What the War in Iran Means for Des Moines and Central Iowa

My father still farms in Iowa. He has for decades. And when I called him last week the conversation turned — as it always does this time of year — to planting season.

Except this year the conversation was different. Fertilizer costs. Supply uncertainty. A spring that is already more complicated than any he can remember in a long time.

My father is not dramatic. He does not complain easily. So when he sounds worried, I pay attention.

The war in Iran is not a headline to our family. It is a kitchen table conversation about what this spring is going to cost and what that means for the year ahead. If you live in Des Moines and think the war in Iran has nothing to do with you — I understand why you might feel that way. But you are wrong. And I want to explain why.

The Connection Most Des Moines Residents Are Missing

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea that handles an enormous share of the world's fertilizer exports. With the U.S. and Israel's military campaign against Iran now effectively closing that waterway to commercial shipping, the global fertilizer supply chain is in serious trouble.

For Des Moines residents who don't farm, that might sound abstract. It isn't.

Central Iowa sits in the middle of the most productive corn growing region on earth. Polk County and the counties surrounding Des Moines — Boone, Story, Dallas, Warren, Jasper, Marion — are surrounded by corn and soybean operations that depend on nitrogen fertilizer every single spring. That fertilizer needs to be ordered, delivered, and applied before planting begins in April.

Spring planting is weeks away. And the fertilizer supply chain is broken.

What This Means for Central Iowa Farmers Right Now

Fertilizer prices have already spiked more than 30% since the conflict escalated — jumping from $516 per metric ton to as high as $683 at the import hub of New Orleans. Analysts warn prices could climb further if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed through planting season.

For a central Iowa corn farmer planning to plant 500 acres this spring, that price spike translates to tens of thousands of dollars in unexpected costs — on top of an already strained agricultural economy where farm bankruptcies were at a five-year high heading into 2026.

Some farmers will absorb the cost. Others will switch acres from corn to soybeans, which require far less nitrogen. Others will simply apply less fertilizer and accept lower yields.

Every one of those decisions ripples through Des Moines and central Iowa in ways most residents never see coming.

How This Reaches Your Grocery Cart

Iowa is the nation's leading corn producer. When Iowa farmers reduce corn production — whether by switching to soybeans or cutting fertilizer applications — the downstream effects move through supply chains that touch every grocery store in Des Moines.

Corn is not just the sweet corn you buy at the farmers market. It is livestock feed for the beef, pork, and poultry that fills the meat cases at Hy-Vee and Fareway. It is the base for ethanol that blends into Iowa's gasoline supply. It feeds the processing plants and food manufacturers whose products stock shelves across central Iowa.

When corn production drops, feed costs go up. When feed costs go up, meat prices follow. When ethanol production drops, gas prices feel the pressure too.

None of this happens overnight. But it starts now, with a planting season that is already being disrupted by a war most Des Moines residents are watching from a distance.

The Central Iowa Co-Op Question

Here is something worth watching closely over the next few weeks: what is happening at central Iowa agricultural co-ops.

Co-ops in Boone, Ames, Indianola, Newton, and the communities surrounding Des Moines are the front lines of this fertilizer crisis. They are the ones fielding calls from farmers who ordered fertilizer months ago at prices that no longer reflect reality. They are managing inventories that may not stretch through planting season. They are trying to give farmers honest answers about a supply chain that nobody fully controls.

If you want to understand how the Iran war is landing in central Iowa, talk to someone who works at a rural co-op right now. Their phones are ringing constantly.

What Des Moines Should Be Asking Its Representatives

Iowa has two U.S. Senators and four U.S. House members. Every one of them represents constituents whose livelihoods are directly tied to Iowa agriculture.

As a Des Moines resident I want to know what Senator Joni Ernst, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Representative Zach Nunn are doing specifically for Iowa farmers facing this fertilizer crisis. Not general statements about supporting agriculture. Specific action — emergency input cost relief, pressure on the Department of Justice to move faster on the fertilizer pricing investigation, direct outreach to central Iowa farm organizations.

Iowa's farmers did not start this war. They should not be left to absorb its costs alone while Washington focuses on the military strategy.

This Is Personal for Me

I live in Des Moines now but I grew up on an Iowa farm. My father still farms.

That means this story is not abstract for me. When fertilizer prices spike 30% in a matter of days, I am not reading about a supply chain disruption — I am thinking about my father, and what that bill looks like when it arrives, and what decisions he is now being forced to make about this spring's planting season.

I know what it looks like when an Iowa farm family absorbs a cost nobody planned for. I know what it means to sit at a kitchen table and do the math on a crop year that has already gotten harder before the first seed goes in the ground.

Des Moines is a city, but it is a city that grew out of and still depends on the farming communities that surround it. The people absorbing this fertilizer price shock are not statistics. They are Iowa families — and for a lot of Des Moines residents, they are our families too.

The war in Iran is not a distant problem. It is pulling on threads that run directly through the heart of central Iowa. And the sooner Des Moines residents understand that connection, the better positioned we will be to demand that our representatives actually do something about it.

Rebecca Nicole Schweitzer is a Des Moines, Iowa writer and community advocate. She writes about Iowa agriculture, education, property taxes, and civic issues at this website and on Medium and Substack. For more on the national fertilizer supply chain impact read her companion piece on Medium.