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Growing pains: how will the fertiliser crisis affect food supply?
· 22 min
Episode Growing pains: how will the fertiliser crisis affect food supply?
For the second time in five years, conflict has seriously destablised global markets. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to US and Israeli attacks on Iran has limited trade, causing skyrocketing prices - but not only for oil.
Most fertiliser production relies on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Gulf nations including Qatar and Saudi Arabia are major fertiliser producers, and one third of the world's seaborne fertiliser trade usually passes through the Strait, which is currently unavailable. Other fertiliser producing nations are reducing production due to limited gas supply. Are food shortages inevitable?
Alasdair is joined by Noah Gordon to discuss the international and environmental politics of fertilisers. They discuss fertiliser production, its uses and misuses, its role in global inequality and whether gas dependency can be avoided.
Noah Gordon is the acting Co-Director of the Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
Further reading:
• 'The Other Global Crisis Stemming From the Strait of Hormuz’s Blockage', Emissary, March 2026 • 'A Trump Order Protected a Weedkiller. And Also a Weapon of War.' New York Times, March 2026 • How to Feed the World by Vaclav Smil, 2025 • 'How a few giant companies came to dominate global food', Land and Climate Review, May 2025 • 'Why was organic policy blamed for Sri Lanka’s financial crisis?' Land and Climate Review, June 2024 • 'Fertiliser emissions could be cut to ‘one-fifth of current levels’ by 2050', Carbon Brief, February 2023 • The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager, 2009 • Titans of Industrial Agriculture by Jennifer Clapp, 2025
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Links in the notes 10
- https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/03/fertilizer-iran-hormuz-food-crisis
- https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/climate/bayer-white-phosphate-glyphosate-roundup-trump-executive-order-munition.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XlA.06zr.FQj_V8M6lP9L&smid=url-share
- https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456795/how-to-feed-the-world-by-smil-vaclav/9780241999509
- https://landclimate.org/how-a-few-giant-companies-came-to-dominate-global-food/
- https://landclimate.org/why-was-organic-policy-blamed-for-sri-lankas-financial-crisis/
- https://www.carbonbrief.org/fertiliser-emissions-could-be-cut-to-one-fifth-of-current-levels-by-2050/
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/73464/the-alchemy-of-air-by-thomas-hager-author-of-the-demon-under-the-microscope/
- https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Titans-of-Industrial-Agriculture-by-Jennifer-Clapp/9780262551700?srsltid=AfmBOopELSc1sCbVc8BajGMmXPpPpwRIL4ba6xLH1gF2mlgFx1GcLgH0
- https://www.buzzsprout.com/1695859/fan_mail/new
- https://www.landclimate.org/
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