Ingredient needed for pretty much all food just got way more expensive. Your grocery bill may soar too

(NEXSTAR) – Unless you’re a farmer or avid gardener, chances are you don’t spend much time thinking about the cost of fertilizer. But the commodity is a crucial ingredient in growing or producing pretty much everything you put in your grocery cart or serve up on your dinner plate.

And it just got a lot more expensive.

The cost of fertilizer has soared since the beginning of the Iran War. Roughly 30% of the world’s fertilizers passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war effectively cut off access to the waterway.

At the end of May, the Associated Press reported the price of fertilizer had spiked by 40% in three months. A rice farmer in Arkansas told The Economist the cost of fertilizer he needed suddenly increased by $50 per acre, driving up the cost of production by $200,000 for the season.

Expensive fertilizer is bad news for growers and for consumers.

“Everything else equal, we expect to see higher prices for corn, soybeans, wheat, potatoes, strawberries – everything that uses fertilizer,” said Dan Scheitrum, who teaches agribusiness at Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture.

Corn and wheat are among the crops most vulnerable to swings in fertilizer prices.........

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