Baldwin, Grassley, Ernst Team Up to Lower Fertilizer Cost for Farmers

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) in leading a bipartisan push to help lower the cost of fertilizer by shedding light on market factors driving the cost of fertilizer, a major expense for farmers. The Midwest senators’ Fertilizer Research Act would require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to conduct a study on competition and trends in the fertilizer market to determine their subsequent impacts on price.

“Wisconsin’s farmers work long hours year-round to provide food for our families, but in recent years, they have faced tough economic headwinds, including the high cost of fertilizer. This hurts their bottom lines, our rural communities, and American consumers, and we need to do more to address rising input costs for our agricultural industry. I’m proud to work with Senator Grassley to improve the fertilizer market so our farmers can afford to continue feeding America,” Baldwin said. 

“Farmers’ bottom lines thin as the price of fertilizer rises. With fertilizer being one of the ag industry’s highest input costs, its problematic farmers have such a limited window into market fluctuations. Our bill will provide farmers in Iowa and across the Heartland with needed transparency and certainty as they navigate production costs,” Grassley said.

“Bidenomics has been tough on all Iowans, especially our farmers and rural communities. On top of rising prices for everyday goods, Iowa’s ag community is facing all-time high fertilizer costs,” Ernst said. “Senator Chuck Grassley and I are teaming up to force Biden’s USDA to create more transparency around why fertilizer costs are so high and how we can work to bring them down.”

The Fertilizer Research Act is endorsed by the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association.

Within one year of the bill’s passage, the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Economic Research Council, would be required to issue a report on USDA’s website regarding the U.S. fertilizer industry. Specifically, the report should include:

• A description of impacts on the fertilizer market that influence price;
• Market trends in the past 25 years;
• A description of the imported fertilizer and market impacts;
• Impacts of anti-dumping and countervailing duties;
• A study of fertilizer industry concentration;
• A study of emerging fertilizer technologies; and
• A description of whether current public price reporting is sufficient for market transparency.

Full text of the bill can be found here.

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