Farmers growing increasingly desperate amid rising energy and fertilizer prices

Farmers across the Midwest are entering planting season under mounting financial pressure, as the Iran conflict drives up diesel and fertilizer prices — deepening an agricultural downturn that some say is the worst since the crisis of the 1980s. Why it matters: Rising fuel and fertilizer costs threaten to push more family farms out of business, drive up food prices and further strain rural economies already battered by trade disruptions, inflation and extreme weather. The big picture: Mark Mueller — a northeast Iowa farmer and president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association — tells Axios that the current landscape is more challenging than at any time since the 1980s farm crisis , when interest rates soared and exports plunged, triggering agricultural bank failures. The stresses are showing, with rising bankruptcies and lenders becoming more reluctant to provide farmers with operational loans . "There's going to be fewer farmers next year than there is this year," Mueller says. Zoom in: Farmers are grappling with a confluence of forces, including: Skyrocketing energy prices triggered by President Trump's Iran war, which led to the shuttering of Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for fossil fuels. Spiking fertilizer prices and shortages after the Iranians blocked shipments through the strait. Disrupted export markets tied to Trump's tariffs and Chinese import restrictions. Global drought and other weather pressures, including climate change. What they're saying: "What makes this moment particularly hard is that farmers can't pivot quickly," says Cornell University agricultural economist Wendong Zhang. "Farmers have some tools, but none are quick fixes." Zoom in: The crisis is hitting farmers hard across the country. In Arkansas , rising energy prices and fertilizer costs are exerting pressure on farmers who were already reaping lower prices for their crops. In Ohio , first-generation farmer Michael Kilpatrick said his...

Original source: Axios