The Cost of Food

Yesterday Mel and I walked down to the city center and had lunch at a favorite pub. I was shocked when I looked at the new menu prices. In the four months we were in the States, the prices for many of the dishes has doubled. One of the salads was over 60 UAH, which is roughly $11. As we did while overnighting near Heathrow, we chose the cheapest items on the menu and ended up spending around $22, 10% tip included. That amount of money would have bought us better meals a year ago, or would have even fed three of us a whole meal.

When shopping at the grocery store or market we noticed immediately that the foods we buy here the most - meat, cheese, veggies - are more expensive now to buy here in Kherson than they were to buy in Woodland Park at one of the more expensive supermarkets. To say the least, we were shocked. Prices on some items have doubled - eggs and hard sausage, as well as others.

On top of that, the dollar is worth less now than it was a year ago. Some people are asking to be paid in Euros now instead of dollars. As the dollar falls, we have less buying power here, and the prices continue to rise. At this point we are okay, but I wonder how much our rent is going to go up next time we pay?

I don't know how the average Ukrainian can afford these prices. The poorer Ukrainians could not afford to buy meat or cheese before, now many cannot afford to buy eggs as well. Dairy has also gone up at an alarming rate. We are going to see more and more hungry people, more people digging through the garbage looking for scraps to feed themselves or their pets.

We have been talking about this with different people since we got back. Today FoxNews has an article on this very issue, Food Prices Soaring Worldwide Thanks to Weather, Global Economy Changes, only they are reporting that this rise in food prices is world wide and Ukraine is only mentioned in passing. Some countries are already having food riots. People in the poorest countries are going hungry. At least here in Ukraine there have been no food riots that we know of.

I am reminded of the Book of Revelation and the four horses of the apocalypse. One of them includes death by Famine. I usually think of famine as a local issue - there is a famine in Bangladesh, or India, or some place that is not where I live. Now there is a real possibility of world wide famine.

Why does this knowledge stun me? I guess I have always thought something like that would always happen 'some place else,' not where I live, or 'sometime in the future,' not during my life time.

My eyes are more open now.