The U.S. Justice Department is continuing to investigate the high costs for fertilizer, machinery, and other farm inputs.
Bloomberg said that while it happens, the administration is looking for input from farmers. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden has open lines of communication with the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission and knows that farmers likely have a lot of information relevant to the investigation. During the North American Agricultural Journalists’ annual conference this week, Vaden said they want farmers to provide help on a confidential basis to aid in the ongoing investigations.
“I think we will eventually have a mechanism in order to help encourage the exchange of information,” Vaden said. The fertilizer industry has faced increasing scrutiny as a handful of producers account for most of America’s supplies of crop nutrients, and prices never fully cooled off after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and upset supplies.
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