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Report Calls for Stricter Fertilizer Rules as US Nitrate Pollution Crisis Grows

(6/1/26) The New Lede writes about a report that finds lax regulations and mismanaged applications are contributing to making nitrogen runoff a major water pollution problem in the U.S. Highlights:

• U.S. farmers annually apply over 11 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizer, according to the USDA, making it the most used fertilizer in the country. A new Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report finds that an estimated half of these nutrients aren’t taken up by crops, but leach into the environment instead, posing major risks to water quality. Most of the costs of dealing with nitrate pollution are borne by small and rural farming communities.
• Commodity groups such as the National Corn Growers Association and groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation have long resisted efforts to tighten regulations on fertilizer applications and have argued water quality in rural areas is improving. However, several reports and studies over the past few months have found large-scale crop farms and CAFOs are contributing to nitrate pollution throughout the U.S.
• More than 80 health and environmental groups last month sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin urging the officials to protect Americans from a “public health emergency” driven by nitrate pollution.
• The NRDC report outlines several steps to tackle the nitrate problem, including mandatory nitrogen application limits, bolstered monitoring and technical assistance for farmers, and rewards for farmers who reduce nitrogen pollution through cover crops, riparian buffers and other conservation practices.

LSP is launching a “Rethink Nitrogen”campaign to build a farmer-led, public movement to show the power of nitrogen-reducing practices and create the political momentum needed to pass strong nutrient reduction policies in Minnesota’s 2027 legislative session. For more information, click here. On that web page, farmers are invited to take an anonymous survey on their nitrogen usage and how we can strike a balance between fertility and clean water. On Saturday, July 25, the Lobe Rangers will be holding a field day in Rockwell City, Iowa, highlighting the crop production systems they utilize to build soil health and reduce nitrogen pollution. You can listen to our Ear to the Ground interview with the Rangers here.

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My Dad Helped Build North America’s Oat Supply Chain: Can It Be Remade?

(6/26/26) Jeff Manuel writes in Offrange about his family’s involvement in making Canada the major supplier of U.S. oats. He says lessons learned from that experience might provide good guidance for farmers and others who are currently attempting to revitalize the homegrown oat market. Highlights:

• After 1950, oat acreage began a decades-long slide as trucks and tractors replaced farm animals. Better herbicides meant farmers didn’t need oats in the rotation for weed control, and farmers could make more money growing corn, wheat, or soybeans. Oats “were always an afterthought” in agricultural policy compared to “the big players — corn, wheat, and cotton,” said Jonathan Coppess, director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program at the University of Illinois.
•  With the decline in U.S. oat acreage, Canadian farmers started growing more oats as demand for the product increased due to research showing it could lower cholesterol.
• In the early 1980s, Manuel’s father was a Minneapolis-based grain trader who utilized innovative shipping arrangements and Canada’s increased production of oats to replace locally-grown product in U.S. mills.
• “The system my dad and many others built to ship Canadian oats to U.S. mills has proven resilient because it’s worked well for American consumers, North American millers, and Canadian farmers,” writes Manuel, adding, “Perhaps a new generation of farmers can remake the oat supply chain to prioritize U.S. soil health and Corn Belt communities. But that will require breaking a chain that now stretches from Midwestern mills to northern Canadian fields; a chain my dad, and many others, made over a generation.”

Check out LSP’s Small Grains web page for resources on diversifying a farming operation utilizing crops such as oats.

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Major Meatpackers Have Taken in More than Half a Billion in Tax Subsidies Since 2006

(7/1/26) State and local governments have paid more than half a billion dollars in tax breaks to meat processing companies over nearly 20 years to attract new processing plants, as industry-wide transformation and consolidation have led to plant closures and major restructuring, according to Investigate Midwest. Highlights:

• Over the past two decades, these companies estimated a total of 69,037 new jobs or training slots across 805 subsidy deals in 38 states, according to data from Good Jobs First, which tracks tax subsidy deals across state, local, and federal programs. Each job costs, on average, $7,641 in tax breaks.
• During this time period, the most expensive subsidy went to Cargill in 2016. The nearly $43 million deal from Iowa’s Economic Development Authority promised to create 16 “high quality” jobs — with state requirements for minimum wage and employee benefits — at its Diamond V animal feed facility in Cedar Rapids.
• While tax subsidies have become increasingly common in the past 20 years, research suggests that these programs often fail to create as many job opportunities as promised, particularly when companies and state agencies neglect to make details of the agreement transparent.
• The number of meatpacking plants in the U.S. has decreased significantly, particularly in the beef and swine industries. Between 2006 and 2023, employment in the meatpacking industry dropped from more than 118,000 jobs to just over 71,000. The small communities surrounding these processing plants, according to a USDA review, often rely on meatpackers as a major source of employment, and are more likely to be impoverished than non-meatpacking communities.

In episode 368 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast, University of Minnesota-Morris anthropologist Cristina Ortiz describes how meatpackers and other large ag and food corporations take advantage of local communities. An LSP blog describes how one initiative is working to create a meat processing infrastructure that better serves small and medium-sized farmers in local communities.

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How Corporate Consolidation Has Impacted Small Farmers

(6/30/26) Civil Eats describes how the domination by a handful of mega-firms of everything from seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer to farm equipment and processing is pushing small and medium-sized farmers out of business. Highlights:

• From 2018 to 2020, just two seed companies accounted for 72% of planted corn acres and 66% of soybean acres, according to the USDA. The global seed and pesticide supply is dominated by four companies that keep tight control over these production areas, as well as the intellectual property for seed variants.
• Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef collectively make up about 85% of U.S. beef packing, 67% of the pork market, and 60% of chicken processing. Corporate control of the processing end of agricultural production means that a select few players set the prices farmers get for their raw goods. It can also lead to higher prices at the store for consumers.
• Over the years, efforts on the part of lawmakers to tighten controls on consolidation have mostly failed. In many cases, government policy has made the problem worse.
• The consolidation challenge does not have a simple solution, however. Experts say that boosting enforcement under, for example, the Packers and Stockyards Act will help, but a larger revamp of the agricultural system is also needed. Duncan Orlander, a policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said farmers are looking for a way out of the current system and into more sustainable practices. But these producers need better tools, safety nets, and markets to support them.

Last fall, LSP hosted antitrust expert Austin Frerick for a special panel discussion on consolidation in agriculture and how he sees the current food system as a mechanism for modern “robber barons” to treat rural communities as mere “extraction colonies.” You can listen to an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast interview with Frerick here.

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John Deere Owners Will Get the Right to Repair Their Own Equipment Under a New FTC Settlement

(7/8/26) The Associated Press reports that the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from several states have secured a right to repair settlement with agriculture equipment giant John Deere that requires the company to let farmers and independent shops fix their own equipment. Highlights:

• Deere has faced complaints for years for withholding the software needed for repairs and forcing customers to use authorized dealers instead of independent ones.
• The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin brought the antitrust lawsuit in January 2025, arguing that Deere had illegally restricted farmers and independent shops that might otherwise service them from repairing farm equipment such as tractors.
• Under the order filed in Illinois, Deere will now be required to make diagnostic and repair tools available to equipment owners and independent repair shops. It also prevents Deere dealers from retaliating against equipment owners or repair shops who choose to fix their own equipment instead of paying for Deere’s services.

Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Attorney General, was a party to the right to repair lawsuit and met with LSP member-farmers to discuss the issue. Check out this Agweek article on that meeting. In episode 389 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Odette talks about why it’s important for farmers and other rural residents to document and report possible examples of unfair marketing practices and antitrust violations.

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Half of Ag Economists Say Crop Profitability Might Still Be 3 to 5 Years Away

(7/2/26) According to Farm Journal’s June Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor, half of the agricultural economists surveyed don’t expect crop agriculture to return to broadly profitable margins for another three to five years. The results highlight growing concerns over tight margins, shrinking working capital, and continued uncertainty surrounding demand and production costs. Highlights:

• Of the 17 economists who responded to the survey, 19% believe crop profitability will broadly return in the next one to two years and 50% say three to five years while 31% expect profitability will remain highly variable.
•  The reality is without direct government farm program payments, which are forecast to total $44.3 billion for the current year (a $13.8 billion increase from the previous year), the ag economic picture would look even worse.
• Weather, Chinese demand for commodities, and trade were cited as the biggest wild cards over the next 12 months.

LSP’s Farm Crisis Resources web page has information for farmers facing financial, weather-related, or emotional distress. LSP board member and southwestern Minnesota farmer Laurie Driessen wrote a blog describing how current federal ag policy and the trade war are harming small and medium-sized farmers. In February, LSP staff and farmer-members traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk to policymakers about the need for ag policy that benefits small and medium-sized farmers, the land, and rural economies. Details on that fly-in are here.

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Wisconsin Egg Production Cut in Half as Farms Struggle with Avian Flu, Higher Expenses

(6/15/26) Wisconsin Public Radio reports that due to culling that resulted from multiple outbreaks of avian influenza, egg production in Wisconsin is less than half of what it was a year ago, reflecting a major decline in the number of laying hens in the state. Highlights:

• The state’s total laying hen population fell dramatically last September, after Daybreak Foods’ farm in Jefferson County was hit by avian influenza and the operation was forced to cull more than three million birds. Laying hen numbers started to rally in the period between December and February, but populations fell sharply again in March after three different locations — each with more than one million birds — were forced to cull their flocks due to avian flu, including the same farm in Jefferson County.
• Replacing the lost birds can take close to two years, according to a University of Wisconsin poultry specialist. One expert estimated that there are half-a-million to a million chickens being raised on small and medium-sized Wisconsin farms that utilize methods such as pasture production.
• National egg production in April was up 5% from a year ago. The supply of eggs has started to recover from avian flu outbreaks across the country, and egg prices have come down from record highs in 2025. Some farmers are feeling squeezed as they continue to face a higher cost of doing business. Egg farmers across the country are facing rising feed prices and fuel surcharges from their processors.

An LSP white paper argues that key questions need to be answered about the role industrialized poultry operations play in propagating highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Big Bird. Big Problem: How the Poultry Industry is Turning the Avian Flu Pandemic into a Source of Profit at Taxpayer’s Expense While Decimating Our Farm & Food System” is available here.

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