Fertilizer Policy Under the Microscope
America’s farmers are feeling the squeeze of high input costs, especially for fertilizer. American Farm Bureau Economist Faith Parum says a new white paper analyzes the problem in more detail…
“AFBF released a fertilizer white paper called "A Strategic Fertilizer Response: Policy Considerations for U.S. Agriculture" to talk about the volatility we have all seen in the fertilizer market, some of the actions that USDA, the administration, and Congress are taking to stabilize that market, and policy considerations for things we can do in the future.”
We always hear it. Ther fertilizer market is a global market, so anytime there is a disruption, the impact is felt around the world.
“It makes prices more expensive here at home, and so this just helps outline some key policy areas where Congress and the administration can look at to help smooth out that volatility. Things like increasing domestic production. Increasing fertilizer transparency. There's been some talk about a fertilizer reserve, so it looks into what a fertilizer reserve would even look like.”
If you want to see what they’ve put together as far as that white paper, visit https://www.fb.org/issue/fertilizer
As far as what’s next, she says that this paper poses some questions .They’re hoping that helps to get the discussion going amongst farmers. And then the next question is going to be what, if any policy, needs to be implemented in response.
