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Iowa Congressman says regulations impede domestic fertilizer production

A member of the House Agriculture Committee suggests regulatory hurdles need to be overcome before domestic fertilizer production can truly ramp up.

Iowa Republican Randy Feenstra tells Brownfield he and others in Congress are trying to ease the burden of high input costs on farmers.

“The solution is making it domestically, we have to make it here at home. The hiccup comes in, and everyone can say they want to do this (but) the hiccup comes into the regulatory environment.”

He says there are many companies that want to produce fertilizer domestically, but regulations stand in the way.

“So we’ve got to relax some of those issues from the EPA and other areas when it comes to making fertilizer.”

In March, USDA announced plans for a $250 million investment to support American-made fertilizer with the first grants to be awarded by the end of the year.