NEWTON TWP. \u2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity called for protecting Pennsylvania farmland from data center development Thursday while hosting an agriculture roundtable in Lackawanna County.<\/p>\n
Joined by local farmers and GOP elected officials at Eckel Farms in Newton Twp., Garrity, the state treasurer running an underdog campaign against incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, addressed artificial intelligence data centers in the county that\u2019s become a hotbed for proposals to build them and related infrastructure. Those proposals in Archbald and elsewhere have fueled an unprecedented bipartisan opposition movement locally and made the data center issue particularly politically potent here.<\/p>\n
![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785529765_34_STT-L-GARRITY-0801-01.jpg\")
Pennsylvania Treasurer and candiate for governor Stacy Garrity listens to Keith Eckel, owner of Eckel Farms, during a roundtable discussion on agricultural topics at Eckel\u2019s farm in Newton Twp. Thursday, July 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
Garrity\u2019s event in Newton Twp. came after a developer recently purchased hundreds of acres<\/a> of conservation and agricultural land in neighboring Ransom Twp. for potential data center development. Mudiita Land Venture LLC, a Carbon County firm with a parent company in New Jersey, spent $2.4 million on 528.6 acres south of Ransom Road and west of South Keyser Avenue. A now-deleted website for an affiliated company previously advertised the land for a sprawling data center campus, though current plans for the land are unclear.<\/p>\n Other developers have also proposed data centers along Newton Road in both Newton and Ransom townships.<\/p>\n Garrity, who\u2019s called for a pause on data center development<\/a>, said Thursday there are more appropriate places to build them than on agricultural land.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s concerning is that we have so many brownfield sites, we have so many industrial sites that have infrastructure that would be \u2026 appropriate (for data centers), but we need to make sure ratepayers are protected, communities are protected, and there\u2019s a lot of common-sense ways to do that,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I hate to see our precious farmland given up for data centers because we do have so many other available areas and we already have 400,000 I think acres that\u2019s foreign owned, so we really need to do everything we can to preserve our farmland.\u201d<\/p>\n A Garrity administration would pause future development so local communities can understand the impact of data centers, give local residents \u201cfinal say\u201d over such development and prioritize brownfields for potential development to limit problems in neighborhoods, among other steps, per a list of policy initiatives her campaign provided.<\/p>\n The local event came as Garrity works to narrow the gap between her and Shapiro reflected in statewide polling. A Quinnipiac University poll<\/a> released in mid-July, for example, showed Shapiro leading Garrity 53% to 40% in the governor\u2019s race. That\u2019s slightly closer than in February, when Quinnipiac\u2019s poll showed the incumbent Democrat up 55% to 37%.<\/p>\n The July Quinnipiac poll also notes 74% of voters say they would oppose building an AI data center in their community, up from 68% in February, suggesting the anti-data center movement is gaining momentum here and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Garrity elaborated on the need to safeguard farmland from data center development after Republican Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, who\u2019d earlier touted the success of farmland preservation efforts in the county, expressed concern that financially struggling farmers might be convinced to sell to data center developers offering large sums for their land. The Agricultural Land Preservation Easement Purchase Program<\/a> that Chermak touted, administered here by the Lackawanna County Conservation District, pays county farmers on a per-acre basis for easements that limit their land\u2019s future use to farming and agriculture and has preserved more than 6,600 acres of farmland in the county since its launch in 1994.<\/p>\n Eckel Farms owner Keith Eckel, a former Pennsylvania Farm Bureau president, called for more state funding for farmland preservation.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, Pennsylvania has more acres of farmland preserved and more farms preserved than anywhere in this nation, and what we have to focus on is continuing to make certain that we fund those programs to get the job done,\u201d he said. \u201cFarmers will do everything they can to keep their land, but sometimes when they are economically pressed to the bone \u2014 and it will be the last thing that they give up \u2014 they have to sell. And so adequate funding for farmland preservation is key.\u201d<\/p>\n In a press release Friday, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party accused Garrity of having a \u201clong record\u201d of supporting data center development, including in rural areas.<\/p>\n![\"Pennsylvania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785529766_748_STT-L-GARRITY-0801-04.jpg\")
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity hosts a roundtable discussion on agriculture at Eckel Farms in Newton Twp. Thursday, July 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n![\"Local](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785529766_883_STT-L-GARRITY-0801-05.jpg\")
Local farmers Dan Naylor, Jim Barbour, and Tim Jaggars answer questions during the agricultural roundtable hosted by state Treasurer Stacy Garrity at Eckel Farms in Newton Twp. Thursday, July 30, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n