COLUMBIA, Louisiana \u2014 In northeast Louisiana, agriculture pilot Reed Keahey flies with sticker shock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His plane needs kerosene-based Jet-A fuel, the price of which has soared<\/a> during the Iran war<\/a>. A gallon that cost $2.46 in February, just before the war broke out, peaked at $4.11 in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keahey buys 7,500 gallons at a time. He said that when fuel hit $4.11, he spent a little more than $30,000 on one round of fuel.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of this week, it cost $3.18, but was rising again. <\/p>\n “It puts a squeeze, but I can’t let my farmers feel that squeeze that it’s putting on me,” Keahey told CBS News.<\/p>\n With these fuel prices, the agricultural community in Louisiana feels there is little margin for error. <\/p>\n David and Theresa Guererro own a farming business. Their corn crops need a nitrogen fertilizer called urea<\/a>, and nearly half of global urea exports originate in the Persian Gulf<\/a>, which has experienced a major shipping crisis due to the intermittent closures of the Strait of Hormuz during the war. The critical passageway also handles about 20% of the world’s oil.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prices of urea spiked during the war, completely draining the Guererros’ fertilizer budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Guererros disclosed they are currently overbudget on urea by about $120,000 to $130,000.<\/p>\n “It’s close, it’s real close,” David Guererro responded when asked if their farm will survive the cost hikes. <\/p>\n