent. A hot spot for land developers has always been the midwest, especially Indiana, due to its flat and cheap land.
Indiana has always had a big hand in the Nation’s agriculture as it is made up of around 65% of farmland. In the years from 2010 to 2022, Indiana lost around 350k acres of farmland.
The rezoning of farmland has upset some farmers in the state. For example, last year in Fortville, a massive Planned Unit Development center was going to be constructed at the intersection of N 400 W and N 500 W by Surge Development. The PUD program planned to construct a series of data centers that housed state-of-the-art technology that would power many digital programs such as AI search engines.
This decision was met with backlash as the PUD center would take up 700 acres of local farmland. Farmers felt threatened as they were being pushed out of their home. As more and more farmers sold their property to these big land developers, it seemed to many that there was no winning as a small time farmer.
During all the commotion and controversy a group of farmers decided to do something. All over N 400 W and N 500 W protest signs sprung up like weeds. The signs read “Keep Indiana farmers safe” and “Say NO to data centers.” The farmers also made matters political with dozens of complaints to the city about the changes.
After a year of protest and discourse the PUD center was officially abandoned by the city. This marked a huge win for local farmers, but it does not mean that their worries are completely over. Surge Development claimed that the project had only been put on hold and was not fully dead.
