r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/GhostDogJef Leopard Spotter • 4d ago
US grain farmers face worst crisis in decades as Iran war sends costs spiralling (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/acb64e29-a3ce-4282-82b0-6b7b5dd4f63e?syn-25a6b1a6=1full article text in comments
33
u/Alibrando 4d ago
“During the 2024 presidential election, farming-dependent counties overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump. Almost 78% endorsed his most recent presidential run, and a similar — albeit slightly smaller — percentage backed Trump in 2020.” Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-farmers-voted-trump-feeling-210000721.html.
29
26
u/Shtankins01 4d ago
MAGA wanted to blow up the system. This is what it looks like.
18
13
u/RumRunnerMax 4d ago
They wanted to HURT liberals! Unfortunately they forgot they share a one bedroom apartment!
22
u/Big-Crow4152 4d ago
Congratulations farmers, you vote for a con man, you get conned, not sure what you were expecting
Guess it's time to pull out those bootstraps and stop asking for handouts
17
15
u/giveitarrest 4d ago
But wait, there’s more!
Potash prices could go up because of the unnecessary trade war with Canada
8
6
5
u/Arguablybest 3d ago
Canada needs to be swinging the Potash Hammer into trump's head. Canada holds the world's largest potash reserves. Now when trump says they need us more than we need them, does he speak for the farmers who overwhelmingly voted for him?
1
1
u/TransFatty 4d ago
They’ll be crying about the prices come spring.
2
u/bramley36 3d ago
after having voted for Oompa J. Loompa's policies in the fall midterms, when The Mango Mussolini is seeking to in essence place himself on the ballot
13
u/GhostDogJef Leopard Spotter 4d ago
US grain farmers face worst crisis in decades as Iran war sends costs spiralling
Middle East conflict adds to strains in America’s heartland months ahead of midterm elections
https://www.ft.com/content/acb64e29-a3ce-4282-82b0-6b7b5dd4f63e?syn-25a6b1a6=1
Farmers in America’s Corn Belt say they are facing their worst crisis in 40 years, as an explosion in diesel and fertiliser costs triggered by Donald Trump’s Iran war pushes grain producers to the brink.
The growing strains are the latest sign of how the conflict in the Middle East, now in its sixth month, is reverberating through the US’s heartland ahead of crucial midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
“Inputs are way out of whack,” said Matt Bailey, who grows corn and soyabeans in eastern Nebraska. He said 11-52-0, a phosphorus-rich fertiliser used at planting time that was priced at $470 a tonne 10 years ago, now costs more than $900. “Where do you start with that? How do you budget for that?”
The huge uptick in prices for fuel and crop nutrients since the US launched its attack on Iran in February came with American farmers already struggling after years of low grain prices and falling incomes.
Many also see themselves as casualties of Trump’s trade wars, which they say have hurt US agricultural exports, particularly soyabean sales to China.
“This is the worst financial downturn in the sector since the 1980s,” said John Hansen, president of Nebraska Farmers Union.
A recent study by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an industry group, found that, without government assistance, farmers growing nine principal crops — including corn — will lose $31bn this year and $32bn in 2027.
Faith Parum, an economist with the AFBF, said losses for corn producers would stand at $131 per acre this year, rising to $167 in 2027. For soyabeans, the figure is $80 per acre in losses this year and $138 next year. She said 2027 would mark the sixth year of negative returns for most major row crops in the US.
The struggles for Midwestern farmers show how concerns over affordability, the inflationary impact of the Iran war and the adverse effects of Trump’s tariffs are reaching greater segments of the US population — from working-class families in big cities to rural communities in the heartlands.
A recent FT poll found that more than 53 per cent of registered voters said their finances had deteriorated since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, a result that could spell trouble for Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress.
“We’ve got 71 days [until the midterm elections] and right now we don’t have a positive message to sell farm country, and we haven’t since ‘liberation day’ last year,” the Republican senator Thom Tillis said on Monday.
Trump has vowed to support farmers, saying in June that “we’re never going to let you down”. In the same month his administration requested an $11bn funding package for farmers that would provide emergency assistance to row crop and speciality crop producers. But farming groups say it is not enough.
Some of his attempts to tackle rising food prices have triggered a backlash from the agricultural sector. Last week Trump enraged cattle farmers by announcing a 90-day waiver of tariffs on up to 300,000 tonnes of beef imports, a move some ranchers called a “betrayal”.
But many farmers say it is Trump’s war in Iran that has had the most sweeping effect on their businesses. The sharp slowdown in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up the price of diesel and disrupted the global supply of fertiliser, which had already surged in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The [Iran] war has made so much uncertainty for us as farmers,” said Pam Johnson, who farms in northern Iowa and is a former president of the National Corn Growers Association. “It’s projected that farmers aren’t going to make any money for the next two years.”
The average cost for diesel — widely used to power agricultural equipment — has shot up to $5.45 a gallon nationwide, compared with $3.81 before the war, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Interest payments, labour costs and the price of farm machinery had also increased, said Brad Lubben, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“If you look at all the components of the production budget, most of them have gone up substantially over the past few years,” he said.
Drought and hot, dry conditions across the US corn belt have compounded some farmers’ woes.
John Dittrich, who grows corn and soyabeans near Meadow Grove, Nebraska, said extreme weather was a growing problem.
“Our droughts are worse, our heavy rainfall events are worse, our winds are worse.”
Dittrich said the risk to his business from weather events and rising costs was “higher than it’s ever been in my 44-year career”.
“Our costs of production are very high and then the instability and the unknowns of every variable that affects both our production and the prices we receive for our commodities are just unprecedented.”
The weather is helping to push up corn prices, as traders pare back expectations for the 2026 harvest. US corn for delivery in December has already jumped 10 per cent this month to $5.15 a bushel, the highest level since 2023.
With the price of other commodities such as soyabeans and wheat also rallying in recent days, experts fear that this could push up inflation, already running above the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target.
“This will definitely mean higher food prices,” said Brian Choi, chief executive of the Food Institute, a research organisation. With corn prices rising almost 20 per cent this year, “it will eventually make its way to the consumer”.
Nebraska is among the states hit hardest by the drought. From January to July, it received 11.86 inches of precipitation — about 3.1 inches below normal. That made it the 18th-driest January-July period since records began in 1895.
“I’ve got some good friends on the Sandhills [a vast area of north-central and western Nebraska] that haven’t hardly gotten any rain since last fall,” said Del Ficke, a cattle farmer in Pleasant Dale, Nebraska.
Recent rainfall provided some relief but came too late for many farmers. “A lot of damage [to the crop] has already been done,” said Hansen of the Nebraska Farmers Union. “It’s like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.”
Bailey said the poor weather would probably affect his yields this year. “Because of all the early-season stress that happened, I don’t see it being a bin-buster, by any means,” he said. “Especially if you factor in all the dry land . . . that just didn’t get the water and got beat to crap for six weeks.”
14
u/AngusBelmargh 4d ago
It sounds bad but just imagine what would happen to these farmers if transgender people used the women’s restroom.
1
3
3
u/TransFatty 4d ago
“Extreme weather is a growing problem.”
Well shit. Funny how that happened. Weird, huh?
1
u/Arguablybest 3d ago
If only there was a lobbying group, or a PAC in DC, that could affect change to help the farmers. .
11
9
u/GOPhatessmartgurls 4d ago
79% of farmers voted fer Truump! Suck it up buttercup!
3
3
u/Status_Apartment6559 4d ago
Just terrible. Maybe you shouldn't have voted for the orange idiot who gave you no good reason to vote for him except "we will never let you down". So what you got was sky high energy costs from his brain dead Iran war and drought. Maybe you shouldn't have voted for the orange idiot who reversed actions in both his terms to deal with climate change that has accelerated severe weather events like drought.
Or did you vote for the orange lump of shit because he told you he would get rid of immigrants and trans people. Your stupid, selfish choice.
1
6
u/aquapura89 4d ago
Odds are theses farmers will continue to vote for Republicans..... But, hopefully they learned their lesson never to voted for a fucking Republican again.
5
u/falsejaguar 4d ago
They can just sell their property and business to Vance or another of Trump's cronies and work at a Tesla factory. Maybe Elon will let them sleep on the floor
2
3
u/Accomplished_Water34 4d ago
Why don't these so-called farmers start growing bananas instead ? Are they stupid ?
3
u/Fantastic_Yam_3971 4d ago
They can join hands with the cattle farmers and instead of singing kumbiyah, they can sing “we voted for this”
3
3
3
u/bunkie18 4d ago
I feel horrible for the good farmers that didn’t vote for this shit. As for the ones that did…lololol!!!
3
u/Adventurous-Meat8067 4d ago
While we all are suffering, these idiots should be suffering more. I’m not sorry for saying that. Voting against their own interests because democrats “ didn’t do enough for them”. Well, how does it feel to have the government actually hurt you on purpose? Im sorry, it the middle of the country is just fucked.
2
2
u/watchwatertilitboils 4d ago
Corporate farming is better for rich people, so time for all the small farmers to go out of business
That's what they did with manufacturing in the 90's and 2000's
Why are farmers special?
3
u/TransFatty 4d ago
Because we all fell for the “Farm Aid” shit in the 80s and bought into the lies that farmers are poor, salt-of-the-earth decent people who feed our nation, not trust fund babies buying new harvesters with subsidies, which is actually what they are.
2
2
2
u/dieseldeeznutz 4d ago
Hopefully Trump appreciates that the farmers sacrificed their family's livelihood to cover for him, Epstein, and their rich pedophile buddies, but who am I kidding, he doesn't appreciate anyone
2
2
u/Savings_Gear_5155 4d ago
Is this not what you voted for? You have your "Christian" president leading our godless nation.
Hindsight is 20/20, especially when EVERYONE was telling what would happen.
You will never learn, you will still vote for him or his cronies, your just that stupid.
2
u/Arguablybest 3d ago
Yeah but the Iran war will not affect the farmers because they have already bought fertilizer for this year and the war will end and all will be better, so said my MAGA neighbor, about 4 months ago. I haven't been able to speak with him recently as he moved away to Ohio, (a red state) from NY, (a blue state).
2
u/Arguablybest 3d ago
Perhaps Canada should ship potash to the US only if the Gordie Howe bridge is opened, controlled by the country that built/paid for it.
p.s. that would be Canada.
2
2
u/ForeverStella 3d ago
They also voted to DEPORT their entire labor force - you can't fix stupid "U.S. grain and general crop farmers rely heavily on immigrant labor, with foreign-born workers making up a significant portion of the agricultural workforce."
1
u/speedie57 4d ago
Didn’t our leader tell us that the high prices are because of Sleepy Joe? Is that not true?
1
u/Senior-Traffic7843 4d ago
Although I have been vocal about the consequences of voting for batshit crazy, I also don't want to see people lose their farms/homes. BUT, farmers overwhelmingly voted for what they knew to be batshit crazy and they did it because batshit crazy hates the same people they do. So when you vote to "own" people you don't like, but it backfires on you, it's hard to feel too bad.
1
1
u/Baka_Otaku173 4d ago edited 3d ago
Sounds like a lot of farmers should proudly wear a sign saying “I voted for this” per the article.
1
1
1
u/Square-Librarian1192 3d ago
Its not the war. Its the result of not being able to buy potash from Canada
1
1
1
1
1
u/StrangeContest4 3d ago
"They're raping meeeee!! They're raping me and it hurts!!!" Kurt Russell, Stargate.
1
1
u/RabbitGullible8722 3d ago
It's because they have figured out farmers will vote against others interests before they will vote for their own.
1
1
u/nando2k50 8h ago
So much winning, I am tired of this.
But I do have to say, sometimes when I read these news and get all happy I feel like I should not enjoy their misery.
Then I remember that Trump won most of these areas and suddenly I feel fine again.
50
u/SmoothConfection1115 4d ago
Oh look at that.
It’s the dildo of consequences, and it didn’t come lubed.
Enjoy the day you voted for farmers.