With gas prices crossing $4 a gallon, the EPA says cheaper, more ethanol-rich fuel will ease the pain. The math doesn't really add up—but the risks sure do.
Probably not. It will be a subsidy to corn farmers, artificially increase corn prices. Farmers have generally not been having a great time of it under Trump administration policies, so they’ll probably be happy about that. Corn consumers, maybe not so much.
Before the war, roughly a third of the world’s fertilizer ingredients and a fifth of its oil supplies passed every day through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s southern coast. But since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the strait has been effectively closed by Tehran, leaving scores of tankers stranded.
The strait’s closure has driven up global prices for fertilizer and for the diesel fuel that powers most of America’s heavy agricultural equipment.
The double whammy is hitting farmers just as they head into the spring planting season.
“This is that perfect storm where everything comes together and hammers the farmer,” said Mueller, who also serves as the president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Mueller said his fertilizer supplier was selling a nitrogen fertilizer he needs for $795 per ton on Feb. 22, a few days before the war started. At the end of March, it was $990, Mueller said, a nearly $200 jump in just a few weeks.
Meanwhile, the price he’s paying for diesel has jumped, too. Diesel is now averaging $5.51 nationwide, up from $3.76 right before the war, according to AAA.
Mueller said he got most of the fertilizer he needs for spring before the war — but had to buy some at the higher prices. He’s holding off on purchasing the additional fertilizer he needs for summer, hoping prices will come down.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs have also added to the cost of goods that farmers import from overseas — and frustrated many of the foreign buyers of America’s agricultural products.
“Our government made our life more difficult by walking away from trade deals or instituting tariffs or just basically making our customers angry — our customers being other nations and companies in other nations,” said Mueller.
Probably not. It will be a subsidy to corn farmers, artificially increase corn prices. Farmers have generally not been having a great time of it under Trump administration policies, so they’ll probably be happy about that. Corn consumers, maybe not so much.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/trump-iran-war-farm-crisis-rcna266283