CHICAGO (NewsNation) — President Joe Biden will visit Central Iowa on Tuesday, where he will address inflation in a speech to factory workers at the Poet ethanol plant.
The Biden administration has not reveled if Biden will announce new policy, but a farmer feeling the pinch of rising prices knows what wants to learn.
“Personally, I’d like to hear President Biden say what his plans are for bolstering our domestic oil supply,” Blaine Hellman said during Monday night’s edition of “On Balance with Leland”.
“I know it’s been a hot topic with our move to try and be more of a green, efficient country, but you’re seeing the effects: from our fuel prices, which affects both our our machinery costs and our major source of nitrogen — anhydrous ammonia — which is the base product to make liquid petroleum or natural gas,” he continued.
Not everyone agrees the problem can be solved through policy. GasBuddy told NewsNation the COVID-19 pandemic is likely the biggest culprit behind the surge in gas prices because it threw the supply and demand equilibrium out of whack.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s report Friday states that global food prices hit a record 13% last month.
Rising costs of both food and energy have been exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine, as the European neighbors produce a third of the global supply of wheat and flour.
Additionally, Russia is a major exporter of potash, ammonia, urea and other soil nutrients that are key ingredients in making fertilizer, which is key to keeping corn, soy, rice and wheat yields high.
Because sanctions have disrupted shipments of those key inputs around the globe, farmers like Hellman are scaling back and reducing the amount they’re planting.
“I know these aren’t things that can be done overnight. But I think we have to have a plan strategically to to balance out to be domestically better at handling these kinds of world events,” Hellman said.
Iowa is the nation’s top producer of renewable fuel and the corn used to make it. And because Biden is speaking at an ethanol plant Tuesday on the day new inflation numbers are to be released, some hope he will use his emergency powers to allow summer use of the ethanol blend, called E15, to help lower consumer prices at the pump.
Poet told the Des Moines Register a year-round E-15 blend could be as much as 70 cents cheaper than traditional blends. But it isn’t a magic bullet. The blend should not be used in cars made before 2001, and some manufacturers of vehicles built since then don’t recommend using it.
Hellman says he’s not sure when things will get back to normal for farmers.
“I think it would take a large record crop in the United States to maybe alleviate some of those concerns. If we see the global logistics get better than we may we’d have a little bit more easy feeling,” he said.
