In this June 2026 clip from The Kim Iversen Show, fourth-generation farmer and Farm Action Fund president Joe Maxwell explains how the escalating conflict with Iran — particularly disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz — has triggered a 25-50% spike in fertilizer prices just as spring planting began. With much of the world's phosphate, potash, and nitrogen-based inputs tied to global supply chains heavily reliant on that route, U.S. farmers face a brutal double hit of skyrocketing input costs (including fuel) and already depressed commodity prices from prior tariffs and trade wars. Maxwell highlights corporate concentration in fertilizer and grain processing as the real long-term culprit, turning supply disruptions into opportunities for price gouging, while calling for bipartisan action to support family farms and break monopolies.
