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An investigation into egg prices

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Re: An investigation into egg prices

#121

Post by throwaway2037 »

absolutelastone wrote: post #53
Centigonal wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even at $6.50/dozen, eggs are cheaper than tofu, which is $3 for 14 oz where I'm at.

You could make it your self for the cost of soybeans basically. It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare. Like a lot of other fermented foods.

    > It's a cheap food sold as a gourmet item because it's rare.
This statement is _entirely_ dependent upon where you live. If you have lots of East/SouthEast Asian immigrants in your community, it will be a regular commodity in any supermarket -- "ethnic" or not. Lots of readers here live in the Bay Area. A regular block of 300/400g fresh tofu is probably cheap as chips in their local supermarket.

    > Like a lot of _other_ fermented foods.
Are you implying that tofu is a fermented food? It is not. (FYI: In Chinese food culture, there is something called fermented tofu [and even stinky tofu], but that is different than non-fermented tofu.)

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#122

Post by throwaway2037 »

smcin wrote: post #108
t-3 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every state has right-to-farm laws. Most only protect commercial farming, but not all and sometimes the definition of commercial is rather loose, so it might be worth looking into.

But those are often trumped by county or municipal laws. e.g. Most urban/suburban parts of California either restrict or require permits to raise backyard chickens (also, predators are a huge problem): https://www.omlet.us/guide/chickens/laws_about_keeping_chick... https://www.quora.com/Are-backyard-chickens-legal-in-Califor... (Palo Alto: Up to six hens. Mountain View: Up to four hens. Los Altos: One hen per 1000 sq…

    > San Francisco: Up to four, roosters allowed, no permit required
Holy shit: SF is really dense in some areas, but people still have backyards, e.g., Mission District. Can you imagine being surrounded by neighbors with roosters crowing when the sun rises? It would be hell.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#123

Post by throwaway2037 »

rekabis wrote: post #49
almosthere wrote: post #15

It's like with anything else. You can SAY monopolies are illegal, but if you allow them to exist, then owning and controlling the market is, legal. Any small competition that eventually gets large enough will just be bought out by the next one up in the food chain (literally).

And yet, this is the inevitable end-game of unfettered capitalism: to monopolize a market and prevent new entrants so as to eliminate competition and lock-in customers to a single producer that can set prices to whatever they want. If the orange Cheeto was truly interested in combatting corruption, he would break apart this entire industry clear down to individual factories and processing plants, and implement laws t…

    > this is the inevitable end-game of unfettered capitalism
The US isn't even close. There are loads of regulations -- active and passive. If you want to get a view of places closer, look at the economies of Singapore and Hongkong.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#124

Post by spit2wind »

jmyeet wrote: post #34

We see this all the time. There is some shock or reduction to supply and the price goes up but it always goes up way more than the supply change would necessarily warrant. Then it takes forever to return to normal (if it ever does). Interestingly, in the early weeks of the Kamala Harris campaign last year, she actually advocated to fighting or stopping "price gouging", something that was wildly popular: 66% of respon…

The executive branch is currently being gutted?

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#125

Post by throwaway2037 »

paulddraper wrote: post #64
SoftTalker wrote: post #7

Egg prices are high compared to what they used to cost but still under $1.00 for a two-egg meal. There's not a protein source that's much cheaper, I think the egg producers are exploiting a certain inelasticity of demand. People don't like the price increases but eggs are still very cheap food.

$1 for 8g of protein? Tuna/sardines are a bargain by that measure.

Eggs only have 4 grams of protein each? It is probably 5.5 to 6 grams per egg. Few Americans that I know can stomach eating sardines at the same rate as eggs.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#126

Post by bsder »

addicted wrote: post #110
smcin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cottage cheese has 2.5x the protein content of eggs, and is currently cheaper. Or you can mix the two for the same taste but cost savings.

Cottage cheese is a terrible idea with bird flu floating around in dairy, complete chaos in the systems that are supposed to inspect these supply chains, and voluntary testing requirements that meant even when the inspection systems were not chaotic they were way behind the 8 ball. And for obvious reasons, bird flu infecting mammals is likely to be a greater risk to humans than that present in birds.

> Cottage cheese is a terrible idea with bird flu floating around in dairy

Almost all dairy in any normal supermarket has been pasteurized. I would say "all" but I'm sure there is at least a single exception somewhere even if I can't find it.

Raw milk products at your "natural" farmer's market on the other hand ...

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#127

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

One solution would be for customers to boycott the big egg producers and refuse to buy their eggs even when they do flood the market with cheaper ones when they aim to put small producers out of business. However, that does require egg consumers to stick to their guns and only buy from the independants.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#128

Post by smcin »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #122
smcin wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But those are often trumped by county or municipal laws. e.g. Most urban/suburban parts of California either restrict or require permits to raise backyard chickens (also, predators are a huge problem): https://www.omlet.us/guide/chickens/laws_about_keeping_chick... https://www.quora.com/Are-backyard-chickens-legal-in-Califor... (Palo Alto: Up to six hens. Mountain View: Up to four hens. Los Altos: One hen per 1000 sq…

> San Francisco: Up to four, roosters allowed, no permit required Holy shit: SF is really dense in some areas, but people still have backyards, e.g., Mission District. Can you imagine being surrounded by neighbors with roosters crowing when the sun rises? It would be hell.

No idea about how viable this in each of those cities, but maybe 2025 is the time for us to go read https://www.reddit.com/r/BackYardChickens/ (similar to bleach, hand-sanitizer and toilet paper in 2020.) Yes the noise around dawn is why roosters are sometimes restricted (or make your neighbors way more likely to complain). My neighbor in San Jose had a rooster that crowed 25% of mornings.

I should have said above the $$$ reason predators are a huge problem in urban/suburban areas is you can't legally shoot them/ use BB guns, and it's near-impossible to use poison (if you have pets or small kids, or your neighbors' pets pass through). So if you regularly have to spend $500++ on a professional exterminator for a single fox or raccoon, there goes your entire $ viability. It's not at all like a farm in a rural county. HN business idea: is there any multiple infrared camera security setup that can behaviorally distinguish between predators vs your own pet, in the middle of the night? without needing to AirTag your pets?

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#129

Post by oliwarner »

genewitch wrote: post #91
SoftTalker wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps the lack of grocery eggs was because they were incubated instead? Grocery eggs aren't even fertilized.

where do chickens come from? eggs! If one needs more chickens, one could let the eggs be fertilized and then incubate those eggs. all you need is a rooster in good health. Eggs that are incubated in this way won't be in the grocery store in cartons, because they will be chickens instead.

It's a very different supply chain. You don't just chuck a rooster in with your layers because then you have to inspect all your eggs.

New layers are bred away from the main flocks in relatively tiny volumes, under 1% of layers' eggs. Culls may drive a need for more layers to be raised, increasing that percentage but the cycle rate for these hens in intensive farms is pretty regular already (<18 months) so I doubt they'd invest in the additional hatchery facilities for a temporary population lull.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#130

Post by bookaway »

chii wrote: post #98
dm03514 wrote: post #20

First of all I think this article was put together quite well, it was succinct had a great flow and was very easy to follow. The data was laid out to support the case; overall it was great to read. Understanding a problem requires a holistic view of the larger system. An egg producer may say prices are higher Because supply is lower due to culling. Part of that statement is true. The author then zooms out to better u…

> This isn’t like pure scientific pursuit of knowledge but a more practical day to day ability to question, understand and gather new information with the purpose of developing an objective understanding of the world. you've just described scientific persuit. Just because the object of said persuit pertains to everyday life, doesn't mean it isn't scientific. The goal of science is to understand truth, and discern it…

Yes, and unfortunately the “desire” for scientific research of everyday life is hard to maintain because frankly in our current times it has dawned on many that scientific research is unable, by itself, to prevent or limit actions taken that fly in the face of the said research. So some domain experts have realized that upping their social media game is a better investment than broadening their scientific research efforts, because you’ve already lost if you are unable to derail a delusional narrative in real time. It’s the era of yellow journalism 2.0.
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