Letters to the Editor

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To the Editor:

Late last month, the White House launched its latest war -- "Operation Epic Fury" -- against Iran. Rather than asserting their constitutional powers (https://constitutioncenter.org/…) over foreign policy, Congress is already looking for ways to pour even more money into this conflict with Iran -- including an effort to attach farm aid to war funds. Yet no amount of aid will make up for the harm that this destructive war is doing to America's farmers.

The War in Iran costs billions of dollars every day (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…), to say nothing of the costs to Iranian civilians (https://www.nytimes.com/…) and US soldiers (https://www.politico.com/…). The Trump administration has had difficulty justifying this intervention to Congress, relying on explanations that are flimsy and constantly changing (https://www.militarytimes.com/…). Despite this, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is already offering to surrender Congress' powers to the White House by declaring (https://thehill.com/…) that "a supplemental funding bill for the military is inevitable."

This is untrue. Increasing the national debt to prolong a harmful war is only "inevitable" if Congress decides that it is. Most congressional Democrats are skeptical of this conflict, so Republicans have been planning to add "sweeteners" to their forthcoming budget bill in hopes of attracting Democratic support. According (https://www.politico.com/…) to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., financial relief for struggling farmers is one of the most likely policies to be stapled onto an Iran War funding bill.

There is no amount of farm aid that will make up for the damage that this war is doing to American farms. Farmers across the country are already suffering from fast-rising input prices as a result of the trade disruptions caused by Trump's war, a severe cost crunch which will raise grocery prices and destroy farmers' livelihoods.

Fertilizers are one of the largest input costs for most farmers. For those growing corn and wheat, fertilizers make up more than a third (https://www.fas.usda.gov/…) of their budget. While most of the media has focused on the rising oil prices caused by the Iran War, farmers have noticed that fertilizer prices are spiking as well. One-third of the world's maritime trade in fertilizer moves through (https://unctad.org/…) the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely closed as a result of the violence in the region. The impact on farmers and food prices will be severe.

The price of nitrogen-based urea fertilizers -- the most commonly used (https://www.ers.usda.gov/…) fertilizer in the U.S. -- skyrocketed by 25% within only a few days. Overall, fertilizer prices rose by a shocking 71% (https://www.agweb.com/…) in the 90-day period before and during the start of the conflict.

These high prices could not have come at a worse time. Spring is the peak season (https://www.agriculture.com/…) for farmers to apply fertilizer to their corn and spring wheat crops. Such a sharp spike in fertilizer prices right at the beginning of spring poses a direct threat to future harvests of the food staples that feed our country.

Not only will this war damage the well-being of farmers across the country, but these costs will inevitably be passed on to grocery shoppers. The effects could very well be worse than the price spike caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which contributed (https://www.choicesmagazine.org/…)to the high level of food inflation that has hammered working families in recent years.

The longer the War on Iran continues, the worse that the pain caused by these trade disruptions will get. Yet prolonging the war is exactly what Congress would be doing by providing the White House with extra funding for it. Attaching a little farm aid to a bill that severely harms farmers is a fool's errand at best.

The Justice Department is right to investigate (https://www.bloomberg.com/…) price-fixing by fertilizer companies, as anti-competitive "seller's inflation" (https://www.sciencedirect.com/…) by major corporations can contribute to rising prices. But in this case, they are likely to find that most of the recent price increases are a regular, market-based result of the White House's reckless decision to launch a new war. The only way to end the high prices is to end the war.

Congress would be wise not to fall for the trap of giving farmers a little aid today while massively damaging them over the coming years. If policymakers are concerned about the well-being of American farmers and the grocery shoppers who rely on them, there is a cheaper and more effective option available to them: using their war powers to immediately end all hostilities in Iran. Anything else would be a small bandage on a growing wound.

Brett Heinz

Brett Heinz is the global policy coordinator for economic and climate justice at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization with programs providing technical assistance to farmers in the U.S. and abroad.

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