The price of food has been rising exponentially. Tahteana DeRosa, a security officer for the past half-year at Northeastern, has adapted her selections at the grocery store as a result. “I’ve had to get smaller portions, where I used to buy in bulk,” DeRosa said Thursday after buying a few items at Symphony Market on Huntington Avenue near the Boston campus. She has especially noticed the rising prices of meats and vegetables.
Overall, inflation in June climbed to 9.1% over one year ago as measured by the consumer price index—the fastest rise in more than 40 years. The cost of groceries is up 12.2% over the past year, an increase that can be especially painful for people with low incomes.
“When food prices go up, it doesn’t affect us all equally,” says Rory Smead, associate professor of philosophy and the Ronald L. and Linda A. Rossetti Professor for the Humanities at Northeastern. “For people that are in the middle class and reasonably comfortable, I may be annoyed that the grocery bill is higher, but it’s not like it’s radically changing my behavior. But for somebody that’s working in the margins, all of a sudden you have to start making hard decisions about what foods to buy.”
