Hormuz closure could trigger 'agrifood shock', price crisis within a year
102 points by mooreds 2 days ago | 32 comments
  • martythemaniak 2 days ago |
    Tough problem! Perhaps the US commentariat should listen to Thomas Friedman's wisdom and start loudly hectoring the rest of the world to step up and fix this problem.
    • bdcravens 2 days ago |
      Or we could just accept defeat and leave.
      • nielsbot 2 days ago |
        But then we might look weak! (Like Trump does every time he slouches over in his chair next to Xi Jin-Ping)
  • jalapenoj 2 days ago |
    It’s a sacrifice israel is willing to make.
    • TitaRusell 2 days ago |
      Or Trump. In his own words he doesn't care about American citizens financial troubles at all.

      One wonders if the people who hated Biden for egg prices feel any shame at all?

      • nielsbot 2 days ago |
        Not really. It’s a cult.

        Well there’s a handful. For them you can suggest

        https://leavingmaga.org

  • hersko 2 days ago |
    Here are two articles Reuters wrote about how the war in Ukraine was going to do something similar in 2022[1][2]. Make of this what you will.

    [1] https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UKRAINE-CRISIS/FOOD/zjvqkgo... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-war-ukraine-bla...

    • gambiting 2 days ago |
      And like other articles pointed out, wealthy western countries will always just outbid poorer countries for their food. No one in Germany, Poland or the UK was going to go hungry without the grain or fertilizer from Ukraine - but it does mean we have a much tighter supply than before, and poorer countries got quite literally priced out. Combined with the reduction of foreign aid(not just by US) there is a humanitarian crisis going on in a lot of places as a direct consequence of this. This is "just" going to make the existing problems worse.
      • TitaRusell 2 days ago |
        Wait a minute! Dutch people were forbidden from buying more than 2 bottles of sunflower oil for a few months!

        It was my generation's 1945 winter of starvation.

    • delecti 2 days ago |
      Also worth noting that a deal was worked out a few months later, before things could get bad. https://www.npr.org/2022/07/22/1112880942/ukraine-grain-expo...
  • SaucyWrong 2 days ago |
    The knock-on effects of a prolonged Hormuz closure will coincide nicely with those of a super El Niño, if one develops as predicted this year.
  • sharts 2 days ago |
    Meh they said that about Ukraine as well.