Opinion

STEVE MOORE: Politicians are blaming the wrong villain for America’s rising food prices

To lower food costs and keep America fed, Washington must stop searching for scapegoats

By Stephen Moore Fox News

Published July 6, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Trump administration unveils $500M domestic fertilizer push to protect US farmers

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins outlines the USDA's $500 million FIELDS Program aimed at increasing domestic fertilizer production. She stresses that food security is a national security issue, critical for America's self-reliance in feeding and fueling its population for the next 250 years, and discusses advancing farming technology.

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When food prices rise, politicians and activists alike instinctively look for a villain to blame. Amid current instability, many will be tempted to settle on domestic manufacturers as the scapegoat for skyrocketing prices. This narrative might be politically convenient for some, but it gets the economics of global supply chains exactly backwards.

The real reason the price of key inputs in American food supply — like fertilizer — is rising is not corporate greed or mismanagement. It is a combination of global disruptions, geopolitical instability, and misguided government policies both here and abroad. All of these factors have come together to make it harder to produce the inputs on which American agriculture relies.

Fertilizer, for example, is one of the most important building blocks of the global food supply chain. Without it, crop yields fall. When crop yields fall, food production also........

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