
AI Data Centers, China's Reach, and the Fight for Rural Land
This episode of Rural Route dives into how rural America keeps getting squeezed by outside forces. Host Trent Loos welcomes guest Jay Truitt from Texas to break down a proposed 2,100-acre AI data center in Barber County, Kansas, and why local landowners are pushing back. The two dig into China's growing footprint in U.S. agriculture, education, and meatpacking, including foreign ownership tied to Smithfield and JBS. They also cover a dangerous CO2 pipeline conversion in Nebraska threatening a Colorado family's safety, and close with a hard look at why American grazing land has shrunk from 1.1 billion acres to just 643 million acres in 26 years.







