Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has announced the availability of new specialty crop block grants and research funding. That was the ‘major announcement’ made during her stop in Lansing, Michigan. During a news briefing, Rollins was asked about high fertilizer costs. “Our latest numbers show that most of our farmers locked in their fertilizer for this planting season last fall, but for those that didn’t, mostly independent farmers, we have to make sure we can stand in the gap, and we’re going to do that.” Farmers are being hurt by high crop input costs.“We’ve got to do better at ensuring that our farmers have a trajectory of profitability without being reliant on a government check,” said Rollins. “What these government checks have done is keep them in business, which is a priority, but have also allowed a certain few number of companies to take advantage of those checks.” While in Michigan, Rollins was on X voicing her disappointment in Mosaic for idling two of its fertilizer production facilities in Brazil. Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden also cited market concentration issues in the fertilizer sector during a speech to ag journalists in Washington, D.C.
