LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is proposing a way to balance technological innovation and continued agriculture production through what he calls ‘Agriculture Freedom Zones.’
Miller says the zones would essentially create incentives for developers and companies to build data centers or energy infrastructure on less productive land rather than prime farmland. He says there’s currently no oversight, regulation, organization or guardrails.
“And, typically, they build them on our most fertile farmland…the top 5%,” Miller said.
In the proposal he introduced to lawmakers, Miller described the incentive program as a form of tax relief or capital gains program developers would receive if they choose to build on marginal land.
“Let us use some good cowboy logic and put them…on some of our marginal land that’s not as productive,” Miller said.
AFZs would not protect farmland that’s already built over. The Texas Department of Agriculture reports once farmland is developed and built over, it’s extremely difficult for it to get back to the soil’s full potential. Miller’s proposal would not stop or delay already approved permits for data centers. Those would be grandfathered in. He says this plan is not a limitation, rather a form of motivation.
“It actually wouldn’t stop anybody from selling their valuable farmland to a data center,” Miller said. “It doesn’t infringe on anybody’s personal property rights. It just gives incentives to do it somewhere else.”
When it comes to choosing the “somewhere else,” Miller explains that will be decided by lawmakers at either the federal or state level.
Miller is also brainstorming ways to protect other resources like water and power. He explains both problems have a single solution in the form of decades old technology, a small modular reactor.
“They’re nuclear reactors, a little safer, a little different than what we have on our nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. Those have been around 60 years, so it’s not really new technology, but they can install all these and generate their own power. They could actually generate extra power and put it back on the grid, that would be really nice. And, they don’t have to be cooled with water,” Miller said.
Miller is urging lawmakers to consider his proposal of pairing agriculture and technology together, rather than against each other. He says the two categories go hand-in-hand for innovation giving the example of the development of farming.
“We first had subsistence farming, you know, 40 acres in a mule,” Miller said. “Then, we graduated to the Age of Mechanization where we had tractors and combines. So, this is Agriculture 3.0, the Technology Age.”
Miller has presented his Agriculture Freedom Zones proposal to White House officials and a majority of Congressional Republicans and claims to have overwhelming support from many Capitol Hill lawmakers.
It’s unclear if, or when, these zones will be implemented, since any change would have to go through Congress.
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.