Mervin Raudabaugh is 86 years old and has spent his entire life farming 261 acres in Pennsylvania. When data center developers came knocking with an offer of $60,000 per acre, the total came to $15.7 million.
He turned it down.
Instead, he sold the development rights to a conservation trust for $1.9 million.
The deal, which closed on December 30, 2025, placed permanent easements on the land that restrict it to agricultural use.
The farms can still be sold one day, but only for farming.
No one will ever build on them.
Raudabaugh was clear about why he walked away from nearly $14 million more.
“I was not interested in destroying my farms,” he said.
“It really wasn’t so much the economic end of it.
I just didn’t want to see these two farms destroyed.”
All around him, farmland in the region has been disappearing.
Data centers, warehouses, and housing developments have swallowed property after property.
Neighbors have taken the money.
Raudabaugh watched it happen and decided his land wouldn’t be next.
He gave up $13.8 million so that a piece of Pennsylvania stays exactly the way it is.
“It wasn’t about the economic end of it.
” At 86, the man has zero use for $15 million and total use for his land he loves being left alone