Iowa Corn Growers Encourage DOJ Investigation into U.S. Fertilizer Industry and Pricing

Mar 06, 2026

Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is conducting an investigation into the U.S. fertilizer industry to explore whether several of the country’s largest fertilizer producers colluded to raise prices on American farmers. For many years, the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) has been raising concerns about the pressure and crushing prices put forth on farmers by the fertilizer industry. Fertilizer prices continue to rise while commodity prices continue to drop. An investigation by the DOJ would be a step in the right direction as more probing needs to be done on behalf of Iowa and U.S. corn farmers.

ICGA thanks Senators Grassley and Ernst and Representatives Feenstra and Hinson for hearing corn farmers concerns by bringing forward the Fertilizer Research Act in the Senate and House to review the competition and transparency within the fertilizer industry. ICGA specifically requested this legislation and submitted written testimony to Senator Grassley’s Senate Judiciary Hearing in October that explored competition issues in the seed and fertilizer industries.

Click here to see more...

Video: How American Farmers Harvest 1.15 Billion Pounds of Sunflowers

Across the open plains of North Dakota and South Dakota, sunflower fields turn the American landscape into a sea of gold. In this farming documentary, we go inside modern sunflower farming to see how farmers plant, grow, harvest, clean, dry, process, and transform sunflower seeds into valuable products used every day.

In 2024, American farmers harvested about 1.15 billion pounds of sunflowers. This video follows the full journey from warm spring planting to combine harvesting, seed cleaning, storage, oil extraction, refining, roasting, packaging, and animal feed production.

You will see how sunflower seeds are processed into cooking oil, roasted snacks, bakery ingredients, birdseed, livestock feed, and useful byproducts. From golden fields to modern processing plants, this is the story of how a beautiful flower becomes one of America’s important oilseed crops.

Watch until the end to discover how sunflower farming connects farmers, machines, factories, food production, and sustainable agriculture.