WFP Chief Cindy McCain warns that the food crisis is a business crisis: ‘Feed them now or fight them later’

In today’s CEO Daily: The global food crisis isn’t just about food.

The big leadership story: Consumers are shouldering the entire cost of tariffs now.

The markets: Mostly down as an immediate U.S.-Iran peace plan looks unlikely.

Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. The global food crisis is impacting business across the board—from fertilizer producer Mosaic announcing heavy production cuts yesterday to rising food prices. But the greater toll is a human one, with 363 million people at risk of acute hunger this year, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), up from 266 million last year, which itself was double the number from a decade ago. WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain came to the role three years ago, knowing she’d have to streamline the organization amid budget cuts. She went on to face a series of food crises spawned by climate change and geopolitical conflicts as President Trump and others slashed funding. Then in October she had a mild stroke, prompting her to announce she’d be stepping down later this month. But the widow of Sen. John McCain knows a thing or two about leading through adversity. She shared a few lessons with me this week:

On food security: “You can either feed them now or fight them later. People are migrating because of food, which means they’re not going to be there to work. The impacts that food-related systems have to the struggling world are exponential, from keeping a child in school to........

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