ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
There are times when breaking a record is a bad thing, and right now, the price of fuel keeps doing just that. The price of regular gasoline climbed to around $4.50 - more than a quarter higher than this time last year. And it's even worse for diesel fuel, which tipped past $6.50 a gallon - the highest price on record according to the American Automobile Association. And it's the people who grow America's food who are one of the groups paying that price. Kristin Duncanson is a farmer in Minnesota. She raises soybeans, corn and hogs on her land and uses gas and diesel vehicles to do so. Welcome.
KRISTIN DUNCANSON: Thank you.
NADWORNY: So are you watching the price of gas right now?
DUNCANSON: Oh, very much so, even more so the price of diesel - about 90% of the fuel that we're going to use to plant, care and harvest our crop, so that's a top of mind right now.
NADWORNY: How surprised are you that it just keeps climbing?
DUNCANSON: Surprised and also a little frustrated - it's not something that we had planned on. There's a lot of uncertainty in the way that we have had to run our business over the past couple of years. Like you said in the opening, this is a record we didn't want to break.
NADWORNY: Well, it's harvest season in much of the U.S. It's almost time in Minnesota. Is that right?
DUNCANSON: That's right.
NADWORNY: By the end of the week, maybe?
DUNCANSON: I'm hoping in our neighborhood. You know, every region is different, but as I sit here in my office this morning, I'm going to say by Thursday, Friday, we should be in the field and picking the corn that I'm looking at.
NADWORNY: What will the rising fuel prices mean for how you harvest your crops?
DUNCANSON: It takes about eight gallons of fuel per acre to raise corn or soybeans, for that matter. Two to three gallons per acre are used just for the harvest time, and that doesn't include moving the product to market. That's just getting it out of the field and bringing it to our farm or to wherever it's going to be stored for a few months. So if you look at the price of what that is compared to last year, now we're looking at about $6 a gallon for diesel. Do the math. It's almost double.
NADWORNY: Farmers do have the option to buy their fuel in advance. Has that tempered prices? Has that made it easier to bear?
DUNCANSON: We watch very carefully the events around the world and the price of fuel and how they're related, so not a lot of people prebooked. They're just riding out the market and hoping things will get better. We're an optimistic group of people, I guess...
NADWORNY: (Laughter).
DUNCANSON: ...And always looking for the bright side of these things. The crop will get better. It'll rain. The prices will come down. Something will happen. And that just isn't the case right now.
NADWORNY: That's Kristin Duncanson, the owner of Highland Family Farms in Southern Minnesota. Thank you so much.
DUNCANSON: Thank you. I'm flattered to be here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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