March 12, 2026 – During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers and witnesses repeatedly zeroed in on how the war in Iran might impact farmers who are already struggling with high input costs.

“It is a serious time,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. “My phone has been ringing off the hook since last week when the Strait [of Hormuz] was shut down.”

Up to 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer exports and a significant percentage of additional raw materials used to make fertilizer pass through the Strait; the route has been shut down since the war started.

During the hearing, Duvall outlined steps the Farm Bureau is asking the White House to take to head off supply chain shocks that could drive record-high input costs even higher, including using the Navy to help get ships through the Strait and exempting inputs—especially fertilizer—from tariffs.

“One of the things I consistently hear from neighbors, friends, fellow farmers, and ranchers across the state of North Dakota is input costs are just through the roof,” North Dakota Farmers Union President Matt Perdue told senators. If the war drives an additional increase, he said, the cost will be too high for many farmers to take on. “You can’t make it pencil out,” he said.

High fuel prices could also hurt farmers heading into planting session, Duvall said, noting that the Farm Bureau asked President Donald Trump to suspend the Jones Act, a law that restricts domestic trade to U.S. ships. Under the law, waivers can allow foreign ships to transport goods, like oil, between U.S. ports. On Thursday, Trump indicated he plans to grant a waiver as part of a plan to address fuel prices.

Throughout the hearing, multiple senators from both parties also said that the situation in Iran bolstered the case for Congress to pass a law allowing E15, a blend of gasoline with higher ethanol content, to be sold year-round. Doing so, they said, would boost markets for producers while helping to bring fuel prices down. Federal law does not allow E15 sales during summer months due to concerns about increased smog pollution, but federal agencies have issued waivers to override that rule over the last few years.

On Wednesday, the farm advocacy group Farm Action sent a letter to the White House warning that because of the consolidated fertilizer market, companies could exploit the situation to raise prices further. The group asked Trump to “initiate an immediate review of whether key fertilizer inputs and materials should be designated as scarce or threatened resources under the Defense Production Act if current supply disruptions persist or worsen.” (Link to this post.)

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