Before Hunger Wins: Investing in the World's Farmers | Opinion
Iowa farmers know what an unstable world costs. This year, they paid a price for it, and so did folks around the world facing hunger. Helping farmers globally get ahead of the next shock is how we all pay less next time.
Eric Mitchell and Sarah Tweeten, Guest columnists, share their insights. Sarah Tweeten farms corn and soybeans near Kensett, Iowa, and is a Farm Journal Foundation Farmer Ambassador. Eric Mitchell is president of the Alliance to End Hunger, a Washington-based coalition working to end hunger in the United States.
This piece was contributed in part by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which holds observer status with the Alliance to End Hunger.
Sarah and Eric both farm land: one, 1,800 acres of corn and soybeans, the other leads a national coalition. They reached a shared conclusion: when the world is unstable, farmers pay first.
When the Strait of Hormuz closed early March, global prices for urea, a common nitrogen fertilizer, rose 80% by April, according to the World Bank. On Sarah's farm, MAP, a phosphate fertilizer, cost 14.5% more than a year earlier, leading her to apply only enough to replace last year's crop removal instead of her usual soil-test rates.
Many farmers Sarah knows have been scaling back on fertilizer for the past couple of years, hoping prices would drop. Now, they must balance keeping expenses down against ensuring enough nutrients remain in the soil for a good crop. Aaron Lehman, Iowa Farmers Union President, noted some farmers have even switched crops just to get by.
Farmers around the world face similar challenges. In areas already facing food insecurity, a failed harvest can quickly escalate into a humanitarian crisis, triggering emergency appeals that American taxpayers help answer.
Yet, helping farmers before a crisis is paramount. The IFAD reports that every $1 spent on resilience now saves up to $10 in emergency aid later. Better seed, water, storage, and roads to market allow a family to weather a bad year and give young people a real choice to build a future at home.
Stability abroad also pays off here in Iowa. As one of the nation's largest agricultural exporters, Iowa's best future customers for pork, corn, and soybeans are countries where farm families can earn a living and economies can grow.
Iowa understands this. Norman Borlaug, who grew up in Cresco, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to feed a hungry world and founded the World Food Prize. This month, as the World Food Prize marks its 40th anniversary, leaders from around the world gather in Des Moines under the theme "Before Hunger Wins."
When Congress returns after the November 3 election, it has until December 11 to finish this year's federal budget, including support for IFAD, global agricultural development, and investments in agricultural research like the Feed the Future Innovation Labs. Iowa's delegation should protect that funding.
Iowa farmers paid a price for the world's instability this year. Helping the world's farmers get ahead of the next shock is how we all pay less next time.