WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump will meet with American farmers at the White House on Friday to unveil new policies aimed at supporting domestic agriculture.
“We’ll be announcing a variety of actions we’re taking to support American farmers,” Trump said, foreshadowing the upcoming event during a Cabinet meeting with administration officials on March 26.
“We never forget. We love the farmers.”
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins later posted on X: “Our administration is working around the clock to deliver real relief and boost the farm economy and make necessary long-term structural changes to our trading relationship, putting our farmers first. Stay tuned!”
Rising fertilizer and oil prices are expected to push production, transportation, and food costs higher, thereby driving inflation.
Wholesale prices of urea, a primary ingredient in nitrogen fertilizer production, are approaching $680 per ton as of March 26, a jump of approximately 50 percent since early February.
Conventionally grown food crops rely on fertilizers made with liquid natural gas products and other energy-intensive production methods.
Organic farmers replace the synthetic inputs with cover crops, compost, and animal manure, among other methods.
Rollins told reporters at the White House on March 13 that Trump is working to manage the higher prices in time for the spring growing season.
“The president is very aware of these challenges and these issues. We are very close to having an announcement on some solutions, on what that looks like,” Rollins told reporters at the White House in Washington.
“We’re looking at every potential avenue to keep the fertilizer costs down as these farmers are going into planting season. No big announcements yet, but it is coming.”
Trump also mentioned $12 million in aid money distributed to farmers, paid out of tariff revenue, who he said were “mistreated by other countries.”
“And they’re extremely happy, and they deserve it. They’ve been great,” Trump said. “They never complain. They just go out, and they farm, and they wouldn’t do anything different.”
The president secured trade deals during his first term and again in the first year of his second term that benefit American farmers, including agreements with China to purchase soybeans, among other goods.
