Most Texans have never given sulfur a second thought. But if you've bought groceries this year, you've paid for it.

Sulfur is the key ingredient in the food on your table. Farmers can't grow crops without fertilizer, and you can't make phosphate fertilizer without sulfur. Sulfur is what turns phosphate rock into a nutrient a cotton plant on the South Plains or a cornfield in the Blacklands can use.

Here's what should make every Texan sit up: much of America's sulfur comes from right here. Sulfur is a byproduct of oil refining, and Texas has more operating refineries than any other state. The nation's largest single refinery sits in Port Arthur, and Gulf Coast refiners produce more than half of all U.S. sulfur. Every barrel processed in Beaumont, Baytown, Corpus Christi and Texas City yields more of this critical fertilizer ingredient.

America produces about 70% of the sulfur it needs. With Texas refineries leading the way, this should be a win for American agriculture. Instead, a foreign adversary has found a way to use our own output against us.

A rigged market

The United States exports 2 million metric tons of sulfur a year, about a quarter of what we produce. China is the No. 1 buyer. Many of the other big buyers, in places like Indonesia, are Chinese companies operating on foreign soil, so that sulfur still serves Beijing's interests.

China's state-owned fertilizer giant, Yuntianhua Group, is backed by the Communist government, which lets it outbid American buyers for American raw materials. Then Beijing keeps the finished product for itself. China suspended phosphate fertilizer exports through August 2026 and then halted sulfuric acid exports, and China produces more than 40% of the world's sulfuric acid.

It's not just China. Russia, India and China all restrict exports of sulfuric acid, and Russia and Kazakhstan banned sulfur exports outright. Add the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for over half the world's traded sulfur, and you have the most acute sulfur supply disruption in a generation.

Every other major player is locking the doors. Yet America keeps shipping its sulfur out the front gate.

Texas farmers are paying the bill

The results are no mystery. Sulfur in Tampa has averaged about $172 a long ton over the past decade. As Rep. Vern Buchanan has noted, today's prices represent "a nearly 600 percent increase." Phosphate plants are scaling back, and hundreds of fertilizer workers are already out of work.

Texas farmers feel it directly, and some of the clearest thinking on why comes from right here at home. As Texas Tech economist Darren Hudson recently explained, fertilizer is a globally traded commodity, and domestic prices track global benchmarks. When world prices rise, American farmers pay more, and importing doesn't save them a dime.

Hudson also identifies the trap Texas is caught in. The global sulfur spike has made it more lucrative for refiners to export sulfur than to sell it at home. Combined with China's export controls on finished fertilizer, raw materials flow out and no finished product comes back. And because a farmer can't easily skip phosphate mid-season, every supply shock hits the farm budget hard and fast.

What Washington should do

West Texas taught me long ago that energy and agriculture are joined at the hip. Few states understand that better than Texas, and our congressional delegation should lead the charge, joining Rep. Buchanan's call for the White House to act. Three steps would make a real difference:

First, use the Defense Production Act to get affordable sulfur into American hands now, and help move and stockpile it where it's needed. Texas ports and rail are ready-made assets for the job.

Second, bring refiners and sulfur sellers to the table, voluntarily. Many of them are headquartered in Texas, and the goal is simple: American tons should reach American fertilizer plants first.

Third, block Chinese state-owned enterprises from buying critical American raw materials as long as Beijing restricts its own fertilizer exports, and work with allied suppliers to fill the gap. Reciprocity isn't protectionism; it's common sense.

Food security is national security. You can't feed a country if a rival superpower controls the inputs. Texas makes the sulfur. Texas farmers should be the first to benefit from it.

The Honorable Mike Conaway is a former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He represented Texas in Congress from 2005 to 2021.