Kuala Lampur, May 3 -- The US-Iran war is not just spiking gas prices; it is systematically disrupting the global food system. The concern about global food security is a clear-eyed assessment of a supply chain built on a fossil fuel foundation. Modern agriculture is, for better or worse, the art of turning oil and gas into food. And the Persian Gulf is the epicentre of that transformation. Roughly one-third of the world's seaborne fertiliser trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Gulf states are also critical suppliers of nitrogen fertilisers, which require natural gas as a feedstock, and phosphates, which require sulphur-from region's petrochemical industry. With the strait closed, this critical artery has been severed. The tim...