Hormuz Food Squeeze Could Topple Governments Before It Empties Shelves
The world is watching oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, but the head of the International Chamber of Commerce says we're watching the wrong cargo. John Denton warns the real danger is food — and history shows that when food gets scarce in fragile regions, governments fall, wars spread, and the instability lands on America's doorstep in ways no gas price ever does.
Bottom Line
The Hormuz crisis is being scored on oil prices, but the more dangerous metric is calories. Food-import-dependent Gulf and regional states are far more exposed to this chokepoint than Western consumers, and history is blunt about what follows sustained food shocks in fragile regions: unrest, collapse, and conflict that spreads. In a region already destabilized by the US-Iran war and a missing Iranian Supreme Leader, a hunger shock wouldn't just raise prices — it could redraw the political map.