Right now, the attack on Iran by the US and Israel has sparked a major shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. Beyond the death, displacement and suffering of people facing US-Israeli strikes, you might be hearing that this “shipping jam” is the unavoidable reason that your grocery bills might be about to skyrocket again.

The crisis brought on by this illegal attack by the US and Israeli militaries reveals a systemic failure at the heart of our global food system. Almost half of global food production now depends on synthetic fertilisers produced by a small number of fossil fuel and agrochemical giants, leaving families and farmers to pay the price the moment fragile supply chains break. While the human cost of the conflict continues to mount, the geopolitical shock is hitting farmers at the peak of the spring application season across much of the Northern Hemisphere, and driving up costs for farmers worldwide, with knock-on effects on harvests and food prices

But that is just a distraction. The shipping delay is just the symptom of a much more systemic problem. What we are really seeing is the effect of a rigged food system functioning exactly as Big Ag designed it: protecting corporate profits while squeezing everyday families.

Here is why a geopolitical shock away can make your food more expensive, and why we need to change the system fast.

Fossil Fuels Repackaged as Food

Behind the current crisis is a truth the agro-chemical industry doesn’t want you to know: our global food system is dangerously addicted to chemical fertilisers, which are essentially fossil fuels repackaged for the soil.

Fossil fuel and Big Ag giants use massive amounts of energy to turn natural gas and oil into synthetic nitrogen. Then, they ship these chemicals across the globe on massive vessels, relying heavily on fragile chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, where the US and Israeli attack on Iran is already causing massive disruption.

This isn’t just bad luck. It is a setup made by Big Ag and fossil fuel billionaires. The industrialised, monoculture-based agricultural system they have imposed on the world depletes our soil and reduces biodiversity, forcing farmers to depend on fossil fuel-based fertilisers while corporate giants pocket the profits. Now, at the peak of the spring planting season in the Northern Hemisphere, the supply chain has snapped. 

Farmers are trapped in a volatile global market they cannot control, facing difficult choices such as paying drastically higher prices for fertilisers, reducing application rates, or switching crops. Any of these decisions leads to the same outcome: likely decline in crop production. The consequences then ripple through global supply chains and ultimately retail food prices, leaving families to foot the bill for corporate greed. Again.

Growing Feed Instead of Food

To make matters worse, the vast majority of these expensive, imported chemicals aren’t even used to grow food for humans. They are dumped onto endless fields to grow feed for factory-farmed animals.

The sheer, unsustainable scale of global industrial meat and dairy production supercharges this fragility. If we shifted away from resource-heavy, large-scale livestock operations and instead prioritised growing plants directly for human consumption, we wouldn’t be held hostage by these vulnerable supply chains.

The Emergency Exit: Ecological Farming

The good news? We have an emergency exit from this mess: ecological farming. It is the only real path to food sovereignty, independence, and local resilience.

Instead of buying expensive chemical pellets from a factory halfway around the world, farmers can work with nature instead of against it. By planting diverse types of crops, plants can naturally “fix” nutrients into the soil. This breaks the cycle of chemical dependence and does five amazing things at once:

• Saves Money: Farmers slash their costs by eliminating expensive chemicals, which protects your food prices from global shocks.
• Cleans the Water: It stops toxic chemical run-off from polluting our rivers and drinking water.
• Protects Wildlife: It restores space for bees, birds, and vital biodiversity to thrive.
• Fights Climate Change: It cuts the massive greenhouse gas emissions produced by the industrial food system.
• Increases Food Security: It reduces our dependence on imported food that is vulnerable to external shocks 

Growing a Safer Future from the Ground Up

Real food security isn’t something we can buy from a chemical factory in another country. It is something we grow right at home, starting with healthy soil and local communities.

But to get there, we need to force our governments to stop propping up this fragile, billionaire-serving model. Right now, billions in public subsidies keep the industrial meat and chemical fertiliser pipeline flowing. That money must be redirected.

The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is a warning we cannot ignore. Sign the petition today to stop Big Ag and build a food future that is affordable and resilient.

Stop Big Meat and Dairy

It’s time to cut through corporate lies, cut agriculture emissions and shift towards sustainable agroecology.

Sign now!

Amanda Larsson is the Food and Agriculture Global Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Aotearoa.

A version of this blog was first published by Greenpeace Africa on 9 March 2026.

Nairobi woke up on Saturday to streets turned to rivers, homes submerged, and families torn apart. At least 42 people have lost their lives, fathers, mothers, children, swept away in a single night of rain. Greenpeace Africa grieves with every family carrying that loss today. We stand with the people of Mukuru, Kibra, Mathare, Huruma, and Embakasi, communities that had already endured so much, and that deserved so much more protection than they received.

The people of Kenya deserve more than condolences. They deserve justice.

Disproportionate climate impacts  

For years, communities, scientists and climate advocates across Kenya have raised the alarm that the climate crisis was not a future threat but a present reality, already reshaping weather patterns, already threatening lives. Those warnings were not heeded with the urgency they deserved. The devastating scenes across Nairobi last week are a heartbreaking reminder of what is at stake when we fail to act in time.

What Kenya is living through right now is not an isolated catastrophe. While Nairobi drowns, communities in North Eastern Kenya are facing prolonged drought that has decimated livelihoods, dried up water sources, and pushed families to the edge. Flood and drought. Deluge and dryness. These are not opposites. They are two faces of the same broken climate system, and Kenya is bearing both at once.

Scientists have confirmed that the climate crisis made the extreme rainfall behind floods approximately 40% more intense. These are not acts of God. They are the consequences of decades of unchecked emissions by the world’s wealthiest nations and corporations, consequences being paid, in lives, by communities who contributed almost nothing to this crisis.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Greenpeace Africa (@greenpeaceafrica)

Weakening Kenya’s natural defences 

This crisis has also laid bare a painful and urgent truth: Kenya is actively dismantling the natural systems that protect its people. Forests are not scenery. They are infrastructure. They absorb rainfall, anchor soil, regulate rivers, and shield downstream communities from exactly the kind of flooding that devastated Nairobi this week. When we destroy them, we don’t just lose trees. We strip away the first line of defence that stands between a heavy rainstorm and a catastrophe.

Kenya’s forests, from the urban green lungs like Karura in the heart of Nairobi to the highland water towers of the Mau Complex and the Aberdares, are the country’s natural flood defence. They absorb rainfall, regulate rivers and protect communities downstream. Yet they continue to face encroachment, illegal logging and weak enforcement. Every hectare lost is another community left more exposed and we are losing far too many.

But forests alone are not enough. Kenya has known for years that its cities, and particularly Nairobi’s informal settlements, are acutely vulnerable to flooding. The warnings have come from meteorologists, from engineers, from community leaders, from civil society. Yet drainage systems remain clogged and inadequate, early warning systems fail to reach the last mile, and residents in Mukuru, Mathare and Kibera have had to face rising waters with no meaningful preparation or support. That is not bad luck. That is a governance failure, one that costs lives every single rainy season, and that becomes more deadly with every degree of warming.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Greenpeace International (@greenpeace)

Building climate resilience  

Disaster preparedness is not a luxury. It is a basic obligation of the government to its people. Kenya must invest urgently in climate-resilient urban infrastructure, functional early warning systems that reach every neighbourhood, and community-level emergency response capacity. Accountability must follow. When communities raise the alarm about blocked drainage, about encroachment on the forests that protect them, about the absence of emergency plans, those warnings must be acted on, not filed away until the next flood makes the front page.

Kenya’s government must urgently invest in climate resilience infrastructure: early warning systems that reach the last mile, drainage systems that can withstand intensifying rainfall, and social protection systems that catch communities when the rains don’t stop or when they don’t come at all. It must also champion Kenya’s rightful claim to Loss and Damage finance at the international level and demand that rich polluting nations pay their climate debt.

Stop wrecking Africa

Demand that polluters pay for the damages they continue to cause across Africa and that they change course now

Add your name

Sherie Gakii is the Communications and Storytelling Manager at Greenpeace Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Tokyo, Japan – Today, 15 years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which devastated the northeast region of Japan. Greenpeace Japan extends heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families who are still suffering the aftermath of this catastrophe.

Sam Annesley, Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan, said: 

Today marks 15 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. We honor the memory of those who lost their lives and offer our deepest sympathies to the survivors. Our hearts remain with the families and communities who have endured so much over the past 15 years. 

On a Friday afternoon in early spring, the massive earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster struck. The scale of devastation reported in the news left everyone fearing for the safety of their loved ones. The release of vast amounts of radioactive material compounded an already unprecedented catastrophe; it hindered evacuation, search, and rescue efforts in addition to irrevocably contaminating fertile land and water systems. It continues to disrupt countless lives to this day. We express our heartfelt respect to those who, from the day of the tragedy to the present day, have worked tirelessly toward decommissioning and regional recovery.

We must change the fundamental energy system that created such suffering and sacrifice. In recent years, the Japanese government has clarified its policy to return to nuclear power, amid an increasing number of approvals for reactor restarts. However, the “Nuclear Emergency Declaration,” issued by the government on the day of the accident, has yet to be lifted, and no timeline for its cancellation has been publicised. To achieve the government’s goals of energy security, carbon neutrality,  power supply stability, and cost stability, it is essential to move away from nuclear power, promote energy efficiency, and transition to a society powered by 100% renewable energy.

From a security perspective, risks associated with nuclear power include the import of uranium, which Japan is 100% dependent on, and physical or cyber-attacks on facilities. While decarbonization is an urgent priority, constructing and commissioning new nuclear plants is not possible within the timeline we have to avert the climate crisis. 

Meanwhile, the restart of existing plants is confronted by a plethora of extremely difficult challenges that remain unresolved:  the physical safety of the facilities, the safety of hazard response workers, and evacuation routes to protect residents from radiation during complex disasters, such as simultaneous earthquakes and tsunamis. Furthermore, there is no strategy for the disposal of radioactive waste, even as it continues to accumulate from existing operations. Choosing nuclear power is the height of irresponsibility.

Nuclear power is also no longer a financially viable option. Currently, the most cost-competitive type of power generation in Japan is solar power, which utilizes domestic energy sources and is inexhaustible [1]. While photovoltaic cells are currently produced primarily overseas, approximately 70% of the total costs, including grid connection and construction, is handled by domestic companies, thereby contributing to the Japanese economy [2].

The narrative that highlights large-scale, centralized nuclear or fossil fuel plants as necessary to meet the expected increase in electricity consumption from electric vehicles and AI is short-sighted and  inconsistent with the 1.5°C target. We must move beyond this outdated paradigm. Our starting point must be in leveraging renewable energy—an inexpensive, stable, and domestic power source that requires no fuel imports and emits no radioactive waste or greenhouse gases—for the sake of industrial competitiveness and local communities [3].

 Japan is blessed with abundant renewable resources, including sunlight, wind, and water; there is vast potential to pursue energy efficiency while reducing costs. Greenpeace Japan calls on the government to prioritize the expansion of energy efficiency and sustainable renewables over nuclear power.

ENDS

Notes

[1] The cost of nuclear power stands at 11.2 yen/kWh, while utility-scale solar is 10.0 yen/kWh in 2023, according to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

[2] IRENA ”Renewable power generation costs in 2024”

[3] Greenpeace Japan, Press Release“Strong Concerns Over Reckless Development in the Name of Decarbonization: Greenpeace Proposes Renewable Energy That Coexists with Local Communities and Nature”, September 2025

Contacts

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Reacting to the news that disruption to global fertiliser supply chains caused by Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz may lead to a global food price shock, Amanda Larsson, Global Big Ag Project Lead, Greenpeace Aotearoa said: “The crisis brought on by this illegal attack by the US and Israeli militaries reveals a systemic failure at the heart of our global food system.” 

“Almost half of global food production now depends on synthetic fertilisers produced by a small number of fossil fuel and agrochemical giants, leaving families and farmers to pay the price the moment fragile supply chains break.[1] While the human cost of the conflict continues to mount, the geopolitical shock is hitting farmers at the peak of the spring application, threatening harvests across the Northern Hemisphere and knock-on effects on food prices.”

“The solution to food sovereignty, independence, and local resilience is the same as that needed to solve the climate and biodiversity crises: ecological farming. By working with nature to fix nutrients naturally in the soil, farmers can break the cycle of chemical dependence, slash costs, protect our rivers from toxic run-off, and ensure healthy, affordable food for generations to come.”

“Governments must stop propping up this fragile corporate model and redirect financial support away from resource-heavy, industrial agriculture. Food security cannot be bought on a volatile global chemical market; it must be grown from the ground up through healthy soil and local resilience. It is time to fund the transition to self-sufficient, ecological practices that serve communities, not billionaires.”

ENDS 

Notes:

[1] Bloomberg, ‘Iran War Threatens Vital Supplies for Feeding the World Iran War Threatens Vital Supplies for Feeding the World’, 6 March 2026 – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-03-06/iran-war-s-impact-on-strait-of-hormuz-threatens-fertilizer-supplies-food-prices 

Contacts:

Joe Evans, Global Comms Lead, Big Agriculture project, Greenpeace UK, +44 7890 595387, joe.evans@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org