Proposed data centers are drawing justified concern over water and energy use. But Iowa has faced a similar resource issue for decades with far less scrutiny: ethanol plants.
For better understanding, the comparison below shows the Little Sioux Corn Processor ethanol plant in Marcus versus Meta’s hyperscale data center in Altoona, a 10-building, five-million-square-foot site.
On water use, Meta’s data center uses 53 million gallons per year (MGY), enough for 2,100 people. Little Sioux used 543 MGY in 2025—more than 10 times as much, enough for over 21,000 people. If connected to the Summit pipeline, it would need another 173 MGY to cool captured CO2, bringing its total use to 716 MGY, enough for 28,000 people.
O’Brien County has 14,100 residents; Cherokee County has 11,600. Meta uses enough water for a city the size of Hartley. Little Sioux uses enough for Cherokee and O’Brien counties combined.
On electricity, Meta uses enough power for 284,000 people a year. Little Sioux uses enough for 48,000 people — less, but still equivalent to two years’ worth for Cherokee and O’Brien counties combined.
Meta does not report natural gas usage. Little Sioux uses enough natural gas for 127,000 people, equal to five years for Cherokee and O’Brien counties combined.
Meta serves hundreds of millions of users; Little Sioux serves a few hundred.
Summit, a private company, sought and received eminent domain for the first phase of the project. It is now seeking the same for the second phase.
Ethanol plants can demand resources comparable to a hyperscale data center, and that impact would grow if the Summit pipeline were approved. If you are concerned about data centers, you should be very concerned about ethanol plants and Summit.
After five years of uncertainty, Summit remains a pipeline to nowhere, with no route, destination or final use.
When is enough enough for ethanol and Summit?
I urge readers to scrutinize ethanol plants and the Summit pipeline as closely as proposed data centers.
Don Johnson, Cherokee County landowner
Scamming and hacking personal and business data are alive and well. Cyber thieves use more and more sophisticated methods to steal our identities and assets. Tracking agriculture related data is important for farmers in making the best business decisions for their operations and farmers are not immune to stolen identity and financial records throughout the cyber world. As farm equipment becomes more modern to facilitate operations, so too computer programs continue to evolve to capture business information such as precise crop production per acre and how much milk a dairy cow produced on any given day. The Cherokee Area News section in the Aug. 26, 2026, edition of the Spokesman had an article titled “What To Do After You Get Scammed.” It gave excellent tips on actions to take. However, as farmers schedule routine maintenance for their equipment, they should consider routine maintenance on their computer devices to help prevent them from being robbed of their identity, valuable data and assets.
The article got me thinking about grandma’s and mom’s methods for tracking farm business data that were pretty much “hack proof.” Grandma used the bank’s complimentary wall calendar with plenty of space for each day to write down farm expenses, income from livestock and crops sold and how much rain they got. Pity the farmer who went to town in December to take care of year end farm business and forgot to bring home the bank’s coveted complimentary wall calendar to capture next year’s data. Mom transitioned from five-column ledgers to an agriculture finance program using floppy discs to record our farming data. We’ve come a long ways keeping valuable information at our finger tips.
Farmers are busy getting equipment readied for harvest. As you change the oil in your tractor, consider changing the passwords in your other valuable farming equipment: computer devices. Password changes are an important first step in protecting your information from thieves.
Wishing all farmers a safe and bountiful harvest.
Elizabeth Johnson, Voting Delegate, Cherokee County Farm Bureau
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