If commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains paralyzed for months, we will witness a global food crisis on a scale that many experts would have once considered to be unthinkable. Over the past couple of weeks, there has been much written about how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused the price of oil to rise, has caused the price of natural gas to soar to insane levels and has caused the average price of diesel in the United States to jump above five dollars a gallon. But I think that the bigger story is what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could mean for global food supplies.

Another world crisis sparked by the war in Iran may also be in the offing. That's because the region's oil and gas production has made it one of the world's leading exporters of nitrogen fertilizers, which are indispensable to the global food system. To produce the chemicals used to grow much of the planet's crops, natural gas is broken down to extract hydrogen, which is combined with nitrogen to make ammonia, and then mixed with carbon dioxide to make urea. All told, nearly a third of the global trade for nitrogen fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, while almost half of the world's sulfur, essential in producing phosphate fertilizers, also travels through the corridor.

Reading that should chill you to the core.

But that is just part of the story.

Fertilizer producers in other countries will also be forced to shut down if they are not able to get the liquified natural gas that normally comes to them through the Strait of Hormuz…

Already, fertiliser plants in India and Pakistan are facing production declines given the disruption to natural gas supplies from the Middle East. Gulf countries targeted in the war supply nearly all of Pakistan's LNG imports, 72% of Bangladesh's and 53% of India's.

Even if deescalation occurs, the conflict has likely locked in a food price hike in the coming months. The longer the war continues, the greater the shock to food security as energy and fertiliser prices remain elevated.

What we are facing is truly a global problem.

A farmer in Virginia named John Boyd recently admitted to NBC News that local dealers are telling him that "we can't get the fertilizer" that he needs…

John Boyd Jr., a fourth-generation farmer in Virginia who grows soybeans, corn and wheat, said his fertilizer supplier recently warned him that shipments may not arrive as expected.

"The dealers are telling me we can't get the fertilizer," Boyd told NBC News in an interview this week. "Due to the war and the bombing through that area, the fertilizer isn't moving."

Fertilizer is essential to food production, he said, and it must be applied before crops are planted.

"If I don't apply fertilizer, that means I won't have the yields to make my crop," Boyd explained.