“The world is sleepwalking into a global food crisis,” Cooper said. “We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.”
“Iran’s continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz while the agriculture clock is ticking shows why we need urgent global pressure to get the Strait reopened, fertiliser and fuel moving, and ease the costs of living pressures,” she added, echoing concerns raised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer over U.K. households facing the economic impact of the Iran war.
Iran's continued chokehold on the transit of oil and gas has upended the global economy, causing major instability to energy prices around the world and prompting governments to rethink their own energy production.
In the U.S., the national average for gasoline has risen to $4.53 per gallon, up nearly 50 cents from just a month ago, and over $1.55 more than before the start of the war, cites the American Automobile Association.
It's still significantly less than the 138 vessels that typically passed through the Strait each day prior to the war, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.
With no clear end in sight for the Iran war, the U.K. government is far from the only body urging for the resumption of free-flowing trade via the Strait.
Christian Reynolds, a reader in food policy at the Centre for Food Policy at University of London, tells TIME that global production of “big crops” relies heavily on “synthetic fertilizer” successfully passing through the Strait.
“At this point we must understand how we reduce the amount of food insecurity with the situation that's unfolding now, it's damage control rather than damage prevention,” he explains.
Meanwhile, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Maximo Torero warned in April that “the clock is ticking” for dangerous spikes in food prices, particularly for poorer countries whose crop calendar
“This is a different choke point in the global economy, but it is just as vital as the Russia-Ukraine choke point,” he says. “Right now, we are walking into something that is leaving the global poor in a state of food insecurity with food prices set to rise.”
However, Reynolds argues the growing food insecurity crisis cannot be blamed solely on the Strait, pointing also to climate pressures and shrinking aid budgets, meaning “we have less infrastructure to respond to this.”
Still, global efforts are focused on reopening the Strait and freeing up the vital trade that flows through the crucial passage.
Cooper is also hosting a Global Partnerships Conference in London, intended to bring together governments, businesses, philanthropies, and international organizations to discuss how to address the growing agricultural crisis.
Strait of Hormuz used as geopolitical bargaining chip
He pointed to the U.S. blockade and did not rule out the possibility of the U.S. military forcing the reopening of the waterway.
Iran wants recognition of its sovereignty over the Strait—a term the U.S. has flatly rejected.
But Trump, talking to reporters, reemphasized: “That’s not their [Iran’s] Strait. That’s international waterways.”
He criticized Iran for using the crucial waterway as a “military weapon,” referring to how Tehran has repeatedly used the passage as a geopolitical bargaining chip during times of tension.
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