Farmland / The Land Trust

Would you turn down $15 million—or even $26 million, or $35,000 per acre—in a single day? There are those who do, flatly saying "No" without hesitation.

Mervin Raudabaugh (86, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania)

Developers wanting to build a data center on his 261-acre farm offered a total of $15.7 million—at a rate of $60,000 per acre. He rejected the offer. Instead, he transferred his land rights to the Lancaster Farmland Trust for less than $2 million; the land is now permanently restricted to agricultural use.

Ida Huddleston & Delsia Bare (Mason County, Kentucky)

They turned down a $26 million offer from an unnamed Fortune 100 AI company for half of their 1,200-acre family farm. While there is no word yet on them transferring the land to a trust, they remain firm in their stance not to sell. "You can't put a price on the land; we will farm it and feed the nation," they said. They are concerned about the data center's impact regarding water, electricity, and the environment.

Dr. Tim Grosser (Mason County, Kentucky; with his son, Andy)

He received offers of up to $35,000 per acre—more than four times the market value—but refused. When asked to name his own price, he replied, "Money can't buy happiness."

Hal Manier

He took a major step to safeguard the future of the land—owned by his family since 1919—that he knows intimately, down to the last stone. He refused to let the land become a shopping mall or be paved over with asphalt. Forgoing a financial value of millions of dollars, he transferred his land to The Land Trust for Tennessee in 2018 for its preservation. He chose to be someone who "allows the land to own itself, rather than owning the land."