Kip Tom, the Indiana farmer who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations' food agencies during the first Trump administration, is publicly breaking with corn growers over how to respond to elevated fertilizer prices.

In a letter sent Monday to National Corn Growers Association CEO Neil Caskey and leaders of 10 state corn associations, Tom warned that calls for export controls, profit-margin caps and antitrust actions risk steering farmers away from free-market principles.

"Too much of the recent conversation has turned into public attacks on the fertilizer industry. Some farmers have called for export controls. Others want profit-margin caps. Let's be honest: that's not free-market agriculture — that's creeping socialism," Tom wrote.

He added that claims of gouging "oversimplifies a complex global market and unfairly demonizes companies investing real capital into a home-grown supply chain."

What is the fertilizer price backdrop?

Nitrogen and phosphate prices have climbed this year and remain elevated even with duty-free phosphate imports from Morocco, while potash prices have stayed relatively flat. USDA data shows fertilizer has been the single largest increase in farm input costs since 2020.

President Donald Trump said Monday he is working on a "massive deal" to purchase potash from Belarus — a development that has left at least one analyst underwhelmed.

Will a Belarus potash deal move the U.S. market?

Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at StoneX, said Belarus would have trouble getting tonnage to the United States. The country cannot access its formal Lithuanian shipping route, and Latvia and Poland are unlikely to allow transit.

"Ukraine certainly will not help them after they allowed Russian troops to invade from Belarus. That leaves Russia and there is only so much that can be moved there (at a high cost, no less)," Linville wrote.

Even if Belarusian tons reached the U.S., the impact would be limited because potash has been well priced and steady since cooling off from 2022 highs, Linville said. "While there's little reason to need help with potash, we need help on phosphate and nitrogen," he added.

What did growers tell USDA?

Tom's letter follows an Iowa Corn forum earlier this month at which USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden heard farmer complaints about Mosaic, Nutrien, CF Industries and Koch.

In a recent Agri-Pulse opinion piece, Iowa Corn Growers Association President Steve Kuiper argued that "with only a handful of mega-corporations dictating terms, there is no shopping around." He added: "I am fed up. My fellow farmers are fed up."

Vaden urged producers to keep pressure on the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation launched in May, citing the USDA input-cost data.

How does Tom frame the dispute?

Tom argued the U.S. has one of the most reliable fertilizer supply systems in the world, often trading at a discount to global competitors. "What we have is worth protecting. What we have is worth improving. And what we need now is dialogue, not litigation," he wrote.

Whether Tom's intervention shifts the lobbying posture of state corn groups ahead of the November midterms and the FTC's pending investigation will test how durable free-market orthodoxy remains inside farm-country input-cost politics.