Ag News
AFBF pushes Senate Ag Committee for help on fuel and fertilizer
Posted on Mar 25, 2026 at 12:13 PM
Earlier in March, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to President Donald Trump and testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee seeking help from the federal government to ease farmers’ financial challenges, particularly those related to fertilizer and fuel costs.
The conflict in the Middle East, during which Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic, is impacting global prices of oil and fertilizer. Significant portions of both commodities are shipped out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, which sits on Iran’s southern border, across the water from land shared by the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Duvall pointed out that like oil, global fertilizer markets are highly vulnerable to disruptions in maritime transit routes,
“These supply chain shocks are expected to drive already record-high input prices even higher at a time when farm margins are already extremely tight and many farmers are underwater,” Duvall wrote.
AFBF recommended a number of actions the federal government could take to mitigate fertilizer supply and price challenges, including using the U.S. Navy to facilitate safe passage through Hormuz, leveraging federal tools to address insurance or financing barriers to maritime transport, taking steps to improved domestic transportation and suspending tariffs on imported fertilizer products.
On March 18, President Trump issued an executive order suspending the Jones Act for 60 days. The Jones Act, officially called the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, requires transport of goods between U.S. ports to be done on U.S.-built vessels sailing under the U.S. flag.
During testimony before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee on March 10, Duvall commented on potential fertilizer shortages or extreme price spikes due to rising tensions in the Middle East after a question from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), highlighting Farm Bureau’s recent urging for U.S. government action.
“We need our government to use the Navy to make sure those ships can freely come through, and work with our partner countries to make sure they can come through. Also, the financial and insurance direction – when the strait was shut down, the insurance company Lloyd’s of London cut off insurance. They parked the boats. So, we need to use every opportunity that we have in our country to make sure that we solve that problem.”
His testimony before the committee offered a variety of solutions for increasing demand for U.S.-grown agricultural.
“We must strengthen domestic demand for American agricultural products. We must reinforce our production capacity of critical ag supplies and restore domestic processing capacity. We must ensure our safety nets are strong and expand fair and enforceable market access abroad,” Duvall noted in his opening comments.
The solutions offered include authorizing year-round E15, modernizing farm labor programs and establishing improved programs to enable schools and our military to purchase directly from local farms.
After his opening statement, Duvall took questions from lawmakers, including Committee Chairman Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) who asked how Congress can help modernize farm labor programs.
“When I go across America and talk to farmers, it’s the number one issue they’re facing, long-term issue,” Duvall replied. “Of course, the economy right now is the biggest issue that’s facing them, but labor is the biggest limiting factor that we have in agriculture today.”
In response to a question from Ranking Member Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) about agricultural research, President Duvall emphasized the importance of the United States keeping pace with other countries in terms of research funding.
“All of the research that goes into agriculture helps us stay on the cutting edge. We see other countries where their agricultural communities are growing and adapting to the things that we adapted to many years ago. And, that research keeps us on the cutting edge and gives the consumer out there what they really want. So, it is vitally important for us to have additional monies for research. It helps us do the things that people in this country want us to do, from conserving our natural resources to creating new products and new crop protection tools that we can use in the future.”
When asked by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) about authorizing year-round E15, President Duvall called it “vitally important” for Congress to act.
“It’s a no-brainer. It’s a win-win-win. It’s a win for consumers, win for the farmer and it’s a win for you [Congress] to make sure that you can do that for the consumer and for the farmer at the same time. And there’s no better time to do that, especially with some of the threatening of some of the fuel and oil going up because of the war.”
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