While prices go up, tough choices about what foods to buy are especially impacting those who have less wiggle room, namely the poor and the elderly. A couple weeks ago, I stood in line behind a husband and wife who were putting the contents of their shopping cart on the checkout conveyor belt. The woman had chosen to buy some fruit, which of course has to be weighed in order to see the final price. The first item to be weighed was a bag of red seedless grapes, which came to almost $7.
I could see that her husband was holding a food stamp card in his hand. He worried out loud that the grapes were just too expensive for them to buy. The wife, clearly dismayed by the price, agreed with him, but I could see the longing for those grapes in her eyes as the checkout attendant moved the bag off to the side.
As I watched what foods did make their purchase cut, I was struck by the amount of cheap, processed food they were buying. It makes sense though that they buy the processed foods because they get more bang for their buck. For almost the same price as the $7 grapes, they were able to purchase 14 boxes of waistline-expanding macaroni and cheese!
A few months ago I read that Mississippi is the fattest state in the nation. Interestingly enough, it’s also the poorest state in the nation. I wouldn’t be surprised to observe that poorer folks in Mississippi are, in increasing numbers, also choosing the mac and cheese instead of the fresh fruit simply because they can’t afford to do otherwise.
The impact of both food shortages and price increases is being felt worldwide. Rioting over rising food prices has already happened in Haiti, Indonesia, parts of Africa. Chic, modern Japan is currently considering food rationing. It makes me wonder, could widespread food rationing or rioting happen in America too?
