LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is proposing a way to balance technological innovation and continued agriculture production through what he calls \u2018Agriculture Freedom Zones.\u2019<\/p>\n
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\u2019s currently no oversight, regulation, organization or guardrails.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, typically, they build them on our most fertile farmland…the top 5%,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us use some good cowboy logic and put them…on some of our marginal land that\u2019s not as productive,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
AFZs would not protect farmland that\u2019s already built over. The Texas Department of Agriculture reports once farmland is developed and built over, it\u2019s extremely difficult for it to get back to the soil\u2019s full potential. Miller\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually wouldn\u2019t stop anybody from selling their valuable farmland to a data center,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t infringe on anybody\u2019s personal property rights. It just gives incentives to do it somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to choosing the \u201csomewhere else,\u201d Miller explains that will be decided by lawmakers at either the federal or state level.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re 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\u2019s 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\u2019t have to be cooled with water,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe first had subsistence farming, you know, 40 acres in a mule,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThen, we graduated to the Age of Mechanization where we had tractors and combines. So, this is Agriculture 3.0, the Technology Age.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if, or when, these zones will be implemented, since any change would have to go through Congress.<\/p>\n
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