By Tanya Svec | Estelline
Data centers have been in the headlines lately as South Dakotans speak loudly about how we want our communities to look and what kinds of development we would like to see in our state.
The bills to offer data centers extensive tax breaks to set up shop in our state have been killed. South Dakotans don’t want huge corporations coming in to exploit our land, water, and energy – and we don’t want to give these out-of-state businesses a tax break to do it, either. Hear, hear! I’m proud to see South Dakotans speak up for our shared values.
Why then, I wonder, was a bill to stop massive dairy farms from continuing to infiltrate our state silenced before it even reached committee?
The mega dairy farms who are flooding the state have more in common with data centers than with the small family farms we value in this state.
These dairies, ranging from 7,500 to an astounding 25,000 head of cattle per site, are almost always owned by out of state corporations and function more as manure factories than farms. They come to our state not to make it wealthy or to boost employment, but to suck up our natural resources – our water, our precious farmland and our energy. And the kicker? They get tax incentives from our Governor’s Office of Economic Development to do it.
We said no to data centers, but it’s time to take a closer look at the mega dairy industry that seeks to take advantage of us in the same way.
Leave a Reply