Andy Corriher voted for Donald Trump. From his farm in the southeast of the United States, he helplessly observes the Middle East war driving up his costs and risking reducing his harvest.
“We were hit at the worst possible time. We need fertilizers whose prices are skyrocketing and availability is decreasing,” says the 47-year-old farmer on the edge of a field of tender green wheat.
In response to Israeli-American bombings on its soil, Tehran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime route for the trade of hydrocarbons and fertilizers, causing prices to soar.
However, these are two major expenditures for farmers, who are mostly loyal to the Republican party in power in the United States.
In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump came out on top in 78% of agricultural-dependent counties, according to Investigate Midwest.
The Republican attributed the price surge to the “fertilizer monopoly” on Saturday and declared, “American farmers, we are with you!”
Based in China Grove, North Carolina, Andy Corriher is still waiting for the liquid nitrogen fertilizer he ordered several weeks ago.
“The seller says they still don’t know when they can deliver it.”
He claims the price has increased by at least 40% since the war.
The farmer has decided to use a third less, risking compromising the yield.
-“Heartbreaking”-
About fifty kilometers away, Russell Hedrick had no choice but to buy most of his fertilizer after the price surge.
“Many American farmers don’t have enough space to stock up,” explains the forty-something man, mixing products to feed his 400 hectares of soybeans and cereals.
He has chosen to use the “bare minimum” of fertilizer and add more later.
According to him, even before the war, costs were such that “farmers had to play chemists like Breaking Bad with the fertilizers to get the most out of them.”
On another farm in North Carolina, Derrick Austin struggles to digest statements from Agriculture Minister Brooke Rollins.
She highlighted the fact that 80% of American farmers had been able to purchase the necessary fertilizer before the conflict.
“It left me speechless,” describes the 55-year-old man, who is among the remaining 20%.
As soon as he learned about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, he called his supplier and managed to negotiate dozens of tons of nitrogen fertilizer at the previous price “at least to be able to feed my wheat.” “It was heartbreaking.”
-“Collateral Damage”-
American agriculture “has been in recession for two years” with declining revenues, recalls Chad Hart, a sector specialist at the University of Iowa, a rural state in the center of the United States.
The conflict will worsen the situation, but many farmers have managed to limit the damage and spread fertilizers without astronomical surcharges, adds the professor.
The 2027 harvest will be “more of a concern” if the conflict continues, he believes.
“It’s as if we didn’t really consider all the consequences (of the war, editor’s note) for Americans,” ponders Andy Corriher, for whom “everyone seems to suffer” from the soaring fuel prices.
The farmer, who supported Donald Trump, feels that these repercussions have been “somehow neglected, considered collateral damage.”
When asked about his perception of the president, Derrick Austin says he is “beginning to question some of his reasoning.” The Republican government “is still better than some alternatives,” he adds.
“He is a human like us. I think he makes good decisions, I also think he makes mistakes,” notes Russell Hedrick, who cast a Trump ballot three times (in 2016, 2020, and 2024).
