MAYSVILLE, Ky.—The offer arrived out of nowhere just over one year ago. An unknown company was scooping up Kentucky farmland, and few plots were more valuable than those owned by Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston. The money would be life-changing. From Bare’s farm, the company wanted 463 acres at $48,000 apiece. From Huddleston’s nearby piece of property, it sought 71 at $60,000 per acre.  Together mother and daughter would collect $26.48 million. All they had to do was sign.  At first the women agreed. Then they discovered what their farmland—the farmland that their family had cultivated for nearly…

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