Washington, DC — Grocery bills are rising and Americans have congressional Republicans to thank. According to NBC News reporting, the congressional Republican-backed war in Iran has sent fertilizer and fuel costs soaring, further squeezing farmers and threatening to send food prices even higher for working Americans. The reporting comes as families are already feeling the strain at the pump, with gas prices up nearly 74 cents per gallon since the start of the conflict.
Nearly every Republican in Congress voted to support this war. Now, it’s farmers and families who are being forced to pay the price. To make matters worse, Republicans voted for the largest cuts to SNAP in history last year, cutting food benefits for an estimated four million Americans. Unrig Our Economy’s site Don’t Inflate Our Plates has also been tracking the rising costs of key grocery items, highlighting the growing affordability crisis created by Republicans in Congress.
“Americans are already struggling, and are now once again having to brace for higher food costs because Republicans continue to wage war on Americans’ wallets and push an agenda that puts working families last,” said Unrig Our Economy Campaign Director Leor Tal. “Congressional Republicans already cut food assistance for millions and backed cost-raising tariffs. It’s time they focused on lowering costs rather than looking for new ways to take food off of working Americans’ tables.”
NBC News: The Iran war’s looming economic threat: Higher food prices
Key Points:
- The ongoing war in Iran is driving up more than just the cost of oil. With essential crop fertilizers also caught in the crossfire, U.S. food prices could be next.
- About one-third of the world’s fertilizer ingredients — key inputs farmers rely on to grow the crops that become everyday food items — transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping chokepoint along Iran’s southern coast.
- “A less well-recognized risk is the threat the conflict poses to the global food supply chain, which depends on exports coming through the region,” Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, wrote in a recent client note.
- “Fertilizer markets are globally integrated, so supply disruptions in one region can influence prices and availability elsewhere,” wrote Faith Parum, a Farm Bureau economist.
- That means any increases in cost or tightening of supplies overseas can quickly ripple through the global agricultural supply chain and drive up the cost of food.
- For American farmers, the uncertainty is already hitting home.
- John Boyd Jr., a fourth-generation farmer in Virginia who grows soybeans, corn and wheat, said his fertilizer supplier recently warned him that shipments may not arrive as expected.
- “The dealers are telling me we can’t get the fertilizer,” Boyd told NBC News in an interview this week. “Due to the war and the bombing through that area, the fertilizer isn’t moving.”
- “If I don’t apply fertilizer, that means I won’t have the yields to make my crop,” Boyd explained.
- Going forward, he expects prices to rise as supplies tighten even more.
- Put simply: “Higher fertilizer costs will contribute to higher prices at U.S. supermarkets,” he wrote.
- Already, food prices have been rising. According to the latest consumer inflation data released earlier this week, grocery prices rose 0.4% from January to February and are now up 2.4% compared with a year ago. The cost of dining out rose 0.3% over the same period, and is up 3.9% from a year earlier.
- Now, with planting season underway, any disruption to fertilizer supplies could put additional pressure on food prices in the months ahead.
- “If farmers are unable to obtain the remaining supplies in time, we could see reductions or shifts in planted acreage and lower yields, which affects our nation’s food security and the affordability of essential goods,” Parum wrote.
- But it’s not just fertilizer. Prices are also rising for diesel, which powers tractors, irrigation systems and fertilizer spreaders.
- Boyd said those higher fuel costs are already starting to squeeze his operation, in addition to the fertilizer fears.
- “I have a tractor that requires 100 gallons of diesel fuel to fill it up, and it costs me $469 just for a tank of diesel fuel,” he said. “That doesn’t last long.”
To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact press@unrigoureconomy.com
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.