TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La. (WVUE) – Liuzza Family Farm is more than 7,000 miles from Iran, but the war in the region is still hitting home in Tangipahoa Parish.

The farm says the sharp rise in diesel prices is forcing it to conserve fuel and rethink future plans as energy costs climb. AAA listed Louisiana’s average diesel price at $5.009 a gallon on March 24, up from $4.735 a week earlier and $3.251 a month earlier.

“This is not a speed bump. This is a roadblock because fuel drives our whole production. Everything we do, every tractor uses diesel. Every truck uses diesel or gasoline,” said Joey Liuzza, co-owner of Liuzza Family Farm.

Joey Liuzza and his wife, Nichole, started their farm in 2022. They say farming is a constant balancing act, but right now, fuel costs are at the top of the list.

The farm usually spends between $3,000 and $5,000 a month on diesel. The Liuzzas estimate the higher cost of energy will raise the cost of producing strawberries and vegetables by 15% to 25% in the coming months.

“We do appreciate all the business we get from our local consumers, and we hope that they find a couple extra dollars in their budget for us,” said Nichole Liuzza, co-owner of Liuzza Family Farm.

Read more: Louisiana’s LNG industry could help fill natural gas gap amid war with Iran

The price pressure goes beyond diesel. The Associated Press reported that farmers across the United States are bracing for higher fertilizer prices and possible shortages because shipping disruptions tied to the Iran war are affecting supply.

AP also reported that the Strait of Hormuz has become a major pressure point in the conflict, with shipping traffic and energy flows disrupted as the war escalated. More than one-fifth of the world’s oil typically moves through that waterway.

Liuzza Family Farm says it is also dealing with rising fertilizer costs as those global disruptions ripple into Louisiana.

“Our crops are planted. Our planting is done. Our prices have been set. So, there’s no way for a farmer to go back and say, hey, we need you to pay more because of fuel costs,” Joey Liuzza said.

The farm said adding an energy surcharge, like some restaurants once did with eggs, is not a realistic option.

“In a perfect world if every farmer would say, we’re putting on a fuel surcharge, then the customers would pay it. The customers are about the bottom-line price and whoever is the cheapest that’s who gets the business,” Liuzza said.

The Liuzzas said they had hoped to expand next year, but those plans could be delayed if energy prices remain high.

“We’re still a fairly new farm, and it will be a significant hit on us. We really need to crunch the numbers and buckle down and see are we going to be able to expand next year,” Nichole Liuzza said.

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Louisiana residents may see changes in calling the state health department or using its website if it turns to artificial intelligence to save money. 

The department is examining how it can implement AI over the next few years to make residents’ experiences more efficient and reduce spending, Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Bruce Greenstein said at an AI symposium at LSU.

The first and largest deployment, should the department proceed with it, would be in its call centers. Running the two centers costs over $40 million a year. Greenstein said using AI to answer calls could reduce costs by up to 25%. 

That would save the state $10 million a year while still preserving an option to talk to a human employee. 

When the department was seeking information about an AI call option, Greenstein said, there was an overwhelming response from possible providers. 

Greenstein, who has worked in both the public and private sectors, said he also is interested in using AI to help residents maneuver the department’s website. It houses information on an array of topics from SNAP benefits and Medicaid to oyster harvesting. 

“Navigating our web properties becomes challenging if you’re looking for very specific information,” Greenstein said in an interview after the symposium on Friday. “So having chatbots to help people navigate our system is something we’re also considering.” 

The department must respect the sensitive clinical information it deals with, Greenstein said, while keeping up with technological advances. 

He said he is interested in creating protections in collaborations with health care professionals to codify patients’ rights to privacy.

Some rights would include a consent requirement if patient information was to be run through an AI database. Another would be a notification of changes, especially if a process is losing human interaction entirely. 

“So on the AI side, because we’re in kind of the new frontier, what I suspect is that we’ll proceed extra cautiously where the robot takes the place of decision-making for the human,” Greenstein said. “But we’ll have more kind of slack in the system to experiment on the administrative task side.” 

Greenstein critiqued other states’ restrictions on AI and said he did not see issues with Louisiana’s implementation yet. 

“We are not seeing something that I’m deeply concerned about thus far,” he said. “And within state government, we’ve been taking a cautious but forceful approach forward in analyzing the opportunities but not making any decisions without having a proper amount of security concerns addressed or just thoughtful analysis.” 

Gov. Jeff Landry released an executive order in October mandating governmental AI use to be “responsible, ethical, beneficial and trustworthy.” 

The order restricts the state government’s use of AI platforms from “free software, especially those created and operated by nation states like the Communist Chinese Party.” He specifically named China’s DeepSeek AI model.