There are people who follow their principles to the end and refuse to give up their values. Even for an astronomical amount of money. This is the case of an elderly man from Pennsylvania, who has rejected an offer of more than 15 million dollars (about 13 million euros) to sell his land to real estate developers to build a data center.
This is Mervin Raudabaugh, 86, and he lives in Cumberland County. In a recent interview for the media ‘Fox 43’, he explained that he did not sell for a simple reason that may surprise many: “I was not interested in destroying my farms.” Not in vain, he has been dedicated to agriculture for approximately 60 years. “That was the conclusion. Actually, it wasn’t so much about the economic part. I just didn’t want to see these two farms destroyed,” he added.
The love he has for the house where he lives and the land also weighed in his decision. When his mother died in his arms in the mid-1950s, she died on that farmland on Green Hill Road, forcing him to take up farming to care for his family even though he was a high school student at the time.
“I was responsible for milking the cows before going to school. I missed 31 days in my last year and they never missed me. I was that popular,” he joked in the aforementioned interview, although he clarified that it was a job that he “loved.” It is also the same house where he and his late wife, Anna Mae, raised their children.
You are concerned about the future of agriculture
Another reason that motivated this old man not to sell his land is his concern for the future of agriculture. “It breaks my heart to think about what is going to happen here, because only the land that is conserved here will remain here,” he explained to the aforementioned media, in statements reported by ‘People‘.
“The rest of every square inch is going to be developed. American farm families are definitely in trouble,” he said with concern, which is why he decided to sell the development rights to his land to the Silver Spring Municipality’s Land Preservation Program, for just under $1.9 million, and which aims to preserve land with at least 10 acres of open space (an acre is less than half a hectare), forests, farmland, and protection of waterways or wetlands.
“You won’t find anything like it anywhere else,” he happily described his land, assuring that “you would have to look hard to find such good land. It is a mecca for wildlife, from deer to turtles.” It is for this reason that he feels confident in having provided them to the program, stating that the conservation group that develops it respects “God’s green Earth.”
“I love this land. It’s been my life,” Raudabaugh said, explaining that he realized that “if it wasn’t built or excavated, other families could live here and that’s what I wanted to do.” And he did it, feeling “happy” about it.