George Monbiot on our fragile food system

乔治·蒙比奥关于我们脆弱的食物系统

Today in Focus

2026-04-07

28 分钟
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The Guardian columnist speaks about why we need to tackle global food insecurity. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus
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  • This is The Guardian.

  • Today, what the war on Iran means for the world's supply of food.

  • Five weeks into a war that the U.S. Promised it would have settled by now.

  • If your children are watching, be warned, the president did not use polite language.

  • And President Trump is rattled.

  • Quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one in Iran.

  • There will be nothing like it.

  • Open the fucking strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell.

  • Just watch.

  • The strait of Hormuz is crucial to the world's steady supply of gas and oil.

  • And the Iranians forcing its partial closure has sent financial markets into a tailspin.

  • Energy is just one part of this very global story.

  • What about food?

  • So we 're looking at roughly 30% of the nitrate fertilizer,

  • roughly 20% of the phosphate fertilizer, a lot of the sulfur as well, around 50% of that.

  • The Guardian columnist and campaigner, George Monbiot, is ringing the alarm bell.

  • So this is a very substantial chunk of the world's fertilizer production and export is coming from the Gulf nations,

  • principally because a lot of that is being produced from natural gas and other hydrocarbon products.

  • Modern food production, crops, the farms, requires an enormous amount of fertiliser.

  • And a good chunk of the world's supply, it comes from the Gulf, shipped out through the Strait of Hormuz.