MORGAN, Minn. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said farmers need to see more reductions in the price of fertilizer while promoting White House trade policies and the Make America Healthy Again movement Tuesday in a packed Minnesota barn.

Rollins’ remarks at Farmfest, a celebration of Minnesota agriculture, come as crop farmers are staring down a harvest where profits will be squeezed by low crop prices. Despite a nearly 30-minute delay, the crowd of farmers and politicians applauded Rollins, who hinted better times will come for producers once the Iran war ends.

Rollins said “input prices are killing” farmers’ bottom lines, specifically the rising cost of equipment, labor and land.

“There’s no doubt those prices have gone up as they were trending pretty significantly down before the conflict in Iran — not here to talk about Iran, unfortunately, I don’t know much about that. I just know about agriculture,” Rollins said.

While down from price peaks when tensions between Iran and the United States were highest a few months ago, the price of common urea fertilizer has swelled since President Donald Trump took office. Yet the prices of crops such as corn have not kept up.

Rollins acknowledged that the war affected the cost of some of the crucial inputs such as fertilizer.

“It’s not enough, and I hear you,” Rollins said about efforts to tamp down input inflation. “But we’re trending in the right direction. And once this Iranian war is over, you will see even more.”

The secretary said one of the White House’s priorities is keeping “rural America strong, and especially rural Minnesota strong,” boasting that the White House has struck 20 new trade deals in 18 months and is narrowing the agricultural trade deficit with other countries.

“The world is buying American ag products again,” Rollins said.

Rollins also applauded efforts to make E15 ethanol blends available throughout the year and Trump’s increase of renewable fuel quotas that benefit Minnesota farmers whose crops produce biofuels. She also said the agriculture sector plays a large role in the MAHA movement.

Rollins recalled Trump calling her on Nov. 23, 2024, to offer her the administration role, and she felt uncertain about what work would look like alongside U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“What I will tell you is that while Bobby and I don’t agree on everything, our partnership under the Make America Healthy Again banner (puts) farmers and ranchers first in everything that we do: to put real food back at the center of policymaking in Washington, D.C.”

Rollins said there is no MAHA movement without the participation of farmers and ranchers.

Rollins advocated for the use of “nutrient-dense foods” such as beef, pork, seafood and produce in school lunches. She said she changed food stamp rules to force retailers accepting the federal assistance payments to offer at least 28 healthy foods in their stores, up from 11.

Rollins said the White House has reduced the number of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp, recipients overall from 45 million people to 38 million, which she said “Democrats don’t love.”

“But for those of us that love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it’s a pretty big win when we move 5 million people off of food stamps,” Rollins said.

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