Data centers to power Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being built at a furious rate around the United States. In the first half of 2026 alone, $6 billion was invested in future data center land acquisitions, according to commercial real estate firm Avison Young, as reported by CNBC.
Developers are targeting agricultural land because it is often cheaper, flatter, and has fewer residents to oppose construction. In 2025 alone, Texas lost 2,000 farms -- the highest number in any state -- as data centers expanded.
At a time when farmland is already threatened by development, and our nation’s topsoil is eroding due to extractive farming practices, this massive conversion accelerates the removal of productive land and soil from the food system. This raises long-term concerns about domestic food sovereignty and our ability to feed a growing population.
A Call to Discernment and Stewardship
The PC(USA) has increasingly recognized that infrastructure decisions are moral decisions. In "The Algorithm and the Almighty," we called to apply discernment to new technologies, asking not just can we build this, but should we?
The "Algorithm" also instructs the church to advocate for environmental safeguards and to use AI sparingly due to its impact on creation, that our daily choices have real impacts on land, water, and energy.
The Hidden Costs
The rapid growth of hyperscale data centers is reshaping rural land use, water access, energy systems, and local economies. These changes affect whether communities can remain on the land, produce food, and sustain livelihoods. Consequently, decisions about data centers belong squarely within conversations about hunger, poverty, ecological health, and justice.
When a community loses its farmland to a data server farm, it loses its capacity for self-sufficiency. As the PC(USA) has noted, threats to rural self-sufficiency are existential concerns for rural areas.
Taking Faithful Action
There are many reasons to push back against unchecked data center expansion. Don’t buy the hype that AI, as it's being shaped now by a tiny number of giant corporations, is inevitable. We have power and impact when we work together. If you aren’t already involved in the opposition, consider taking these steps:
- Learn What is Proposed: Investigate land, zoning, utilities, permits, subsidies, and hearings in your community or state.
- Stand in Solidarity: Stand with farmers, farmworkers, rural residents, Indigenous nations, environmental justice groups, labor, and local advocates.
- Demand Safeguards: Support democratic oversight, meaningful consent, and accountability before any infrastructure is approved.
- Practice Discernment: Ask your church and other institutions you’re involved in to reduce unnecessary AI use and to consider the environmental impacts of digital systems.
- Advocate for a Pause: Join or support efforts seeking a slowdown or moratorium on frontier AI and AI-chip expansion until systems are proven safe, accountable, and socially just.
Finally, inform yourself and share this great guide from Green America called, "10 Steps to Ensure an AI Data Center Benefits Your Community."
To dive deeper into the intersection of faith, technology, and food systems, download "U.S. Hunger Concerns: The Hidden Costs of AI Infrastructure," a PowerPoint presentation shared with the PHP Advisory Committee last week. [Here is the link to the PDF]
Learn more and donate to the Hunger Program via our website at pcusa.org/hunger.
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