India’s ethanol push making food costlier?

When the prices of your groceries increase, would you blame it on your petrol tank?

Seems like there is no connection, right?

But right now, the price of your chicken, your eggs, your sugar, and even your morning tea or coffee is increasingly connected to what goes into your petrol tank.

India is pushing hard to blend ethanol into petrol. The idea is simple: use crops to make fuel, reduce our dependence on imported crude oil, and give farmers and sugar mills another source of income.

But there’s a catch.

The same crops being diverted to make ethanol are also needed to feed people and animals.

So when there’s a shortage of sugarcane or maize, what gets priority: food or fuel?

And here’s the really strange part. We’re seeing the impact on grocery prices, but not seeing cheaper petrol at the pump.

Let me explain the double inflation whammy.

Before I explain the grocery prices, let me quickly remind you of the price of Independent journalism.

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Produced by Megha Mukundan, script by Pooja Prasanna, Edit by Nikhil Sekhar ET, Camera by Ajay R