Meat off the menu in crisis-hit Lebanon as poverty bites

AFP, Beirut :
Layla Ibrahim has cut down on her daily meat consumption, not because of a health fad but forced by Lebanon’s bruising economic crisis. “I used to eat a slice of meat, chicken or fish every day, but the prices of these items have become ridiculous,” the 44-year-old mother of two told AFP.
“Out of necessity and not choice, I have almost become a vegetarian,” she added.
Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with full-scale wars. The currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value on the black market, more than 80 per cent of the population lives in poverty, and prices have skyrocketed.