The farmers I speak to who are close to cities enjoy the increased value of farmland as that allows them to take out very cheap loans with the farmland as collateral.
No farmer has a hard time getting sweet heart loans from the USDA FSA and it's extremely rare to have to put up your land as collateral. They are the most coddles class in American society.
And regarding utility contractors and building materials. Those going to building housing is what we want no? Or do you prefer we stop building housing so that building materials for building data centers and mega mansions is cheaper instead?
You can still want more housing without wanting more landlords...... They could always sell the houses instead of taking people's money without providing them any long term rights or equity.
No matter what scenario, being a landlord is inherently predatory. You are building equity on the backs of other people's hard work. Even home loans with "fair" interest rates are predatory in the same way, but at least the person taking the loan is building some equity and have more rights based on that fact.