Food inflation that makes you cry
The impact of India's skewed food policies in driving our nutritional crisis does not get the attention it deserves
With roughly one in two children undernourished, India is widely recognized as a nutritional basket case. But the impact of India’s skewed food policies in driving our nutritional crisis does not get the attention it deserves. Since the Green Revolution in the late 1960s, the Indian state has focused largely on incentivizing the production of rice and wheat by guaranteeing minimum support prices, and on ensuring their affordability through a massive public distribution system. The neglect of more nutritious food items such as vegetables and protein-rich food has meant that their prices have risen at a much faster pace than that of cereals. The easy availability of cereals and the relative unaffordability of vegetables, fish and meat have meant that the diet of the average Indian family is unbalanced and has poor nutritional value.
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