GFB News Magazine

GFB working to head off financial storm

by Tom McCall
GFB President

Posted on June 3, 2026 3:18 AM

Smiling grandparents stand with their three grandchildren - two boys and 1 little girl - in a field with pond behind them

GFB President Tom McCall & his wife, Jane, with their grandchildren Wilkes, Winn and McCall. /Photo by Camdyn Moon Photography

Y’all need to know Georgia Farm Bureau is doing everything we can when it comes to fighting the skyrocketing input costs we’re all facing. Our message to Washington is that farmers are in the middle of a growing financial storm and we need help from the stress.

With that being said, one of the most meaningful surveys I’ve seen recently is part of the greater efforts to get the Trump administration’s attention as well as members of the U.S. Congress.

In early April more than 5,700 farmers, both Farm Bureau members and non-members, from every state and Puerto Rico participated in a survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). Just over 120 of the responses came from Georgia.

This survey clearly indicates farmers cannot afford to purchase enough fertilizer to get them through the growing season. 70% of the producers say fertilizer is so expensive they will not be able to buy all the fertilizer they desperately need.

Almost 8 in 10 farmers in the South say they can’t afford all the needed supplies this year, followed by our friends in the Northeast and West at 69% and 66% respectively, compared to 48% of the farmers in the Midwest.

Only 19% of producers here in the South prebooked fertilizer purchases in advance of planting season. That applies to so many of you that I’ve spoken to in the first four months of this year.

The conflict in the Middle East that started in March sent fertilizer and fuel prices soaring. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has had far-reaching impacts on critical fertilizer supplies and crude oil from reaching global markets, which puts a squeeze on supplies around the world.

As reported in the AFBF survey, only 6% of farmers indicate their financial situation has improved over last year. I’m concerned that the worsened crisis won’t bode well for many of our friends in Georgia.

Let me urge you to do a couple of things as we search for solutions so farmers can continue to feed families across America. First, become engaged with our Strong Farms.Strong Georgia (SFSG) campaign so that we speak with one voice to the leaders in Washington.

You can find more details about SFSG at this website www.gfb.ag/strongfarms.

And if you’re a person of faith, be intentional to pray for the situation we find ourselves in right now. Your Georgia Farm Bureau Board of Directors and some GFB employees began our April board meeting asking God to send rain across Georgia to end the drought and to extinguish the wildfires in South Georgia. After all, prayer changes everything!

We’re in this together.

Tom McCall, GFB President