Opponents of the possibility of a data center being built in Salix, Iowa, are hosting a national bus tour that seeks to encourage people to maintain their longstanding agriculture heritage.
The AI Data Center Revolt tour is by the national Humans First group, as locally hosted by Salix Guardian Alliance. It will make a stop at 5 p.m. Friday at the city park in Salix, a town of 300 people.
Salix rural resident Janet Yanak said it is important to push back on possible large scale data centers.
“This is just to try to get people excited, to get them involved, wherever they are. Everyone is welcome to come, this is not specific to Salix,” she said.
In August Google announced the company is in the early stages of evaluating a Salix site for a data center. Also that same month, the Salix City Council declined to place a moratorium on a possible data center in town.
Some Salix people support a data center, as an economic boost.
During a community meeting in rural Woodbury County on Monday evening In Moville, Yanak was one of the people who spoke against data centers coming to unincorporated lands. They said it would spoil the enjoyment of rural living, and consume huge amounts of water.
The tour stop in Salix follows a Thursday event in Dubuque, and precedes one in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The featured speaker is Trent Loos, a sixth generation farmer who has the Loos Tales radio show. Yanak said Loos is known for “speaking on behalf of the folks who would rather stay home and tend to their crops and livestock than take on those attacking their life-sustaining industry.”
