# Iran war puts global food production at risk, says fertiliser boss Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559/iran-war-puts-global-food-production-at-risk-says-fertiliser-boss Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559/iran-war-puts-global-food-production-at-risk-says-fertiliser-boss.md Podcast: [Learning English from the News](https://stenobird.com/podcast/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559) Published: 2026-05-06T13:35:00+00:00 Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0njmlw2 Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0njmk2x.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559/episodes/iran-war-puts-global-food-production-at-risk-says-fertiliser-boss Duration seconds: 539 ## Resource Global food production is being threatened by an interruption to the supply of fertiliser, according to the boss of one of the world's biggest fertiliser producers. Fertiliser is something that farmers put on fields to help plants grow. When the United States and Israel struck Iran on 28 February, the Strait of Hormuz, which is a narrow waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, effectively shut down. About one-third of the world's fertiliser trade normally passes through the strait. Less fertiliser means less food is grown, and if there is less food available, then prices rise. The UN World Food Programme estimates that the Middle East conflict could cause 45 million additional people to experience severe hunger in 2026. Learn about the news in a level of English you can understand with Neil and Georgie. Get a free worksheet for this episode here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2026/260506 Learn about all our podcasts here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/podcasts ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559/episodes/iran-war-puts-global-food-production-at-risk-says-fertiliser-boss/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/learning-english-from-the-news-1026559/iran-war-puts-global-food-production-at-risk-says-fertiliser-boss.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.