A member of President Donald Trump’s administration has confirmed they may lift a Joe Biden-era policy to fix an ongoing crisis.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has confirmed that a plan to shore up domestic fertilizer production, previously flagged by the Biden administration, is under consideration to fix a current problem. Trump’s team is under pressure to deliver an out for the swell of prices caused by the war in Iran, and their fix may come from the previous administration, Politico reported.
The Fertilizer Production Expansion Program was designed by Biden officials as a way to help farmers weather unexpected price shocks, particularly on fertilizer, following the start of the war in Ukraine.
“We are looking into that right now,” Rollins told reporters Wednesday. “We don’t care whose idea it was, if it was a good idea, or at least part of a good idea, we’re going to take that and build on it.
“USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has been working literally around the clock to harness the cost of heat and fertilizer. Certainly, what has happened in the last 45 or 50 days, the Trump administration has already taken a whole suite of actions to make fertilizer more affordable and available.”
Trump has failed to adequately address soaring fertilizer prices affecting American agriculture, a crisis largely self-inflicted by his policy decisions.
GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley publicly criticized Trump over agricultural cost pressures, noting the administration’s policies have heaped “pain on farmers.”
A survey conducted earlier this month found that eight in 10 farmers cannot afford the necessary supplies to continue production of fertilizer.
“The analysis reveals that almost 8 in 10 farmers in the southern U.S. say they can’t afford all needed supplies this year, followed by the Northeast and West at 69% and 66%, respectively, compared to 48% of the farmers in the Midwest,” reads a report published earlier this month from the AFBF, a major farming nonprofit and lobbying group. “Just 19% of farmers in the South prebooked fertilizer purchases in advance of planting season.”
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