{"id":432404,"date":"2026-05-08T22:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/432404\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:21:16","slug":"the-iran-wars-unexpected-victims-american-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/432404\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iran war\u2019s unexpected victims: American farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Bartman knows the challenges of being a farmer. His family has been tilling Illinois soil since James K. Polk sat in the Oval Office, weathering droughts, trade disputes, market crashes and a Civil War in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now, with Donald Trump behind the Resolute Desk, fertilizer shipments have been halted through the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a choke point for roughly one-third of the world\u2019s fertilizer supply \u2014 and the resulting price spike is causing Bartman\u2019s profits to disappear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After years of turmoil for American farmers, \u201cit\u2019s just another straw that breaks the camel\u2019s back,\u201d Bartman said.<\/p>\n

New data from the American Farm Bureau Federation<\/a>, an agricultural lobbying firm, warns that Bartman isn\u2019t alone: Some 70% of American farmers may be unable to afford all the fertilizer their fields require.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest in a series of economic headwinds that have slammed the U.S. agricultural industry over the past decade, causing farm bankruptcies to jump 46% from 2024 to 2025. The AFBF reported that this year 58% of its members said their financial situation had worsened since early 2025, while just 6% reported improvement.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Percentage of farmers unable <\/p>\n

to afford all required fertilizer<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Percentage of farmers unable <\/p>\n

to afford all required fertilizer<\/p>\n

Map: Carson Elm-Picard \/ MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation<\/p>\n

\u201cMany farms were broadly in a situation of net negative margins, where they\u2019re losing money, and this just compounds the problem,\u201d Shawn Arita, the associate director of North Dakota State University\u2019s Agricultural Risk Policy Center, said of the fertilizer shortage. \u201cIt was a very difficult situation before March 1, and now it\u2019s certainly a lot more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shortage has caused the price of fertilizer jump from around $400 per ton in January to more than $600 per ton this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The impact of those high prices won\u2019t be felt evenly across the U.S. \u2014 only 19% of Southern farmers preordered fertilizer before the price increased, compared with 30% in the Northeast, 31% in the West and 67% in the Midwest, according to the AFBF.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Share of farmers who<\/p>\n

preordered fertilizer, by acreage<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Share of farmers who<\/p>\n

preordered fertilizer, by acreage<\/p>\n

Chart: Carson Elm-Picard \/ MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, have sought to downplay the severity of the inflation.<\/p>\n

Rollins told Fox Business that \u201cAmerica has plenty of fertilizer<\/a>\u201d for its farmers, and Vance acknowledged the shortage but dismissed the conflict behind the inflation as \u201ca little blip in the Middle East<\/a>\u201d during a speech on Tuesday. That same day, Rubio echoed Rollins\u2019 claim<\/a>, saying that it was only Iran\u2019s fertilizer, not the United States\u2019, that was stranded in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

While the U.S. is a major exporter of fertilizer globally, it still produces only about 9% of the global supply and remains a net importer of the good, according to the USDA, meaning that supply chain disruptions on the other side of the world still affect domestic market prices.<\/p>\n

That could be why Rollins is now considering reviving a Biden-era initiative<\/a> that pledged $900 million to funding the construction of new fertilizer plants in the U.S. That initiative, the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, was eliminated during Trump\u2019s second term \u201cdue to Presidential Executive Orders,\u201d according to the USDA website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

Even if the initiative was resuscitated or the Strait of Hormuz reopened tomorrow, farmers would be paying inflated prices through 2027, even into 2028, Arita said. Rep. Don Bacon., R-Neb., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told MS NOW that the Trump administration should \u201cre-examine their tariff policies\u201d to alleviate the strain on farmers, but did not comment on the effects of the Iran War.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Percentage of farmers unable<\/p>\n

to afford all required fertilizer<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Percentage of farmers unable<\/p>\n

to afford all required fertilizer<\/p>\n

Chart: Carson Elm-Picard \/ MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation<\/p>\n

Another committee member, Rep. April McClain Delaney, D-Md., said the high fertilizer prices are \u201creflective of a much larger crisis\u201d caused by the Trump administration \u2014 one that has already hit her constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers in my district are facing tough choices about whether they can afford to plant at all,\u201d said Delaney, who represents Maryland\u2019s largely rural 6th Congressional District. \u201cThis administration\u2019s reckless actions and the flawed farm bill are failing our farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House Agriculture Committee\u2019s Republican leadership, Chairman Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and Vice Chairman Austin Scott of Georgia, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fertilizer inflation isn\u2019t the only thing pushing up costs for farmers; diesel prices in the U.S. have jumped from about $3.80 at the start of the war to more than $5.60 as of May 4 , according to USDA data<\/a>. That in turn has made it more expensive for all farmers to do business \u2014 even small growers like Leah Dannar-Garcia, an organic farmer in Wichita, Kansas, who doesn\u2019t use synthetic fertilizer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarms have been just hanging on with the soybean debacle last year,\u201d Dannar-Garcia said, referring to the Trump administration\u2019s $20 billion bailout of Argentina<\/a>, which spurred China to reduce its U.S. agricultural imports. \u201cIt\u2019s had a devastating effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a soybean farmer, Bartman was particularly affected by that decision. Arita said the situation now is having an \u201casymmetric impact\u201d on American agriculturalists, as farmers are paying more to grow and sell their crops, but aren\u2019t necessarily able to raise prices on consumers to match. That in turn leads to lost profit and endangered livelihoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re running the American farmer into the ground and out of business,\u201d Bartman said of the Trump administration. \u201cThe only thing that is cheaper today than three years ago in the United States is a bushel of soybeans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAdam Hudacek<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAdam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.\t\t<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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