The humanitarian risks of a fertilizer shock
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war with Iran is having all sorts of effects on energy markets and the flow of other commodities—like fertilizer. Roughly one third of the world’s fertilizer passes through the narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf. On today’s show, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Michael Werz joins Kimberly to make the case that the ongoing disruption to the fertilizer trade is causing a chain reaction that could raise food prices and intensify humanitarian crises across the globe.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- "The Iran War’s Hidden Front: Food, Water, and Fertilizer" from the Council on Foreign Relations
- "The Iran War’s Other Energy Shortage—Food" from The Wall Street Journal
- "Energy shock talk grabs headlines but the Iran war is also driving the world towards a food crisis" from The Guardian
- "Russia reaps fertiliser windfall from Iran war" from The Financial Times
If “Make Me Smart” adds something meaningful to your week, we’d love your help keeping it going. Donate now: https://support.marketplace.org/smart-sn
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 0:12.8 | The ongoing war with Iran is having all sorts of humanitarian and economic repercussions in the region and globally. |
| 0:20.1 | And while Iran has reportedly said ships not |
| 0:22.8 | connected to the U.S. or Israel can go ahead and go through the Strait of Hormuz, most international |
| 0:28.5 | shippers just don't want to take that risk. And as you've also probably heard, this trade route is |
| 0:34.2 | crucial to global energy markets. and it also plays a critical role |
| 0:38.7 | in global food supply chains. |
| 0:41.3 | And it's that food side of things that we're going to talk about today. |
| 0:44.3 | And here to make us smart about this is Michael Worse. |
| 0:47.0 | He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where his work focuses on the intersection |
| 0:51.9 | of food security, climate change, migration, and emerging countries. |
| 0:56.5 | Michael, welcome to the show. |
| 0:58.2 | It's a great pleasure to be on. Thank you so much. |
| 1:00.8 | Big picture. What's been the impact so far of this war on global food supply chains? |
| 1:06.4 | The impact is complex, to say the least, because as you've mentioned, there is an impact on global fertilizer market. |
| 1:13.5 | About one third of fertilizer that is used globally is going through the Strait of Hormuz with countries like Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman being important producers. |
| 1:25.2 | This is relevant because about half of the food that is produced worldwide |
| 1:29.1 | depends on fertilizer use. Secondly, the energy prices are skyrocketing. Fertilizer production is |
| 1:36.5 | extremely energy intensive, so that increases the volatility of fertilizer prices even more. |
| 1:42.1 | And something that is not often looked at the countries that are more exposed to those |
| 1:48.0 | increased food and fertilizer prices, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia, are also countries |
| 1:54.0 | that have a lot of labor migrants in the Gulf regions, millions of them, and their |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.