“The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing some farmers to the brink” Excerpt From “The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is p
NPR reports:
“ “"Sometimes we know that we've only got two weeks of fuel," he said.
The war couldn't have come at a worse time. It's spring — planting season — when Delta farmers are burning the most fuel and spending the most on fertilizer.
And they were already struggling.
The Trump administration's tariffs, and other countries’ retaliatory measures that followed have gutted the export markets Delta farmers depend on, leading to major losses for small farmers like Taylor who is now also grappling with rising costs caused by a war thousands of miles away.
A loyal Republican whose patience is ‘wearing thin’
China has largely stopped buying American soybeans. Rice exports to Latin America cratered. Corn prices plummeted. Cotton markets’ prices bottomed out.
"Everybody picks on the thing that's one of our bigger exports," Taylor said. "They quit buying all of our crops. We have lost customers forever. They will never come back. Because we're deemed an unreliable supplier."
Taylor said he’s a lifelong Republican. He voted for President Trump in 2024. He applied to receive relief from the administration's $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program — a one-time payment designed to offset tariff losses.
The Trump administration argued the payments would help farmers until their economic policies, such as lowering some taxes, would take effect.”
“Taylor received a payment in March, he said, declining to disclose the exact amount. But he said it covered only about 20 percent of what he actually lost last year, and his patience with the Trump administration is “wearing thin.”
“If somebody took $100 out of my pocket and then turned around and gave me $20 back, patted me on the back and said they were my friend, I'm not really sure I would agree,” he said.
Delta farmers like Taylor have weathered hard times before. He remembers the farm crisis in the 1980s, when falling crop prices, high interest rates, and a collapse in land values forced banks to fail and thousands of family farms into foreclosure.
But he’s never seen prices fluctuate as wildly as they are now. Standing in his field, thinking back on those times, Taylor said it’s worse now than it was then.
“We got people that were barely struggling to get by, and now they've been hit with two major increases for fertilizer and fuel just exactly at the wrong time when we need them,” Taylor said.
“It’s going to be the nail in the coffin for a number of farmers.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the USDA said the Trump administration has provided over $30 billion in ad hoc assistance to farmers since January 2025.
The USDA did not directly respond to questions from NPR about whether additional payments similar to the farmer bridge program are being considered to make up for current losses or what the agency is doing to help farmers deal with higher fertilizer and fuel costs.
‘The ants are getting crushed’
A few miles down the road, near the town of Sledge, Mississippi — land once owned by WD Sledge, Taylor’s namesake and great-great-grandfather — Anthony Bland is doing his own math, and it isn't adding up either.
Bland grows rice and soybeans on about 2,000 acres. Like most farmers in the Delta, he introduces himself by listing how many generations his family has been farming.
"From the cotton fields to what we're doing now," he said, tracing his lineage in a single sentence heavy with history and significance.”
“He's also navigating the Trump Administration gutting decades-old USDA programs designed to assist Black farmers. Those programs existed in part because Black farmers have historically faced discrimination from lenders and government agencies — and because they tend to operate at smaller scales, with less financial cushion to absorb sudden shocks.
Unlike Taylor, Bland did not vote for Trump in 2024.
“I just have a problem with the way they're treating anybody that doesn't look like him,” he said referring to the Trump administration.
But both men said they don’t support the war with Iran and they don’t know if they’ll be able to continue farming.
It’s a “make or break” year for Bland. He may stop planting the fields his family has planted for generations, lease out his land, and do something else.
Taylor hoped this year would be better than last, but he said it’s starting off worse, and there’s a limit before he decides to call it quits.
"There's an old African proverb," he said, looking out across the rows of green corn stalks. "'When elephants fight, it's the ants that get crushed.'
The ants are getting crushed." ””
Excerpt From
“The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing some farmers to the brink”
NPR
https://apple.news/ACYNXO11gTQaUezwvWL6amw
This material may be protected by copyright.
“ “"Sometimes we know that we've only got two weeks of fuel," he said.
The war couldn't have come at a worse time. It's spring — planting season — when Delta farmers are burning the most fuel and spending the most on fertilizer.
And they were already struggling.
The Trump administration's tariffs, and other countries’ retaliatory measures that followed have gutted the export markets Delta farmers depend on, leading to major losses for small farmers like Taylor who is now also grappling with rising costs caused by a war thousands of miles away.
A loyal Republican whose patience is ‘wearing thin’
China has largely stopped buying American soybeans. Rice exports to Latin America cratered. Corn prices plummeted. Cotton markets’ prices bottomed out.
"Everybody picks on the thing that's one of our bigger exports," Taylor said. "They quit buying all of our crops. We have lost customers forever. They will never come back. Because we're deemed an unreliable supplier."
Taylor said he’s a lifelong Republican. He voted for President Trump in 2024. He applied to receive relief from the administration's $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance Program — a one-time payment designed to offset tariff losses.
The Trump administration argued the payments would help farmers until their economic policies, such as lowering some taxes, would take effect.”
“Taylor received a payment in March, he said, declining to disclose the exact amount. But he said it covered only about 20 percent of what he actually lost last year, and his patience with the Trump administration is “wearing thin.”
“If somebody took $100 out of my pocket and then turned around and gave me $20 back, patted me on the back and said they were my friend, I'm not really sure I would agree,” he said.
Delta farmers like Taylor have weathered hard times before. He remembers the farm crisis in the 1980s, when falling crop prices, high interest rates, and a collapse in land values forced banks to fail and thousands of family farms into foreclosure.
But he’s never seen prices fluctuate as wildly as they are now. Standing in his field, thinking back on those times, Taylor said it’s worse now than it was then.
“We got people that were barely struggling to get by, and now they've been hit with two major increases for fertilizer and fuel just exactly at the wrong time when we need them,” Taylor said.
“It’s going to be the nail in the coffin for a number of farmers.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the USDA said the Trump administration has provided over $30 billion in ad hoc assistance to farmers since January 2025.
The USDA did not directly respond to questions from NPR about whether additional payments similar to the farmer bridge program are being considered to make up for current losses or what the agency is doing to help farmers deal with higher fertilizer and fuel costs.
‘The ants are getting crushed’
A few miles down the road, near the town of Sledge, Mississippi — land once owned by WD Sledge, Taylor’s namesake and great-great-grandfather — Anthony Bland is doing his own math, and it isn't adding up either.
Bland grows rice and soybeans on about 2,000 acres. Like most farmers in the Delta, he introduces himself by listing how many generations his family has been farming.
"From the cotton fields to what we're doing now," he said, tracing his lineage in a single sentence heavy with history and significance.”
“He's also navigating the Trump Administration gutting decades-old USDA programs designed to assist Black farmers. Those programs existed in part because Black farmers have historically faced discrimination from lenders and government agencies — and because they tend to operate at smaller scales, with less financial cushion to absorb sudden shocks.
Unlike Taylor, Bland did not vote for Trump in 2024.
“I just have a problem with the way they're treating anybody that doesn't look like him,” he said referring to the Trump administration.
But both men said they don’t support the war with Iran and they don’t know if they’ll be able to continue farming.
It’s a “make or break” year for Bland. He may stop planting the fields his family has planted for generations, lease out his land, and do something else.
Taylor hoped this year would be better than last, but he said it’s starting off worse, and there’s a limit before he decides to call it quits.
"There's an old African proverb," he said, looking out across the rows of green corn stalks. "'When elephants fight, it's the ants that get crushed.'
The ants are getting crushed." ””
Excerpt From
“The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing some farmers to the brink”
NPR
https://apple.news/ACYNXO11gTQaUezwvWL6amw
This material may be protected by copyright.
