Jack,
Just as Wisconsin farmers are getting ready to plant, the price of fertilizer is spiking because of an illegal war.
Urea — the most common nitrogen fertilizer — is up 25% since the end of February. Diesel is climbing. And because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut down, a third of the world's fertilizer trade is stuck on the water.
A Waukesha County farmer told FOX6 yesterday: "I don't get a check every week. I don't get that check until I sell that product. And I don't know what that cost is going to be. But I know that fertilizers are going to cost me more, seed's going to cost me more, fuel is going to cost me more.”
Here's what that means for the rest of us: Fertilizer goes up. Farmers cut back or eat the loss. And by late summer, we’re paying more for staples like milk, bread and meat — for everything that has to be grown and everything that has to be shipped.
Nationally, analysts say farmers may shift over a million acres from corn to soybeans this spring because corn takes too much fertilizer to pencil out. Wisconsin planted 3.75 million acres of corn last year, most of it feed for our dairy herds. Less corn means higher feed costs. Higher feed costs mean higher milk prices.
This war is costing Wisconsin — it’s already hitting us at the gas pump, and soon it will be impacting us at the grocery checkout. The question is, who will be hit hardest? Right now, it's farmers and working families. It doesn't have to be this way.
We must end this disastrous war. And at home, we must create a tax system where wealthy people and corporations pay their share, so family farmers and working people aren't carrying the load alone. And we need a governor who shows up in every county and listens to the people who grow our food.
Learn more about our policies here.
In solidarity,
Fran
