Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the Strait of Hormuz and the oil-related issues; however, I have only seen one NYT article about the underlying effect of this on our food system.

People should not only think about oil, they should also be thinking about bread and potatoes.

But the strangest part of this story isn’t the geopolitics, it’s that European farmers right now have the opposite problem: too much food, and nowhere to sell it.

One of the most important global trade routes for energy and fertilizers is under threat, which means higher costs for farmers to grow our food. At the same time in Europe, farmers are selling potatoes for just a few cents per kilo and in some cases even paying to get rid of them. According to farmers in the Climate Farmers network, potato prices have dropped from 40 cents per kilo a year ago to 2 cents per kilo for potatoes above 5cm, and essentially minus money for smaller potatoes.