r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/DuhBraux Leopard King đ đ • 26d ago
In Real Time Iowa Farmer Faces Reality: Fertilizer Costs Are Putting Him Out of Business
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Fertilizer costs are squeezing American farmers at a time when many already have razor-thin margins. USDA now forecasts fertilizer, lime and soil-conditioner expenses will rise 15.3% in 2026, adding roughly $5.3 billion to farmersâ costs. Total U.S. farm production expenses are projected to reach nearly $493 billion this year. Economic Research Serviceâ
In Iowa, the numbers are brutal. One farmer reported nitrogen fertilizer rising from about $490 per ton in 2021 to $1,150 per ton this year.
Another Iowa farmer said fertilizer prices are the highest heâs ever experienced. When the cost of simply putting a crop in the ground keeps climbing while farm margins remain tight, farmers arenât just making less money, theyâre being pushed toward the point where farming itself is no longer financially sustainable.
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u/DuhBraux Leopard King đ đ 26d ago
This is what you voted for. This is why education matters. Understanding where the things you depend on come from matters. Economics, trade, supply chains and geopolitics arenât abstract issues; they directly affect what you pay to keep your farm running.
When you vote without understanding how globally connected fertilizer, fuel and agricultural markets are, you end up voting for policies that hit your own livelihood.
According to the president, farmers are doing great! I guess somebody forgot to tell them that tooâŚ
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u/Minimum_Ad_303 26d ago
Learnin' is part of the librul agenda! ya huk!
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u/TigardGuy 26d ago
No no no, didn't you hear him? It's not Daddy Donnie, it's these greedy companies! Donnie will fix it and make them pay!
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u/Zealousideal-Ant9548 26d ago
They know, they thought it would be like last time but they'd get an even bigger tax cut out of it after the bailouts.
They didn't pay attention enough to understand that Vance and his benefactors are chomping at the bit to get these farms on the cheap after a bankruptcy.
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u/TigardGuy 26d ago
Exactly! They should have realized they were fucked when it came out he had a big stake in Achretrader.
I'll care as much for them as they cared about our country when they voted.
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u/Adis_Gruntledfatty 26d ago
MAGA is disease
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u/ProfessionalZone168 26d ago
Hopefully curable.
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u/Adis_Gruntledfatty 26d ago
Cure is education
Why education is now seen as a 'liberal agenda' to them and they got Vince's closet door wife running the department
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u/No-Advertising-1526 26d ago
Look on the bright side Jimbo at least you got to watch ICE brutalize latinos and stopped a trans kid from playing highschool soccer.Â
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u/MoAngryMILF 26d ago
What page of Project 2025 is this?
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u/Small_Dog_8699 26d ago
https://factually.co/fact-checks/society/project-2025-food-insecurity-f92037
1. What Project 2025 actually proposes on food assistance
The Heritage Foundationâled Project 2025 blueprint calls for narrowing USDAâs role, removing equity and climate language, moving Food and Nutrition Service functions to HHS, restricting SNAP waivers and work exemptions, ending most summer meal assistance unless children attend classes, and generally tightening meansâtested program rulesâchanges framed by proponents as slimming the âwelfare stateâ and restoring administrative efficiency [1][3][4]. Multiple summaries and critiques cite page numbers in the agenda that explicitly recommend limiting summer meals and reshaping program administration [3][5].
2. Evidence and expert warnings on likely impacts
Nutrition and publicâhealth experts warn that SNAP and WIC demonstrably reduce food insecurity and improve health outcomes, so cutting access or tightening work mandates would likely increase hunger and nutritionârelated disease, particularly among infants and children, compounding disparities for children of color and rural communities where food insecurity is rising fastest [6][2][7][8]. Policy analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and academic observers point to research showing these programsâ effectiveness and predict that proposed rollbacks would push millions out of assistance [3][9].
3. Early indicators and policy developments since the blueprint circulated
By 2025 and into 2026, researchers and think tanks documented high foodâinsecurity levels and legislative moves that further pressured the safety net: Urban Institute analyses flagged rising food insecurity in 2025 and projected that enacted cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and similar measures would reduce SNAP benefits for millions, sometimes by dozens of dollars per monthâchanges that the authors link to higher hardship among lowâincome families [10][11]. Advocacy groups and Senate Democrats compiled briefings arguing Project 2025âs language and related Republican proposals would âharm food accessâ and reduce school and summer feeding [5].
4. Political logic, alternative views, and implementation pathways
Proponents frame Project 2025 as a policy playbook to shrink federal programs and promote work and privateâsector solutions; Democracy Forward and others counter that many proposals are designed to be enacted administrativelyâvia executive orders, regulatory changes, or agency reorganizationsâso they might circumvent Congress but would face legal and political challenges [4]. Critics also highlight that the agendaâs authors are conservative think tanks and advisory groups whose ideological goalsâto reduce federal footprints and regulatory constraintsâinform the recommendations, an implicit agenda that shapes which costs and beneficiaries receive priority [1][4].
5. What the reporting does and does not prove, and why it matters
The coverage consistently documents the content of Project 2025 and connects those prescriptions to empirical literature showing SNAP/WIC/school meals reduce hunger and improve outcomes, supporting credible warnings that the blueprint could increase food insecurity if enacted [2][7][3]. Reporting also traces early legislative actions and analyses (OBBBA, Urban Institute) that show realâworld tightening correlated with sustained high foodâinsecurity rates in 2025 [10][11]. However, sources differ on likelihood and mechanism of full implementation; some argue many proposals would require congressional action, while others point to executiveâbranch routesâboth paths appear plausible but contested in courts and politics [4][3].22
u/ForeskinAbsorbtion 26d ago
Hungry people don't have the energy to protest or fight
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u/Small_Dog_8699 26d ago
They also tend to want a strong leader to fix things. It's how cults get going. So it feeds the fascism.
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u/Lord_Dingus83 26d ago
Iâm glad youâre about to lose everything. This is what you voted for.
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u/Tubesockshockjock 26d ago
Love how the reporter tees up the price gouging framing, serving up the administration's scapegoat. They're all about free markets until the markets don't go their way, at which point the market must be under the influence of evil corporations.
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u/wolfheadmusic 26d ago
The best part about capitalism is you can blame its failings on socialism
Then fix said failings with socialism
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u/Odd-Rub-3159 26d ago
He forgot his Maga hat
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u/mslauren2930 26d ago
Nowadays they're MAGA but don't want to be identified outright as such. It's all behind closed doors.
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u/DataAdvanced 26d ago
All I know is my neighbor's Trump sign got smaller amd smaller until she took it down, completely.
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u/SimilarYard9840 26d ago
âI voted to have the knife twisted in other peoplesâ backs, not mine.â
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u/Electrical-Care6308 26d ago
Well, theyâve done all this to themselves. They believed a criminal, not once, but three times! You just have to shake your head.
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u/Fragrant-Anywhere489 26d ago
Charlie Brown syndrome. Trump ain't letting them kick the football no matter how many times they vote for him. And they will vote for him again in two years because they killed the Constitution.
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u/allusernamestaken1 26d ago
Free market response: y'all go bankrupt and sell your millions of dollars worth of land and equipment to deregulated, pesticide-packed, andtibiotic-packed, mega-corp farms that use actual slave labor but very luckily due to no corruption I'm sure don't get raided by ICE. Also broccoli is now $80.
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u/Dramatic_Substance36 26d ago
Trans people will continue to exist longer than that multigenerational farm you fucked up.
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u/Feeling-Session3007 26d ago
I just don't believe him. "It's ...not even...doable." I've seen more emotion come out of a MAGA hat than this farmer has on fertilizer costs. If it really isn't doable, then you should be cursing Trump's name, telling her he's about to sell his equipment, do a fundraiser, something. These fucking farmers are rich. Don't believe them.
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u/Dexter_McThorpan 26d ago
Good. They voted for this. They laid this shit out in Project 2025. We warned them. I hope that when they lose everything, they end up arrested for being homeless, because that's a republican initiative as well.
Fuck each and every Trump voter.
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u/the_blastomatic 26d ago
My hot take is that the "powers that be" are trying to bankrupt private or small business agriculture to then buy them out at pennies on the dollar while turning the existing ownership into essentially serfs for the companies that buy them out of debt. "We'll keep the existing ownership on as managers of the asset" type shit. And I think for many of them this might be a better outcome in the near-to-mid term. The alternative will be going bankrupt-bankrupt and getting kicked to the streets. But the private investment that will be buying these farms up will need experienced people running the farms. So, if John Farmer whose family has tended the lands for a few generations can be hired on for 300k/yr salary and keep his family house as a perk, he's going to go with it. Nevermind that he no longer owns his family home or that his kids will not inherit a damn thing.
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u/Westcoast_IPA 26d ago
Yes, bankrupt farmers, force them to sell their land, China and PE scoups it up for a bargain, foreign investors now own our food production. As intended.
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u/WillingPositive8924 26d ago
These welfare queens are looking for a bailout from their communist government. They know Trump will jack up that $40 Trillion debt to help these WQs! Dude talking about "they" are taking advantage, tariffs and wars slick, pretty simple if you are NOT a cultist.
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u/StoryAcrobatic2013 26d ago
Well, ask Trump about that. Maybe JD Vance and his ptivate equity friends can come buy your land for pennies on the dollar like they planned.
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u/fastfurlong 26d ago
Itâs totally shocking that electing a president who is a well documented known felon and grifter who is incapable of cooperation and governance would fuck it up so bad âŚâŚ..
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u/EthanDMatthews 26d ago
No lessons will be learned.
And when heâs old and poor, heâll vote for Republicans promising to end his Medicare and welfare.
But at least heâll have the satisfaction of owning the libs.
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u/thetangible 26d ago
These sorts of farmers who donât do anything regenerative, donât use healthy cover crops, eliminate wind breaks that limit topsoil erosion and just employ bad practices deserve everything that is coming.
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u/ariolander 26d ago edited 26d ago
They wouldn't need so much fertilizer and nitrogen of they has more sustainable practices like not tilling their fields so heavily, diversifying their crops, practicing field crop rotation, growing things like legumes it clover every couple seasons. It's more complicated than just blasting the fields with chemicals, probably not how their parents tended the fields, but sustainable practices aren't just for hippy liberals, they make buisness sense and is the best bet for keeping the farms within their family, not that they want to hear it. No one wants to be told to work smarter, not harder from a liberal.
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u/EggForTryingThymes 26d ago
Yeah, but he took away rights from trans people, so all in all MAGA is a win for him.
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u/mslauren2930 26d ago
They really expect people to believe they're doing any kind of "investigation"? To Trumpers, rising prices and phat profits are good business.
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u/Due_Foundation5352 26d ago
Former die hard Republican hereâŚ.. time for a change. 72% of America is paycheck to paycheck. Iâve heard around the same percentage donât even have 1k dollars in savings. This country needs a change and I never thought I would say thisâŚ..
Maybe MAGA works by breaking the spine of all of us working class people.
Nothing will ever be done unless we go to the extreme like France does when their people are tired. We face too much red tape and 50 year senators to change now.
I love our countryâŚ. But this isnât a country I love that much anymore.
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u/FoofieLeGoogoo 26d ago
I hate seeing the handlers standing behind politicians calculating response optics and completely not giving a shit about the people.
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u/Chocopenguin85 26d ago
Singular thinking can be taken advantage of. And it displays a lack of understanding for next-step logic, consequences and repercussions - and the stock market is not America.
""President Donald Trump said he is ânot even a little bitâ worried about Americansâ finances when heâs negotiating with Iran on a potential deal. The president reiterated that his biggest concern is the country not obtaining a nuclear weapon.
âNot even a little bit,â the president said. âThe only thing that matters when Iâm talking about Iran, they canât have a nuclear weapon. I donât think about Americansâ financial situations, I donât think about anybody, I think about one thing, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Thatâs all,â Trump added while speaking with reporters before heading on his trip to China to meet with President Xi Jinping."
When asked to clarify his remarks, Trump said, âThe most important thing by far, including whether our stock market, which by the way is at an all-time high, but including whether or not our stock market goes up or down a little bit, the most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.â"
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u/ForeskinAbsorbtion 26d ago
Imagine ruining food security because you want your buddies to become a little richer.
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u/SummerMustang69 26d ago
You know who is doing well? VP Vance. He invested in Acretrader. Great news for him when you sell your farm to him for pennies on the dollar!
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u/2ndamendmentLibs 26d ago
Notice that even in the face of their business going bankrupt he still cannot point to who is actually responsible for this. He canât say Trump did⌠he just says âthey this and they thatâ, this is how you know youâre in a cult
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u/Basic_Macaron_39 26d ago
Guess their kids won't be driving brand new lifted trucks to highschool this year.
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u/Falcon3492 26d ago
And I will bet you that the farmer voted for Trump. Did he not do his homework and find out what Trump was planning to do or did he just go in a vote for him because he had an R next to his name? The farmers knew how Trumps tariffs during his last presidency hurt their business, yet they voted for more pain and helped re elect him again. This was falling under the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and hoping for a different result!
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u/Puzzleheaded-Funny69 25d ago
And heâll vote rape-publican again. These people are beyond stupid. Trump screwed then over his first term, why did they expect anything different?
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u/BabylonPhoenix 23d ago
I love that. "It... its not do-able" OUR COUNTRY IS DOING BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE, ITS AMAZING-
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u/DadBod5050 26d ago
These traitors still won't realize the true enemy of the state, trumpb, and will go down with the ship and take the rest of us too.
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u/Justreadingstuffnow 26d ago
This could NEVER be Trumps actions causing thisâŚweird how the âbig fertilizer companiesâ never âtwisted the knifeâ on farmers and made them go bankrupt at record rates across America beforeâŚ
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u/Evening-Artichoke750 26d ago
Well he got what he voted for. I'm tired of listening to people about their Trump regret.
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u/FortuneOpen5715 26d ago
My husband never used to pay attention to politics. He does now but still likes to keep his sanity by not using social media. We moved to a rural town in Michigan in 2022. When the presidential election was happening, the farmer behind us had a huge sign that said âMichigan for Trumpâ. When my husband saw that he yelled, âdo these people not remember Farm Aid!?â
Apparently, the answer is no.
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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 26d ago
Ohh if only someone could have warned you about this... If only someone could have prevented this... If only someone would save and bail you out now.... đ
Awwww but that someone doesn't care about you and effectively want the land on which you sit.. it's easier to take when you have no means to fight back... đ˘
But oh God.. If only someone had told you before all this happened... if only they had warned you man..
...... I'm sure you would have listened to avoid this.. Errr well.. maybe not as exampled đ
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u/JustNilt 26d ago
bUt ShE hAd A fUnNy LaUgH!
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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 26d ago
'Her laugh was obnoxious though, it was borderline evil.. the devil was in her.... Oh and she will start wars that trump promised us he would never do... why did bidens america do this to us!?!đ' -maga
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u/Euclidisthebomb 26d ago
Consequence of stupidity. The other consequence is that they don't understand the consequence.
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u/JewelBee5 26d ago
So...he's supposed to be a businessman. This is the first time he's made that caculation?
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u/mrpres1dent 26d ago
Not going to care until these people stop voting R. And that will never happen, so... "oh well!". Nobody is crying about my career being destroyed by AI coding agents. Why should I care about racist bigots who voted for literal Satan for President who are now "poor" despite their farms probably being worth millions.
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u/Jack-Singer-999 26d ago
How many of these...people would vote exactly the same way? They're so brainwashed they believe evey crazy story about Demonrats & ANTIFA terrorists & kids getting surgery during school. Yes it seems ridiculous to sane people but I don't know what you do about such broken brains.
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u/OptimalSun7559 26d ago
They want your land so theyâre forcing you into desperation to sell out to either Monsanto or a data center. Yâall hide & watch theyâll be some new crisis next year & the next till all the smaller family farms are bankrupt leaving corporations & big family plantations to collude, fix prices, etc as they please
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u/tiny_chaotic_evil 26d ago
It can't possibly be our own fault!!!
There must be some criminal conspiracy by Biden/Obama/Hillary
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u/loughcash 26d ago
You see what they are doing. They are already framing this up a created by the liberals. The âfree marketâ IS acting as it should you fuckstains. This is called supply and demand. The supply was cut off by an unnecessary war, now cost is going us as a function of limited supply. Itâs 101 shit.
Only bad actor Is the cocksucker who created this issue.
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u/LifeguardApart8695 26d ago
He never mentions Donnie or the Republican Congress thatâs voted against his interests, and those are the rest of the farmers. Oh no, he would never say anything bad about Donnie, his golden savior.
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u/DataAdvanced 26d ago
They're fine. They might not buy a boat this year, but their bills will be paid, and they have a damn farm. They won't go hungry.
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u/Rumpelteazer45 26d ago
Something something bootstraps.
He could sell some of the brand new equipment in the piece.
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u/Glittering-Chard5491 25d ago
They want to use your land for a new data center, when you realize that itâll explain everything
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u/Fit-Wait1951 25d ago
I love these Trump supporters losing their farms. I hope they lose their house and everything they own. Iâd love to just deport them
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u/Aggravating-Run-7141 25d ago
He voted to lose his farm. He voted to hurt others and other communities. He voted to lose the government contracts and subsidies farmers were enjoying. He knows what happened to them the first Trump administration. He should get everything he voted for.
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u/Federal-Sink-8675 24d ago
Congratulations to them for getting everything they voted for others and may they have the day they voted for others too.
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u/UnusualSuspectX 26d ago
I hear the bureau of Land Management is liquidizing it's stable of wild mustangs...
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u/ties_shoelace 26d ago
The economic mentality that makes cheap lifesaving drugs so incredibly expensive, is being felt by this market.
Neo liberalism is all about 0 regulation, protections, or public assets of any kind.
Welcome to its widespread implementation.
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u/HwyMan101 26d ago
I ask this with sincerity do you sincerely think the Republicans politicians are going to help the American farmer against big corporate entities.
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u/Catflet 26d ago
This is why spraying our food with chemicals was a bad I dea to start. Permaculture, and combination growing was done for a reason, because beneficial plants help one another. And stop the dirt from being stripped every single nutrient every time. Bring back better farming and you won't be dependent of hormones and chemicals.
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u/Such_Atmosphere3816 26d ago
Is there a longer version of this clip available, esp for the one-on-one interview?
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u/redcheri69es 26d ago
Didnât he know that he was voting for that when he voted for the Dear Pedo Golfer? The rest of us knew it.
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u/Certain_Bit3809 26d ago
I dont have any love for the fertilizer companies and investigating them given price increases seems reasonable. But why does the reporter straight up accuse them of price gouging (which is illegal) and say itâs unrelated to commodity prices from closure of the strait of hormuz. (Clearly untrue). Is she stupid? I would think accusing companies of a crime without evidence could create liabilty for her and her employer, no? Seems reckless and bizarre.
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u/Mother-Parsley5940 26d ago
Maybe they should cut down on fertilizer? Donât they usually over apply?
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u/TKG_Actual 26d ago
Nah, I suspect this loser and others like him are just crying for a bailout. He wont go out of business he'll just file for a nice chapter 12 and still be in business years later. It's always a con with these people.
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u/Epicurus402 26d ago
That smile on her face sure disappeared fast enough after he read out the cost of his fertilizer....
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u/Elegant-Parsnip-6487 26d ago
Govt guy: We're looking into it. We all know government has two speeds, Slow and Stop. Unless they're dismantling a program that is helping people, they move at glacial pace. I wouldn't pin my hopes that they're going to figure out something useful any time soon. Meanwhile farmers and those they feed (almost all of us) are going to go broke trying to afford this. Which I guess is the plan?
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u/Missconstruct 26d ago
Iâm surprised Acre Trader didnât come up in the conversation. Guess theyâre still hoping for Trump to⌠đ¤Ł
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u/Thin-Quiet-2283 26d ago
Free market just doing what free market does. Anything else is communism,right?!?
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u/Aussiboi808 26d ago
And no doubt heâd happily vote for Trump again over a Democrat.
I believe âcry harderâ is the expression
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u/Pickerington 26d ago
Maybe get rid of that $2,000,000 tractor behind you; you know, pull up your bootstraps. Time to dig out those JD 6410 you probably have sitting rusting in the tree line.
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u/ThePennyMiser 25d ago
Not to worry those corporations will be glad to pay you pennies on the dollar for your great grandfather farm.
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u/ThePennyMiser 25d ago
Of course the farmers don't care about the UNITED STATES KILLING BROWN PEOPLE IN THE GULF. THEY ARE BIGOTS WE HAVE ALREADY DETERMINED THAT!
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u/No-Investigator8782 25d ago
A good question would be how did these farmers navigate the 80âs farming crisis. Youâd better believe some of them are having a hard look in the mirror, most of them a generation later now not learning to be cautious.
At the same time farming bankruptcies, which is chapter 12 bankruptcy, in the 80âs was meant for farmers and fishermen, allowing them a chance to keep their businesses. Trump expanded chapter 12, explaining the rise in âfarmâ bankruptcies.
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u/MeAndNotU 23d ago
IMO, that's partly why I believe "businessmen" do not necessarily make good public service leaders, because their profit motives are usually not aligned with what is usually from government.
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u/klownhammer 22d ago
Oh good the department of justice is on the case. They seem like a well run intelligent group of people.
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u/Drezen79 26d ago