schmellba99 said:
Burdizzo said:
If Sid Miller cared about protecting farmland he would figure out how to help more farmers and ranchers stay in business. The reason all the solar farms and data centers are buying up the land is because there is no money to be made in farming and ranching.
First rule of real estate is highest and best use.
It's not simply a function of there is no money to be made in farming and ranching.
It is also very much a function of a corproration or equity group having a lot of money and being able to walk up to a landowner and offer them an amount of cash that is extremely hard to turn down, and generally an amount that is worth more than their land is via farming and ranching.
Say you own 500 acres that some data center or developer or whatever outfit wants to buy. You make enough money ranching it to get by fairly comfortably, but generally speaking your entire net worth is wrapped up in whatever the value of the land is. As farm land, that acreage is worth say $1500 an acre. To a developer or a data center or private equity group that land is worth paying say $20,000 an acre for because they will make 10x that amount after they develop it.
You stare at a check for $10,000,000 and it is hard to turn that kind of money down. Especially if you are getting older and maybe don't have kids that want to take over the family business because they are living their own lives.
And even if you did sell it to somebody that wanted to continue to use it for ag purposes - you aren't getting $10MM for that land. You aren't even getting $1MM for that land at $1500/acre.
If this land is next to a 345KV transmission line or better yet a switching station, you are really low at $20K. Some would consider that a steal in this market.
Today, unfortunately, many Americans have good reason to fear that they will be victimized if they are unable to protect themselves. And today, no less than in 1791, the Second Amendment guarantees their right to do so. - Justice Samuel Alito 2022
