Eddie Lewis III’s sugar cane crop looks better than it has in years, but he’ll be lucky if he breaks even by the end of the harvest.
Diesel prices have nearly doubled since he created his budget last winter. Fertilizer costs are up 20%. And a new, invasive pest known as the pasture mealybug has led to an unexpected $25,000 pesticide bill.
Lewis estimates that he’s already $200,000 over his $1 million budget. He has cut labor, held off on equipment purchases and is rethinking how many fields to replant across his 1,000 acres in Lafayette, Iberia and Vermilion parishes. But there’s only so much he can cut before cost-saving measures affect the success of his crop.
“You just took a strong, beautiful crop and dropped it from an A-minus to probably a D-plus, C-plus crop,” Lewis said. “And that’s because of the costs associated with raising this crop, protecting this crop.”
Eddie Lewis III, a fifth-generation sugarcane farmer, is pictured Friday, October 2, 2026, at Lewis Farms in Youngsville, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
Farmers across Louisiana say they’re blowing their budgets on higher fuel and fertilizer prices, and have done little to ease their burdens.
High energy costs have driven up inflation, making everyday life more expensive. The consumer price index rose 3.7% last month compared to a year ago, the U.S. Labor Department said this week.
Rice, crawfish and cattle farmers in Louisiana are also contending with other struggles to make ends meet: drought, saltwater intrusion and higher irrigation costs. They’ve led to difficult tradeoffs.
A young sugar cane and vegetable farmer in southeast Louisiana had to postpone improvements to tractor sheds and is considering scaling back more labor-intensive crops, despite his passion for growing healthier foods for his community. A farmer in northeast Louisiana had to pay double for seed because of a late freeze in March that forced him to replant his entire corn crop.
Across the state, farmers also say they are worried about the future of their land, as Louisiana public officials embrace industries with large footprints in once-rural areas, including liquefied natural gas facilities, solar farms, and a new space complex.
Donald Simon directs the operator of a transloader to drop sugarcane into a hauler Friday, October 2, 2026, at Lewis Farms in Youngsville, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
Lewis, 43, is a fifth-generation Acadiana farmer but wonders how much longer he can carry on the family legacy. He left his stockbroker job when he was 28 to take over the farm when his dad, just 49, had a fatal heart attack in the fields.
Lewis said he’s considered the possibility of selling farmland, especially as developers show interest in properties near SpaceX’s planned launch facility and spaceport in Vermilion Parish.
“Every day I bleed. Every day I cry,” he said.
“And the sweat — of course you sweat; that’s a given. The sweat don’t stop.”
‘No one can plan for that’
Louisiana agricultural economists and industry officials say the financial strain on farmers has been growing for years.
This year’s increase in input costs, primarily driven by the Iran war’s effect on fuel and fertilizer prices, has made it harder for farmers to recover their expenses, even with many of the state’s crops performing well and commodity prices rising.
Tanks containing on-road and off-road diesel fuels are pictured Friday, October 2, 2026, at Lewis Farms in Youngsville, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
“The gains that we’ve seen in market prices have not even begun to offset the rise in mainly fuel and fertilizer prices that producers have bought in 2026,” said Michael Deliberto, an associate professor at the Ĵý AgCenter.
Farmers are accustomed to weather, market and production risks, Deliberto said, but sudden increases in production costs are difficult to absorb when growers have already committed to planting and have limited control over what they’ll earn at harvest.
Direct production costs for sugar cane rose from $543 per acre in January to $643 per acre in August, according to the Ĵý AgCenter. Costs rose from $740 to $830 for corn, $780 to $930 for rice and $465 to $507 for soybeans.
For irrigated crops, including corn and rice, fuel prices can have a more dramatic impact because farmers must run pumps to keep their fields watered.
“When you have input costs that go up hundreds of dollars per acre, no one can plan for that,” Deliberto said. “And that’s just going to take its cut out of the margin at the end of the day.”
‘A risky way to earn a living’
Homer Leger began farming rice and crawfish full time this year on about 1,200 acres of leased land in Calcasieu Parish.
Leger, 50, expects to finish the year about $20,000 short of what he needs to cover his costs and plans to return to the bank for an additional loan to make ends meet. He left an oilfield service company to do this work.
“It seems like every time you get to step in the right direction, something’s trying to jerk you off the ladder,” he said.
Many rice farmers in Louisiana are in better shape than their counterparts in neighboring states, including Arkansas and Mississippi, because they can offset some expenses by rotating rice with crawfish. But Leger said it’s not a guaranteed cushion and both rice and crawfish require sufficient rainfall for success, while saltwater intrusion can ruin both crops.
Those two elements have hit Brandon Vail especially hard as a fifth-generation farmer who grows rice on about 500 acres and raises about 300 head of cattle in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes. Drought and saltwater intrusion have forced him to rely more heavily on wells that require additional fuel to operate.
With expenses running so high, the 41-year-old farmer reduced fertilizer applications on his second rice crop.
“You still have to put your fertilizer out,” Vail said. “Or you’re not going to make a crop, and you’re not going to have anything to repay.”
A 2025 federal bridge payment helped to cover about 20% of Vail’s budget shortfall. Without it, Vail said he might not have planted this year’s crop.
If fuel and fertilizer costs remain high going into the next planting season, Vail said he may reduce his acreage or concentrate on planting only his most productive fields.
“I ponder on that every year before I sign a farm loan,” he said. “This is a risky way to make a living.”
‘If I could get away from sugar cane, I really would’
More than 150 miles east in Ascension Parish, Ramaun Fernandez farms about 100 acres of sugar cane and 20 acres of vegetables while attending LSU full time. The agricultural business major and his family also raise chickens, cattle and goats.
Fernandez, 19, grew up farming alongside his grandfather, who he described as his “best friend.” Fernandez said he always wanted to farm — and that desire has grown stronger since his grandfather died earlier this year.
He’s had to table planned repairs to the farm’s tractor sheds while he’s running about $10,000 over his $250,000 budget. If fuel and fertilizer expenses remain high, he may have to reduce vegetable production, which requires more labor, and plant more sugar cane instead.
“If I could get away from sugar cane, I really would,” he said. “I like messing with vegetables that I know can go directly to feed people.”
The young, Black farmer hopes to bring a fresh perspective to a field that is dominated by older, White men.
While doing research for a project at Ĵý, Fernandez said he learned how differently Black farmers were treated than White farmers when it came to government assistance. His own farm, he said, was denied a USDA land clearing loan.
‘You can’t blame people for selling their land’
In northeast Louisiana, Garrett Marsh grows corn and soybeans on about 1,700 acres.
The third-generation farmer is about 10% over budget on his Madison Parish farm. In addition to fuel and fertilizer costs, he’s also been hit with higher seed costs after a freeze in March forced him to replant his entire corn crop.
“I always try to budget on the high side, expecting the worst,” Marsh said. “But we’re still over budget.”
Marsh, 45, also worries about the development of in nearby Richland Parish and the effect it could have on his leased farmland.
He envisions one day passing down his farm through generations, although he questions the reality of whether it will be possible in the decades ahead.
“You can’t blame people for selling their land,” Marsh said. “Because it’s going to be more than they’ll ever make off farming.”
Vail, the southwest Louisiana rice and cattle farmer, said he’s worried about the possibility of data centers one day taking up resources like land, water and electricity. He also worries about the added traffic, which has been a problem for him in Cameron Parish because of the LNG boom.
“We’re having issues moving equipment, moving rice strictly because of the traffic,” Vail said, noting that there have been multiple fatal crashes on La. 27 so far this year. “It’s becoming more and more dangerous.”
‘This has not been an overnight issue’
Louisiana had about 25,000 farms as of 2022, according to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture. That was a 9% decrease from the census five years earlier.
For the majority of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, farming is the top economic driver, according to Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain.
“In some parishes, it is the sole economy,” Strain said. “And we have to recognize that and protect it over the entire course of our careers and lifetimes.”
Cattle egrets gather in a field of cut sugarcane Friday, October 2, 2026, at Lewis Farms in Youngsville, La.
STAFF PHOTO BY LESLIE WESTBROOK
Louisiana agriculture is in better shape than much of the country because of the state’s fertile land, wide range of crops and easy access to export facilities, he said.
But those strengths don’t eliminate the challenge of farming when expenses continue to outpace the prices farmers receive for their crops.
Andy Brown, public policy director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau, said the struggle predates the fuel and fertilizer price spikes. Hurricanes, droughts, weak profit margins and other pressures have contributed to farm consolidation and closures in recent years.
“This has not been an overnight issue,” Brown said. “The plight of the farmer has been in decline for some time.”
The Farm Bureau has called for more stable trade policy, changes to agricultural labor policy and greater competition among suppliers of farm inputs. Federal assistance is also an important way to help farmers manage the gap between costs and revenues, Brown said.
Strain emphasized the importance of reducing fertilizer and fuel costs, expanding agricultural research and protecting farmland.
Two recently announced fertilizer production projects in Ascension and Jefferson parishes could eventually reduce farmers’ reliance on fertilizer imports that are driving up costs, Strain said.
And the need to protect farmland is nothing new, he said. Farmland has long been endangered by the development of residential subdivisions. Now, it’s the state’s investment in LNG, data centers and a space port.
Realistically, Strain said, Louisiana needs to set aside $25 to $50 million per year to protect its farmland.
“Every inch of every acre is precious,” Strain said. “And the bottom line is we have to protect our food supply, and we have to do that by protecting the land that produces the food.”