Kathmandu— Rural communities across the United States are confronting a new wave of data center development with lessons learned from decades-long battles against concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), as residents demand the right to say no to projects that threaten water resources, power grids, and local democracy before they become permanent fixtures.

CAFO Parallels and Data Center Rush

Data center proponents tout economic benefits and job creation, echoing the promises made to rural America nearly 40 years ago when CAFOs arrived with assurances of prosperity. By the time opposition organized, right-to-farm laws and state pre-emption had already stripped communities of their ability to resist, leaving manure lagoons to pollute groundwater and foul air, shortening lifespans for farmworkers and neighbors.

Today, rural communities are asking critical questions before data center projects are locked into place. Texas alone has 248 proposed data center projects despite 56% of Texans opposing them, and 67% of the 1,500+ proposed data centers are in rural areas. Unlike the CAFO era, communities are mobilizing early, with protests, public hearings, and local bans emerging as key tools of resistance.

Local Resistance and Legislative Battles

In November 2025, 800 residents filled a board meeting in Howell Township, Michigan, to oppose a Meta-linked data center project, forcing the developer to withdraw. Similarly, San Marcos, Texas, rejected a $1.5 billion campus after nine hours of public comment and became the first Texas city to ban data centers through zoning code.

Texas counties face legal challenges when attempting to regulate data centers, as seen in Hill County, which passed a moratorium only to rescind it after a $100 million lawsuit. Right-wing organizations like ALEC are pushing model legislation to undermine local bans, with Google, Nvidia, and Meta sponsoring events at their meetings to advance this agenda.

Racial and Economic Disparities in Project Placement

Data centers are disproportionately sited in counties with higher white populations, contrasting with CAFOs that cluster in predominantly Black and minority communities. In North Carolina, CAFOs are concentrated in the Black Belt coastal plain, where Duplin County holds over 500 permits and 2.2 million hogs in a county where nearly half the population is people of color.

Data centers, however, are located in counties whiter than the state average, including wealthy Piedmont towns and counties like Wake and Mecklenburg. Edgecombe County, which successfully blocked a CAFO in 1995, recently opposed a $19 billion data center project, leading to its withdrawal and a two-year moratorium.

Power and Water Concerns

Rural electric cooperatives, established to serve areas investor-owned utilities ignored, face new challenges as data centers seek to secure power. While data centers offer predictable demand that could lower rates for members, they also shift bargaining power and threaten universal service obligations.

Communities are demanding transparency on water usage, with questions about closed-loop cooling systems, aquifer ownership, and penalties for overuse. Power-related concerns include whether data centers will be subject to curtailment during emergencies, whether residential rates will be protected, and whether cooperative members will face restrictions on renewable energy projects.

As data centers arrive in rural communities, the question of whether residents can say no remains unresolved, with legal battles, legislative efforts, and grassroots organizing shaping the outcome.

(With inputs from CounterPunch)

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Originally published on abcnews.com.np.