NPR reports the Trump effect on fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing President Donald Trump supporting farmers “to the brink,” despite Trump’s $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, which delivers a one-time payment to offset farmers’ losses because of Trump’s tariff policies.
“If somebody took $100 out of my pocket and then turned around and gave me $20 back, patted me on the back and said they were my friend, I'm not really sure I would agree," said Mississippi Delta corn grower Sledge Taylor, a lifelong Trump supporter.
China has mostly stopped buying American soybeans, reports NPR. U.S. rice exports to Latin America have also cratered, and corn prices have. plummeted. Additionally, cotton prices, said NPR, have bottomed out.
"Everybody picks on the thing that's one of our bigger exports," Taylor told NPR. "They quit buying all of our crops. We have lost customers forever. They will never come back. Because we're deemed an unreliable supplier."
And then came Trump’s entirely voluntary attack on the nation of Iran, which drove Iran to retaliate by closing off the critical Strait of Hormuz—which largely put the kibosh not only on oil transportation but also the movement of Middle Eastern fertilizer, which is essential to Taylor’s crop.
“The war couldn't have come at a worse time,” reports NPR. “It's spring — planting season — when Delta farmers are burning the most fuel and spending the most on fertilizer.”
Right about this time of year, Taylor would be flipping a trench near his corn seedlings adding nitrogen fertilizer, but he tells reporters “I may not do it this year because of the price of nitrogen and the low price of corn."
Taylor has also resorted to “buying diesel fuel in small batches — ‘hand to mouth’ as he calls it.” Normally the fuel storage capacity on his farm sits at a healthy 20,000 gallons. But right now he’s only got about 1,000 gallons sloshing in his tanks.
"Sometimes we know that we've only got two weeks of fuel," he told reporters.
Near the town of Sledge, Mississippi, the news is no better, said NPR.
"Right now, I'm paying 60 percent more for diesel fuel than I would have been paying 45 days ago," said soybean and rice farmer Anthony Bland, adding that his fertilizer prices have also jumped from $16k to $26k thanks to the global crimp Trump put on the fertilizer supply when Iran retaliated to his attacks.
“When elephants fight, it's the ants that get crushed,” said Bland. “The ants are getting crushed."
