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An investigation into egg prices

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Re: An investigation into egg prices

#131

Post by teeray »

bsder wrote: post #30
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…

> Understanding a problem requires a holistic view of the larger system. It does, but the result is extremely uncomfortable. And the solving it will require actions that are even more uncomfortable. You have to come to grips with the fact that there are monopolies at every single level. There is no inventory anywhere except bottom. There is no over capacity at any level. Consequently, supply and demand simply do not…

> They have chosen to treat politics like sportsball rather than something to actively think about.

More like neo-religion.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#132

Post by soulofmischief »

ryao wrote: post #77
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.

Some are: https://www.delish.com/food-news/a63842548/what-are-fertile-... You will find a number of people who have claimed to have hatched a number of types of birds from store eggs, including chickens.

I didn't hatch a live bird, but one time I broke a store egg over a meal in the pan and it was filled with blood, a fetus and a couple tiny feathers

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#133

Post by AnimalMuppet »

bsder wrote: post #30
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…

> Understanding a problem requires a holistic view of the larger system. It does, but the result is extremely uncomfortable. And the solving it will require actions that are even more uncomfortable. You have to come to grips with the fact that there are monopolies at every single level. There is no inventory anywhere except bottom. There is no over capacity at any level. Consequently, supply and demand simply do not…

What am I gonna do about it? I'm going to start buying from the small farm half a mile from me that has eggs in an honor box at the end of their driveway.

There is no inventory anywhere except bottom? Fine. I'll go to the bottom.

> They have chosen to treat politics like sportsball rather than something to actively think about.

Not going to argue about that one...

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#134

Post by paulddraper »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #125
paulddraper wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

Okay, then $1 for 12g. Same point.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#135

Post by horsawlarway »

samlinnfer wrote: post #95
rekabis wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> and implement laws to prevent anyone from ever buying out anyone else. Consolidation would be impossible, only organic growth would still be legal. Game theoretically, these groups would still collude to maximise profits.

Yes, but we understand that game and have a strong legal base to tackle it as well (see: Cartels & the Sherman Act/Clayton Acts).

Further - It's REALLY hard to keep a cartel stable (much less secret) if there are more than single-digit members. Hell - OPEC is a great example. It's only 12 country members, and they can barely hold the thing together. Angola just left last year over disagreements...

So breaking up the monopoly and continuing to apply existing cartel laws would be a perfectly fine approach to tackling this problem. It's really disingenuous to imply we can't fix this. We can and have. It's like people don't remember "Robber baron" history at all...

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#136

Post by aaronbaugher »

bokkies wrote: post #118

I have 20 hens and 2 roosters (living in a country village where neighbours like the authentic rural vibes) I buy 50kg of feed every 6 weeks for (equivalent)$23. Outside of winter we average 7-12 eggs a day and in winter about 2-4 a day. What we sell covers the cost of feed (except for winter)The birds free range all day and have large compost heaps and worm farms to gorge themselves on. Before moving to the country…

True. Also, as someone with 30 hens which will soon be coming into peak spring production, I look forward to selling my extra eggs at current prices, assuming they don't fall soon. It never fails: when egg prices go up, I get family and friends hitting me up to buy some eggs at $3/dozen; and then when the store prices fall below that, I don't hear from them and I'm feeding the extras to my dogs.

It's funny how some things (real estate) are supposed to keep going up in price, and it's a disaster that requires government intervention if they don't, while for other things (eggs) just the opposite is true. I suppose it depends on who benefits from each.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#137

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#138

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

drivebyhooting wrote: post #113
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it’s too complex for me to understand. I'm not here to solve your problems. The fact that you think that all economies can be reduced to something as simple as "1 + 1 = 2" is one of your problems. Good luck.

Arrogance won’t solve any problems nor convince those who disagree with you. You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms. Rather than asserting your conclusions and name calling things heterodox.

heterodox is a common term in the economics world. imagine it says "mainstream" if you prefer.

> You could start by stating your assumptions and basic axioms.

I'm not here to write a text book on economics. I'm here to point out that "debt is bad, we can never carry on like this" is a belief, not a statement of fact.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#139

Post by potato3732842 »

gnufied wrote: post #79
gerdesj wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The big suppliers can ratchet up prices with zero consequences. What are you gonna do about it?" If I was that bothered about eggs, I'd simply grow my own. Americans on average have way more space to mess around in than say most Europeans - the place is fucking huge. Chickens are very easy to "grow your own". I'm not an American and clearly you have managed to get your collective knickers in a twist over a non issue…

A lot of Americans live in houses and neighborhoods where keeping chickens is simply not allowed. Source: just got done cutting some pine trees on a hill behind my house because we got a notice. They will absolutely throw a fit, if we kept chickens

The problem isn't the laws and the prices and the monopolies and all that stuff.

The problem is that people don't see anything wrong or shameful about being the person who was bitching about the noises roosters make in 2017 and then also being the person bitching about inflexible supply chains and egg prices in 2025.

If it wasn't eggs it'd be some other thing.

Re: An investigation into egg prices

#140

Post by quacksilver »

bsder wrote: post #30
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…

> Understanding a problem requires a holistic view of the larger system. It does, but the result is extremely uncomfortable. And the solving it will require actions that are even more uncomfortable. You have to come to grips with the fact that there are monopolies at every single level. There is no inventory anywhere except bottom. There is no over capacity at any level. Consequently, supply and demand simply do not…

>What are you gonna do about it?

There are some other options:

Substitute blood - https://nordicfoodlab.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/2013-9-blood-... - I am not sure why people don't do this but maybe they are squeamish. Food grade blood is cheap and readily available from slaughterhouses and butchers.

Buy some chickens

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