Three U.S. Senators, Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, and Tammy Baldwin are leading a bipartisan push to shed light on market factors driving the cost of fertilizer. Iowa Republicans Grassley and Ernst, along with Wisconsin Democrat Baldwin, have introduced the Fertilizer Research Act. The legislation would require the Department of Agriculture to study competition and trends in the fertilizer market to determine their subsequent impacts on price.
Grassley says, “With fertilizer being one of the ag industry’s highest input costs, it’s problematic farmers have such a limited window into market fluctuations.”
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. The report would include a description of impacts on the fertilizer market that influence price, market trends in the past 25 years, and impacts of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, among other research items.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting