Global food security is at its most perilous point in years as the conflict in Iran threatens to trigger a new food shock, the United Nations warned on Friday. Around 266 million people faced “acute food insecurity” in 2025, only a marginal improvement on the previous year, according to the UN’s latest annual Global Report on Food Crises. That fragile position will worsen as the Gulf war, now entering its eighth week, continues to disrupt energy and fertiliser markets, experts warn. Rising gas costs have already squeezed fertiliser production, while farmers battle rising fuel and commodity prices, with the sharpest impact likely to fall on poorer, import-dependent nations. Máximo Torero, Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), warned that the global food market is facing a massive supply shock that could last into early next year. “The clock keeps ticking … the crop calendar is based on the climate and biological conditions of the countries.…