Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Ann Klees

To the Editor:

Spring is here, farmers are getting ready for the planting season, and prices on fertilizer and fuel are skyrocketing due to the Iran War and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. They are already under stress from seed and chemical costs rising every year, and now this.

How much more can the American farmer take from this administration? Tariffs causing loss of trading partners and sales of grains, support for other countries by buying their beef to compete with American ranchers, allowing mergers among big ag companies, further decreasing competition, and now this war.

Sure, price of fuels may come down in the future, but that doesn’t help for right now, when farmers need to buy fuel and fertilizer. They may only be 1% of the population, but they feed all the rest of us, and we will lose more of them to bankruptcy and despair.

It’s not just grain farmers affected. Watermelon growers can’t afford the fertilizer so are not planting, rice and cotton farmers are seeing the same problem of rising inputs and lower prices.

Not only does oil go through the Strait of Hormuz, but natural gas and sulfur, some of the components of fertilizers, and nitrogen fertilizer itself. Since the closing of the Strait the price of anhydrous has risen from $850.00 per ton to $1050.00, stated one farmer.

So, as you grumble your way through the check-out line at your grocery store, remember the farmer who feels a lot more hurt than you do. Remember who started this unnecessary war without a plan or any thought for how it affects the rest of us.

Now is the time for change, and you have the power to do that. Vote for candidates who will represent you.

Ann Klees
Waterville