Economist Podcasts Food awakening: Iran’s ripple effect
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Apr 15, 2026 
Avantika Chilkoti, a global business writer, tracks how the Iran conflict and Hormuz blockades disrupt food and fertiliser supplies. Catherine Brahic, environment editor, looks at El Niño’s threat to hunger. Kira Huju, Asia correspondent, reports on anti-conversion laws and Christian burial clashes in India. Carla Subirana, news desk editor, explores why Britain’s vets are under pressure.
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Iran's Food Shock Starts With Fertilizer
- The Iran conflict threatens food indirectly by choking fertilizer and energy flows before supermarket prices visibly rise.
- Avantika Chilkoti says 30% of traded fertilizer passes through Hormuz, with Gulf and Russian supply also hit by attacks.
El Niño Could Deepen a Man Made Food Crisis
- El Niño can turn a shipping disruption into a hunger emergency by battering poor farming regions with droughts and other extreme weather.
- Catherine Brahic notes the 2023-24 El Niño helped drive southern Africa's worst drought in 100 years and left roughly 30m needing food aid.
Planting Windows Make This Food Threat Immediate
- The crisis is urgent because fertilizer matters at planting, and missed applications cannot be fixed later in the season.
- Avantika Chilkoti says some farmers left land fallow, while the World Food Programme has enough stuck in transit to feed 4m people for a month.