President Donald Trump says he will address the nation Thursday night as U.S. strikes against Iran accelerate, raising fresh concerns about the potential toll on agriculture and the broader economy.

Trump told the Hugh Hewitt Show that the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” on Monday and again on Tuesday, after Iran violated a tentative peace agreement over the weekend by firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade route for global energy and fertilizer supplies. Oil and gasoline prices soared on Monday.

The U.S. will resume a blockade on Iran in the strait and become “guardian” of the waterway, according to Trump. It also will start charging a 20% toll on cargo moving through the strait in exchange for safe passage, he said.

“That’s a mistake,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Agri-Pulse. “It’s an international waterway.” 

The renewed military action and U.S. dispute with Iran over control of Hormuz is stoking fear that a new round of soaring fuel and fertilizer prices is ahead.

It’s also unclear if Congress has the votes to pass a supplemental funding package sought by Trump to help pay for the war. Trump has called for such legislation to also include two top priorities for American farmers: a bill allowing year-round, voluntary sales of E15, and about $11 billion in additional federal aid for farmers grappling with high production costs.

“Congress has definitively said this war is illegal,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters on Monday. “If we're suddenly going to be the guardian of the strait, that's not going to just be accepted lying down. That's going to put more troops at risk and impose more damage on the American economy.”

Poultry companies settle with Oklahoma in Illinois River litter dispute

Several poultry companies have agreed to pay nearly $44 million and limit the amount of their birds’ litter that can be applied to soils within the Illinois River watershed.

Under a proposed settlement with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office over runoff in the river, Tyson Foods, Simmons Foods, Cal-Maine Foods, Cargill, Peterson Farms and George’s Farms agreed to collectively pay $41.67 million into an environmental relief fund for watershed stewardship and litigation costs.

They also will pay $420,000 in penalties to the state of Oklahoma. The companies further agreed to put $1.9 million into funding an independent auditor to oversee compliance with poultry litter removal commitments. 

They also agreed to fund half the cost of installing riparian buffer strips on farms in areas next to fields where litter is applied, so long as they don’t create biosecurity risks for their birds.

Take note: In December, Judge Gregory Frizzell of Oklahoma’s Northern District found that land applications of poultry litter raised phosphorus levels in the river. He barred poultry growers from applying more than two tons of litter per acre of land.

USTR Greer to visit ranchers in Colorado, Utah

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will travel to Colorado and Utah Wednesday through Friday to meet with ranchers and manufacturers. 

Greer will hold fireside chats with Anja Manuel, executive director of Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum, and Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger Grills. He will hold the fireside chat with Andrus at the World Trade Center Utah global advisory board’s summer meeting.

During the three-day stint to discuss Trump administration policies intended to secure domestic industries and supply chains, Greer will also go to Jorgensen Farms located in Mount Pleasant, Utah.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to mark up inland waterways bill

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The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up this year’s Water Resources Development Act today. The biennial bill guides the development and repair of water infrastructure projects across the U.S.

The committee will convene at 10 a.m. to consider the bill, which would authorize 10 projects for construction, including widening turning basins in the Columbia River, replacing Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River, adding a new lock to Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River, and deepening the Port of Long Beach in California. Some of the authorizations would update projects already underway.

Looking ahead: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a business meeting Wednesday to consider its version of WRDA. 

Bill to boost bioeconomy gains support from 100-plus groups, companies, others

More than 100 companies, organizations and producer groups — among others — are urging Congress to pass a bill to expand the U.S. bioeconomy.

They sent a letter Monday to members of Congress seeking support for the Biobased Materials Investment and Production Act. The bill includes tax incentives to expand capacity for plant-based products in the U.S. 

Those incentives include 10 cents per pound of qualified renewable products “produced in a given year or a 30% investment tax credit to offset construction and retrofitting costs for manufacturing facilities,” according to a press release. “The incentives would not be available for food or fuel uses or for production that uses feedstocks grown outside the U.S.”

The bill, HR 8137, was introduced by Reps. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., and Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill. Cosponsors are Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson, both Republicans from Iowa.

Groups on the letter include the National Corn Growers Association, the Plant Based Products Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Groups seek to keep Save Our Bacon Act out of Senate farm bill

More than 100 organizations are calling for the Save Our Bacon Act to be kept out of the Senate farm bill in a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. 

The groups thanked Boozman for not including the bill in his draft legislation. It is in the House bill that passed that chamber April 30.

The letter was from members of the Defeat EATS coalition, named for an earlier version of the legislation, the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act.

The coalition members oppose the Save Our Bacon Act “for a variety of reasons,” the letter says. “It is significant federal overreach that threatens hundreds of public-health and disease-prevention laws, threatens the livelihoods of independent family farmers, and condemns animals to cruel, unnecessary suffering.” 

The legislation would prohibit states from passing laws that would affect the raising and marketing of livestock in other states. Both California and Massachusetts have passed laws banning the use of gestation crates for sows, as well as the sale of pork derived from those animals. The Supreme Court upheld California’s Proposition 12 in 2023.

Final Word

“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him.” — Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Lindsey Graham, who has been appointed to fill the late South Carolina Republican’s U.S. Senate seat.