60% sounds like a big number but come on, an average egg still costs only 35 cents in January 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
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Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know whether to be amazed at this agricultural feat that brings cheap, tasty, high-protein meals to the masses of humanity, or sickened by an abomination of nature that turns a living thing into a bio-engineered fast-growing blob. I guess both?
Do you consider plants to be living things?
Yes but it’s a fuzzy term, what I meant was more in the “animal” realm of living.
Just to give an example, I (and I think most humans) feel negatively about deforestation or destruction of plant life because it is destroying or profaning something beautiful. It’s like burning art.
Same with the chickens. I’m not sure I consider factory farming immoral, and I definitely don’t consider killing animals for food immoral. I grew up raising chickens (laying hens, it was a family hobby and not a business)and don’t feel any moral or aesthetic issue with killing them. I also hunt and fish a lot, my freezers are full of wild game whose lives I personally ended.
Still, certain kinds of factory farming, like the raising of chicken-blobs, disturb me because they take something I find beautiful and make it ugly. Not sure what to make of the disturbed feeling tho, it’s not a moral condemnation or political position.
That’s the best way I can put it on the internet.
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Longer business cycles? Broilers would be last years layers
Broilers are different breeds than layers and “spent hens” tend to only get eaten by farmers, etc, because of the raised risk of deboning error and undesirably tough meat
I've heard they make excellent slow cook recipes like stew, soup, braise though :)
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can lay eggs without a rooster, but if you do, one of the hens will become dominant and needlessly bully the other hens. This will stress them out and you’ll get health issues in your hens. Source: I come from a farming family.
I have 6 chickens in my back yard right now and this is not a problem and hasn’t ever been a problem in the years I’ve had them.
Same experience here. They get along really well, no fighting at all.
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#16560% sounds like a big number but come on, an average egg still costs only 35 cents in January 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/APU0000708111
That would be $4.20 for a dozen. They are $6+ near me.
Guessing part of the concern is that lower income folks might have historically substituted eggs for meat when money was tight.
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a huge proponent of backyard chickens and had them for years, but they are, generally speaking, not a "more cost effective" way to get eggs, at least in north america if you are feeding them mostly store-bought feed. Then again, this change in egg prices may change that. But they're great for redundancy (more & varied egg supply reduces the impact of supply chain shocks), to get the best quality eggs you can, and…
They are probably not "worth it" when accounting for the care required, but I get feed for about $20 a bag and a scratch block for $20 every 3 months or so for 4 chickens who generally give me an egg/day each. 4x30x3=360 => 360/12=30 dozen eggs so that works out to less than a dollar per dozen which is below market cost 5 years ago.
He did the math
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#167$40,000 for every man, woman and child was printed for corona stimulus. $13 trillion total. If you're wondering why all this inflation happened, it's pretty simple cause and effect.
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Inflation is always permanent.
There’s a difference between inflation and a price hike within one industry Of course inflation is permanent. The mechanics of money would break down otherwise. When money can deflate, money becomes an investment vehicle like crypto did and we know how bad that is. When there is a threat of inflation, it forces people to transfer money instead of hoarding it. That is the entire purpose of money. Now, about the price…
Not just the competition between poultry farms either, but competition with any other protein a person can eat. The closer eggs gets in price per calorie to meat (or nuts, cheese, etc), the less people are likely to choose eggs. There’s plenty of food out there, and a large part of the historic popularity of eggs has been their cheap price.
Re: Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually there’s more. On Jan 1st several more states laws about animal welfare went into effect whereas before essentially only California had those requirements. The supply of eggs meeting those requirements had not been ramped up to meet the step in demand. I expect that disruption will be temporary.
So why then are my Pasture Raised Organic eggs increasing at the same rate as budget eggs. These regulations would not impact those operations
Because when my generic store-brand eggs are sold out, I will be looking to buy your Pasture Raised Organic eggs.
Or: the only reason I was buying generic eggs in the first place was that they were half the price of your Pasture Raised Organic eggs. Once they are almost the same price, I might as well buy Pasture Raised Organic eggs.