But now America’s domestic food production is collapsing as well — and seemingly for the same reasons. Sky-high fertilizer costs, fertilizer scarcity, insanely elevated diesel fuel prices and supply chain problems affecting agriculture equipment are all contributing to an alarming trend across America: More and more farmers are simply not planting crops.
There’s no economic reason to do so. Rising fertilizer prices make the crops a money loser from day one. Even if a farmer invests in the fertilizer, his ability to harvest and transport the resulting crops out of his own fields is increasingly questionable. Worsening the situation, drought conditions are so bad that rice farmers in California, for example, are being told by the water control authorities there that they will only be allowed 0.4 acre feet of water per acre. You can’t grow rice in less than five inches of water for the entire season.