United States agricultural suppliers are sounding the alarm over the rising cost of fertilizers that threatens to lower crop yields and worsen strains on global food supplies. “It’s put a stranglehold on us,” said John Ortiz, sales manager at BigYield.us in Garden City, Missouri, an organization focused on creating strategies that increase the size and quality of crops grown on the farm using liquid nitrogen-based fertilizers. “You’re always going to need seed. You’re always going to need fertilizer” to grow crops on a large scale, Ortiz told The Epoch Times. “People need to eat.” Fertilizers have been in short supply in recent months due to the high cost of natural gas, a main ingredient used in their production. Prices have nearly tripled in the past year alone, Ortiz said. In 2020 it cost about $48 to treat one acre of top soil with fertilizer. In 2021 it costs around $120 …