Posted on 04/21/2022 7:36:25 AM PDT by george76
In early March, Tucker Carlson invited Iowa Corn and soybean farmer Ben Riensche on his top-rated program to discuss the massive inflation we are about to see in food prices here at home.
According to Rienshe, grocery prices may increase up to $1,000 per month due to Russia’s sanctions on fertilizer.
...
“It’s embarrassing how little most people know about fertilizer, what it means, tell us the implications of this sanction?” Carlson asked.
....
Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to spike food prices,” Riensche said. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until your grocery bill is up $1000 a month. And it may not manifest itself in terms of price, it could be quantity as well. Empty shelf syndrome must just be starting.”
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. Up $1000 a month?” an incredulous Carlson asked.
“Sure,” Riensche responded. “The price of growing my crops, or the major crops, corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton are up 30 to 40%. They are on my farm. And most of it is fertilizer. Nitrogen prices are up 3 times from the left crop we put in. Phosphorous and potassium have doubled.”
...
That was in March.
Now this…
A leading manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products was informed Union Pacific rail lines were reducing and limiting shipments of fertilizer during the planting season this year.
Who made this decision?
...
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today informed customers it serves by Union Pacific rail lines that railroad-mandated shipping reductions would result in nitrogen fertilizer shipment delays during the spring application season and that it would be unable to accept new rail sales involving Union Pacific for the foreseeable future. The Company understands that it is one of only 30 companies to face these restrictions.
CF Industries ships to customers via Union Pacific rail lines primarily from its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana and its Port Neal Complex in Iowa. The rail lines serve key agricultural areas such as Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and California. Products that will be affected include nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), an emissions control product required for diesel trucks. CF Industries is the largest producer of urea, UAN and DEF in North America, and its Donaldsonville Complex is the largest single production facility for the products in North America.
...
“The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers,” said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. “Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers, Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers’ harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.”
On Friday, April 8, 2022, Union Pacific informed CF Industries without advance notice that it was mandating certain shippers to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad effective immediately. The Company was told to reduce its shipments by nearly 20%. CF Industries believes it will still be able to fulfill delivery of product already contracted for rail shipment to Union Pacific destinations, albeit with likely delays. However, because Union Pacific has told the Company that noncompliance will result in the embargo of its facilities by the railroad, CF Industries may not have available shipping capacity to take new rail orders involving Union Pacific rail lines to meet late season demand for fertilizer.
Between all the distributor/warehouse and factory fires exacerbating shortages, and everything working toward food shortages, its really hard not to feel like this stuff is all accidental/incidental/bad-luck
They really really want to cause trouble.
ISN’T accidental*
In other words, more than just mere whiskey tango foxtrot
On an earlier thread, another Freeper responded that it’s not just fertilizer. Union Pacific claims to be short handed.
But Black Conservative Patriot, on youtube, has a video up reporting fires at multiple food processing plants for the last 3 months all occurring on Wednesday or Thursday.
Without a sense of how many fires normally occur, can’t say if it’s something or not.
Interesting.
Capacity issues. Railroads don’t turn down paying customers just because.
More Democrat BS. Remember in November!
This is not specific to fertilizer. There is a shipping disruption across the board on trains.
I don’t know about all the fires but the one in Oregon at the organic place was only their HQ and admin building and not production or storage according to local news.
Gateway Pundit loves their clickbait but there is usually far more to the story than the Hoft’s represent in their catchy headlines.
They often omit key facts or data or play the leftwing media game of taking an incomplete pull quote without context. They also steal the ideas of others using someone elses work with a summary and catchy headline.
I am not a fan and while they sometimes are in front of a story I usually seek out the original source or remain skeptical until further information is available. Your mileage may vary.
No wonder, Obama, Soros, Schwab.. canceled American pipeline construction - the first day of xiden’s installation
I’ve looked into this. Union Pacific Railroad is cutting back on some of its rail shipments due to transportation problems. Many companies are involved.
CF is one of those companies. They are upset, and rightly so. But Union Pacific is not deliberately targeting them. And Union Pacific is not part of some evil scheme to starve the country.
You are right. There is only limited number of times where I will look out the window hoping to see the Kracken cresting the hill.
I would love to hear the personal knowledge of a FR poster on his farm regarding fertilizer.
Allow me to cut through the hype and sum this up....
Union Pacific is NOT restricting the flow of fertilizer..
UP owns a vast number of their own cars, that are contracted out to carry freight.
They are overloaded, and behind schedule for their own cars.
In order to meet their contacts, they have had to restrict the number of PRIVATE cars they can haul.
The fertilizer is on PRIVATE cars.
There is no vast conspiracy here.
Well, so far the Marsh Station Road siding is vacant. During the latter years of the Obama Regime, the Union Pacific had up to 750 locomotives parked there.
People who live near Amish farmers are truly fortunate.
Almost like a plan, isn’t it?
Fidelity group and Blackrock at the root of more chaos?
UP also makes more carrying freight on its own cars than delivering private cares. So, any reasonable company would make this decision.
The key here is that due to a shortage of trucking, a great deal of freight is being shifted to rail.
So, it is a domino effect.
Three of the major North American railroads(UP, BNSF & CN)all have had capacity issues for the last several months.
The CN’s problems started around the time of the floods in BC in November. They continue to short empty flatbed carloads to sawmills and OSB mills all across Canada. This has resulted in multiple manufactures having to reduce production to 3 day work weeks or taking 2week shut downs.
This has also been the case with the BNSF railroad ever since last November. There seems to be some type of Union slowdown affecting the movement across their whole system.
The UP rr has actually been the best supplier of railcars to the sawmills in my industry recently.
The CPRS seems to be moving traffic without many issues.
To the best of my knowledge the NS and CSXT are not having any issues.
ALL of these railroads reduced capacity during covid. People retired and like every other company in the US, they have struggled to hire new people.
Billionaire Buffett owns the Union Pacific RR and .. that ships fertilizer ...
The heavy hand of the government is obvious.
Note the threat that facilities who do not cooperate will be embargoed.
Who uses threatening language like that?
Just another coincidence, I am sure.
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