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The latest initiatives come a month after the United Nations warned that as many as 1.7 billion people are “highly exposed” to the domino effect of Russia’s war on global food, energy and finance systems. The global body said the invasion threatens to aggravate hunger in countries that are already malnourished.

Even in countries where food is not as scarce, prices are taking huge chunks out of paychecks. In the U.S., the Labor Department said Wednesday morning that the prices Americans pay for groceries rose 1% in April and are up 10.8% over the last 12 months.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in April said global food prices are “skyrocketing.”

The White House said it also plans to double its investment in domestic fertilizer production, to $500 million from $250 million, to lower costs for growers.

The effort will attempt to ease one of the main culprits behind the spike in food prices: a global shortage of fertilizer.

“That’s why earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that would invest $250 million to produce fertilizer production,” Biden said Wednesday, recalling an earlier conversation he had with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“I turned to Tom, and I said, ‘Tom, double that. Make it $500 million.’ It’s so desperately needed. We can’t take chances,” Biden said. “It’s critical to get this done.”

Russia and Belarus, one of Moscow’s allies, provide about 40% of the world’s exports of potash. Farmers rely on the potassium-rich salt and component in the globe’s fertilizer industry to boost annual harvests.

In recent years, Russia also exported 11% of the world’s urea and 48% of the ammonium nitrate, two other key fertilizer components, according to estimates from Morgan Stanley.

“Fertilizer prices have more than doubled since last year, due in part to supply chain disruptions created and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the White House said in a fact sheet it published Wednesday morning.

“These actions will help grow new markets for American-grown food, supporting jobs in rural communities across America,” the administration added.

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