‘Very selfish’: EU sanctions on Russia fertilizer will weaken U.S., food security

By Tate Miller
The Center Square

Sanctions the European Union is attempting to put on Russian fertilizer to punish the country’s invasion of Ukraine will unintentionally weaken the United States, hurt American farmers and families, and harm developing countries, according to a former ambassador.

Former U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the first Trump administration and current America First Policy Institute vice chair for rural policy Kip Tom told The Center Square that the sanctions the European Union is trying to put on Russian fertilizer are “going to weaken the US.”

“It’s going to weaken our ability to make sure that we have a reliable and affordable supply of food [going] to the American consumers,” Tom said.

This is so because such sanctions will set off a chain of negative events, as Tom explained.

If the EU sanctions “Russian companies from selling fertilizer into the EU to farmers there to produce food, fiber, and energy,” these companies will likely all of the sudden “close up,” because “Europe is their largest market,” Tom said.

“ These are mines that are some of the best mines in the world in terms of for phosphorus and potassium reserves,” Tom said. “If they close up, you’re basically taking one out of every six tons of fertilizer in the world off the market.”

Tom said “if the fertilizer prices are driven higher because of lack of supply, that means the fertilizer prices go up in the United States.”

In turn, “the farmer’s cost of production will increase,” which will eventually “make it to the consumer’s dinner table in [the] form of higher priced eggs, bread, meat,” Tom said.

Tom explained that “fertilizer is used throughout agriculture production” and “is to a crop what oxygen is to a person.”

“If we don’t have fertilizer, it’s real easy to see productivity around 50, 60 percent,” Tom said, adding that access to mines with phosphorus and potassium reserves is “really critical” to avoid high prices for consumers.

Overpriced groceries are “the last thing we want right now,” Tom said.

Beyond America, developing countries will also be negatively impacted by sanctions on Russian fertilizer.

Tom noted that there are between 850 and 900 million hungry people in the world today. “You take the fertilizer away, and you can see that number really escalates,” he said.

“When a country becomes food insecure, people are without the access to food, they migrate usually three times within their own country,” Tom said.

This migration is soon followed by moving outside their borders, which is followed by human trafficking, drug activity, and even extremist activity, Tom said.

It’s in the United States’ best interest to “advocate to Brussels to make sure that they don’t place these sanctions on the Russian fertilizer,” he added.

“It’s very selfish of the European Union to even consider something such as this,” Tom told The Center Square. “They know better.”

Tom granted that the outcome for those pushing the Russian sanctions “will be OK.”

“But for the European farmer, it’s gonna be a disaster. For the American farmer and consumers, it’s gonna be a disaster. And for those that are food insecure, it’s going to be a real problem,” Tom said.

Tom noted there may be ulterior motives behind the EU’s sanctions on fertilizer.

“The European Union has been very focused on a green initiative called the Farm to Fork Initiative,” Tom said, the initiative’s goal being to “reduce fertilizer consumption…in the EU by 50%.”

This goal could be an “ulterior [motive] that they’re trying to accomplish at the same time as…these sanctions,” Tom said.

Regardless of intentions, Tom said “it’s really important for us to encourage the EU, the policy makers in Brussels, to not sanction the Russian fertilizer.”

Tom hopes that “the delegations going over from the [U.S.] Senate” this week to Brussels will be able “to have that conversation and make sure it’s not included in the sanction package.

Tom said additionally that there is no better timing for President Donald Trump’s “Project Vault” than right now, as the project is intended to “secure minerals and the critical components” and that “fertilizer’s amongst that list.”

Neither the EU’s European Parliament or European Commission have yet responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.