Farmers in the United States are paying nearly twice as much for diesel as they did last year, and it is financially killing them. A lot of farms will operate at a loss this year, and the number of farm bankruptcies is soaring. There are thousands upon thousands of farmers that have already thrown up their hands and walked away, and there are thousands upon thousands of others that are thinking about it. This is a huge problem for all of us, because one way or another we are all going to end up paying much higher prices at the grocery store.
Close to 100 percent of all tractors, combines, and harvesters in this country use diesel.
So the vast majority of U.S. farmers don’t have any other option.
A farmer in Wisconsin named Joel Greeno that grows organic corn has been doing whatever he can to keep his small farm operating, but now he is being sued by his creditors and he is seriously considering filing for bankruptcy…
Wisconsin farmer Joel Greeno can hardly afford to run his farm.
As the owner of 160 acres in Kendall, Wisconsin, he’s had to take on a large amount of credit card debt to afford the equipment and fuel to grow, harvest and transport his organic corn, hay and small grains. He’s being sued by creditors and has looked into declaring bankruptcy.
And as Greeno and other Wisconsin farmers enter this harvest season, the price of diesel that they need to power their machines is more expensive than ever before.
Our system is so broken.
We desperately need the organic corn that he is growing, and our system should financially reward him for growing it.
But instead our farmers are being financially crushed from every direction, and Greeno admits that this year “may just be the end” for many farmers in his area…
Greeno, a current board member and former president of the nonprofit Family Farm Defenders, said that fuel costs will cut into already narrow margins for Wisconsin farmers.
“When you’re talking cents a bushel on your corn crop that you hope is profit … for a lot of guys, this may just be the end,” Greeno said.
I detest what is being done to our farmers.
I really do.
Even before the price of diesel spiked, our farmers were being relentlessly squeezed on both ends by the seed giants, the fertilizer giants, the farm equipment giants and the large food distribution companies.
Now a lot of them simply can’t take it anymore.
CNN recently interviewed a seventh generation Illinois farmer named John Yeley.
Yeley says that there is no way that he would want his children to keep running the farm when he is done…
John Yeley has spent the last 26 years working on his farm, which his family has owned since 1852.
Yeley is the seventh generation to run his farm in Illinois, just over the state line from Indiana. Although he plans to keep doing so, he’s not sure he wants his 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter to take over because the current economics are so rough.
“Right now, the way all of this is now, no, I wouldn’t wish it on them,” he said about farming.
Yeley typically purchases 8,500 gallons of diesel for his farm twice a year.
On Friday, the average price of diesel in his state was $6.82 a gallon…
Diesel is a workhouse fuel that powers farming equipment, like tractors and combines. The national average for diesel has accelerated faster than the price of gasoline and is now near its recent all-time high of $6.53. In many states in the Midwest farm belt, the cost is even greater: The average price in Illinois, for example, was $6.82 as of Friday.
Farmers generally buy thousands of gallons each year. Yeley usually buys 8,500 gallons twice a year to run his equipment.
Ouch.
I cringe just thinking about that diesel bill.
But that is what it takes to run a farm in 2026.
And these costs are going to get passed on to us in the grocery store in 2027.
Are you ready for that?
The bigger issue is that we could lose a lot of these farms for good.
Approximately 200,000 farms have already gone belly up since the year 2,000, and during the first half of 2026 the number of farm bankruptcies was up 19 percent compared to the same period from a year earlier…
Nationwide, some 200,000 farms have gone out of business since 2020, Parum says.
“Farmers are saying, ‘we’re ready to throw in the towel,'” says Joe Peiffer, a bankruptcy attorney who works with farmers in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. He says clients tell him, “We’re sick of working our back ends off and losing money.”
For the 12 months ending in June, farm bankruptcies were up 19% from the previous year.
Without farmers, we do not eat.
So this is a really big deal.
President Trump is considering a dramatic move to bring down diesel prices.
On Sunday, he told reporters that he is actually thinking about banning diesel exports for a period of time.
But according to Goldman Sachs, that could potentially cause gasoline prices to spike…
A move by the U.S. to temporarily halt diesel exports amid record-high prices would initially lower costs, but a prolonged ban could drive up domestic gasoline prices, according to Goldman Sachs.
President Trump on Sunday told reporters his administration is “very seriously” considering a ban on diesel exports. Calls to restrict exports of U.S.-refined diesel have picked up in recent weeks, mostly from Republican lawmakers, as a lever they believe will help lower prices. Diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon on Sept. 22, and has only eased slightly since then, slipping to $6.45 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA data.
The war with Iran is pushing up oil and gas prices, creating widespread financial strain on U.S. motorists, food delivery drivers and farmers.
I think that Trump is facing some very tough choices.
What we really need is for the war in the Middle East to come to a permanent end, but that isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
In fact, it appears that Iran just attacked yet another oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz…
That is a very alarming development.
On the other side, we are being told that the U.S. just sent two more squadrons of fighter jets to a base in Israel…
I am convinced that a lot more fighting is ahead.
Needless to say, that would mean that the global energy crisis will get even worse.
And the price of diesel will go even higher.
I feel so bad for our farmers.
What they are doing is so important, but many of them now find themselves on the brink of quitting because of the immense financial pressure that has been placed upon them.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
