By Amanda Leland

Millions around the globe, already facing food shortages and an escalating hunger crisis, are being hit with a new problem: skyrocketing prices and shortages of vegetable oils used in everyday cooking.

In recent months, we have seen:

Dramatic declines in soybean oil production due to historic droughts across South America.

Canadian farmers shifting away from canola crops also because of droughts.

A ban on palm oil exports from Indonesia due to rising domestic prices.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has reduced that country’s huge agricultural exports, including sunflower oil .

Cooking oil is something almost all of us use every day to feed our families, and many of us take it for granted.…