Every Ohio family has watched the total climb at the grocery store and wondered why it keeps happening. When people think about rising food prices in Ohio, most naturally look at what is happening on store shelves.
But many of those costs begin much earlier, on the farm.
Ohio farmers were among the first to feel the impact of rising production costs, driven in large part by the dramatic increase in fertilizer prices. In difficult economic times, consumers may be able to cut back on certain purchases. Farmers do not have the same flexibility when it comes to fertilizer. It is an essential input used to grow the crops that feed families here at home and around the world.
When that input becomes more expensive, farmers absorb the pressure first. Eventually, those higher costs can move through the broader food supply chain.
Why Fertilizer Prices Matter to Ohio Farmers
If we really want to talk about lowering costs for farmers and families, we also have to talk about why some of those costs keep climbing.
For Ohio grain farmers, fertilizer is one of the major expenses involved in producing a crop. When fertilizer prices rise sharply, it can put additional pressure on already-tight farm margins.
One of the issues farmers are raising involves federal trade rules and the countervailing duties placed on certain imported fertilizers.
The concern is straightforward: when fewer affordable fertilizer options are available, farmers have less flexibility in what they can buy and what they have to pay.
How Countervailing Duties Affect Fertilizer Costs
Countervailing duties are intended to address unfairly subsidized imports.
But from the perspective of many farmers, the way those rules have been applied to fertilizer has created a different problem.
A small number of companies can seek duties on imported fertilizer, limiting competition in the market. Farmers are then left with fewer purchasing options and, in many cases, higher costs for an input they cannot simply do without.
Those higher fertilizer costs have had real consequences.
Many farmers have been dealing with tight or negative returns for several years. In agriculture, that kind of pressure is difficult to sustain, especially when essential inputs continue to become more expensive.
Some within agriculture have referred to these fertilizer-related costs as the “Biden farm tax.” It is not a tax passed by Congress, but farmers use the phrase to describe what they see as a similar result: higher costs, fewer options, and added pressure on family farms.
Higher Farm Input Costs Affect More Than Farmers
This is not just a farm issue.
American farmers compete in a global marketplace. When farmers in countries such as Brazil and China have broader access to lower-cost fertilizer, U.S. growers may find themselves competing at a disadvantage.
Ohio farmers still have to plant, fertilize, and harvest their crops. They still have to pay for fuel, equipment, seed, and other inputs. When one of those major costs rises sharply, there are only so many places that pressure can go.
That is why the conversation around fertilizer prices in Ohio matters beyond the farm gate.
Higher production costs can affect farm profitability, planting decisions, and the economics of the broader supply chain. Over time, those pressures can contribute to the higher food costs families see at the grocery store.
Ohio Farmers Are Calling for Federal Action
Ohio has an opportunity to help push for change.
Farmers are calling on Senator Bernie Moreno to bring greater attention to the impact fertilizer costs are having on Ohio agriculture.
Senator Moreno has spoken about strengthening Ohio’s economy and reducing unnecessary burdens on businesses. Farmers need that same attention brought to the cost pressures affecting agriculture.
This issue deserves to be understood for what it is: not simply a concern for farmers, but one that can affect consumers, food affordability, and the competitiveness of American agriculture.
A federal review of countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer in 2026 offers an opportunity to reconsider how these policies are affecting farmers.
From our perspective, addressing this issue would give farmers greater access to competitively priced fertilizer while helping remove one of the unnecessary cost pressures facing agricultural producers.
Keeping Ohio Farmers Competitive
Ohio farmers are used to dealing with challenges.
Weather changes. Markets move. Input costs fluctuate. Farmers adapt because that is what agriculture requires.
But farmers should not have to compete with one hand tied behind their backs because government policy has unnecessarily limited access to essential crop inputs.
If federal leaders are serious about addressing rising food prices in Ohio, fertilizer costs need to be part of that conversation.
Removing these duties is a practical place to start.
Give farmers access to a more competitive fertilizer market, and let Ohio farmers get back to what they do best: growing the food, feed, and fuel our country depends on.
Executive Director
Ohio Corn & Wheat
Stand Up for Ohio’s Corn & Wheat Farmers
Ohio’s corn and small grain farmers need a strong voice on the policies that affect their farms, businesses, and communities.
Join the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association and help support advocacy on farm, tax, and trade policy, grower education, research, and other issues shaping Ohio agriculture.
Phone: (740) 201-8088
