COLUMBUS – The cost of fuel is increasing, and that is heavily pressuring farmers’ profitability.

Agriculture expert Andy Vance explained how the cost of petroleum products affects a farmer's bottom line.

"You're talking about operating the tractors, combines, the various implements. Also, all of those machines: planters, combines, you know, a lot of greases, lubricants, so everything in that sort of petroleum, oil, fuel, energy, complex is an important part of the cost of producing food," he said.

This month, the American Farm Bureau Federation sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for an increase in American energy production.

"If you look at just the price of diesel fuel since September alone, it's up about 50%, so whatever farmers had penciled in last fall when they were making their calculations of what seed and fertilizer and energy were going to cost for this growing season, those costs are already horribly out of whack because of how much prices for all of those things have increased over the past six months. It's simply going to be more expensive to produce food this year than it was a year ago and the end really doesn't seem like it's anywhere in sight at this point," Vance said.

Vance also explained how the federal government's recent ban on Russian oil affects prices.

“You're talking about basics of supply-demand, so whether or not we actually import any oil from Russia is actually kind of immaterial because Russia, being a major producer of that oil, if they're suddenly not part of the equation on the global stage, that means you have the same amount of demand for the rest of the world, but fewer barrels of oil," he said.