Operation Epic Surrender, part two: The war tax on Washington County farms

In the first part of this series, I wrote about the Iran war and the agreement that followed it. This week, I want to bring that bill closer to home, because Washington County cannot absorb national shocks the way wealthy counties can.

The Census Bureau lists Washington County’s median household income at $58,210, with 14.9 percent of residents in poverty and an average commute of 36.1 minutes. Around here, fuel is not a luxury. Fuel is how people get to work, get children to school, get to the doctor, haul feed, pull equipment, and keep life moving.

That is where the farm angle matters, and it matters a lot. UF/IFAS says Washington County agriculture is centered on beef cattle, row crops, pastures, and forests. The USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture shows Washington County had 400 farms working 50,297 acres, and 96 percent of those farms were family farms. It also shows our top crops by acreage included forage, peanuts, cotton, soybeans, and corn, with a cattle and calf inventory of 9,212 head.

Those are not spreadsheet numbers to us. That is hay being cut and baled. That is cattle being fed. That is peanuts and cotton depending on fertilizer, diesel, equipment, and weather. That is a family trying to make the farm’s numbers work while Washington creates another crisis.

Even before this year’s war shock, USDA figures showed Washington County farm production expenses were already higher than the market value of products sold: $11.493 million in production expenses against $8.508 million in sales, with net cash farm income down 51 percent from 2017. In other words, our local farmers were already working on thin ground before Washington drove another truck over it.

The tariff fight made that worse. The American Farm Bureau has warned that tariffs can hit farmers twice: first by raising the cost of inputs such as fertilizer and equipment, and then again when other countries retaliate against American agricultural exports. That is not theory in a county that grows peanuts, cotton, corn, soybeans, forage, and cattle. Farmers do not need Washington creating trade fights on Monday, energy shocks on Tuesday, and then telling rural America on Wednesday to be grateful for the privilege.

Then came the Iran war and the spike in diesel and fertilizer. CoBank reported that fuel and fertilizer prices increased 20 to 40 percent after the conflict began, further squeezing already tight farm margins. The American Farm Bureau Federation reported that farm diesel prices had risen 46 percent since the end of February and that only 19 percent of Southern producers had pre-booked fertilizer ahead of the season. It also found that 78 percent of Southern farmers reported being unable to afford all the fertilizer they needed, and that cotton and peanut producers were among the most exposed.

That is Washington County’s crop mix sitting right in the line of fire.

When diesel rises, farmers pay more to plant, spray, cut, bale, haul, and transport. When fertilizer rises, yields can suffer or farmers have to borrow more to put the same crop in the ground. When hay costs rise, cattle producers feel it. When shipping and fuel costs rise, grocery prices rise too.

So the same war that hits a working family at the gas pump also hits the farmer trying to produce the food, and then it hits that same family again at the grocery store.

That is the hidden war tax. It does not arrive in an envelope marked “Iran War.” It shows up in diesel, fertilizer, feed, groceries, repairs, insurance, and interest. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that by June 18, the Iran war had added about $402.78 to the average American household’s fuel costs, not counting jet fuel, home heating oil, or other energy costs. The Federal Reserve’s household data says only 63 percent of adults could cover a $400 emergency expense using cash or its equivalent.

That means Washington started a war that handed millions of Americans a bill about the size of the emergency cushion they do not have.

That is not foreign policy in the abstract. That is gas to get to work. That is feed for cattle. That is fertilizer for a field. That is the grocery bill at home. That is a local farm family wondering whether the numbers still work.

– Carl H. Gregory

Vernon, Florida