The ongoing war in Iran is driving up more than just the cost of oil. With essential crop fertilizers also caught in the crossfire, U.S. food prices could be next.
About one-third of the world’s fertilizer ingredients — key inputs farmers rely on to grow the crops that become everyday food items — transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping chokepoint along Iran’s southern coast.
Roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies also move through the narrow waterway. Since the U.S.- Israeli attacks on Iran began Feb. 28, the strait has been effectively shut.
At least three cargo ships have come under direct attack from Iranian military forces, and there are growing fears that Iran has planted sea mines in the strait.
Facing imminent danger, shipping companies and oil tanker owners have opted not to transit the strait, and marine tracking systems show hundreds of tankers sitting idle just outside the waterway,
...Keep reading this article on NBC News.
