Are egg producers inflating prices during the bird flu outbreak to boost profits?
Summary
Egg producers blame the bird flu outbreak for record-high prices, but critics argue dominant companies are exploiting supply shortages to boost profits.
With over 166 million birds culled and egg layers significantly reduced, prices surged from under $2 to nearly $5 per dozen.
Egg supply is down only 4% from last year, yet profits have surged. Cal-Maine Foods, supplying 20% of U.S. eggs, reported a $219 million profit in the last quarter, compared to just $1.2 million before the outbreak, a 18,150% increase.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups are calling for a government investigation into potential monopolistic practices.
https://apnews.com/article/record-high-egg-prices-bird-flu-profits-1e3d66b4af9556a503125cf8259b1647Open linkView original on lemmy.world457
Comments96
Yes
It's capitalism, baby!
Im not sure its the producers that inflate it. Its usually those between producer and consumer
It's not capitalism, baby?
Maybe it’s Maybelline
A rare inversion of Betteridge's law of headlines is "whenever someone questions whether or not the rich and powerful are exploiting everyone, the answer is yes"
People have to understand that if the price is too high, they can just not buy it.
It is as simple as that. As long as you buy, it is not too expensive. Just stop eating eggs.
What you're saying is true in fact, but I feel like you're letting the price gougers off the hook a little. Eggs are popular because they're versatile, nutritionally dense and traditionally cheap. Eggs are almost the best breakfast kids can have before school because they help with focus and keep them full. There really isn't a replacement at the same price point. I don't think we should expect them to be so cheap that we rely on animal cruelty, but they shouldn't be a luxury item either.
EDIT: to clarify, it's the protein and fat that help with focus and fullness, not eggs specifically.
Yes, eggs are very good nutritionwise. But deseases like mentioned in the post (those greedy company owners) should steer people away from it. Somehow it doesn't and people keep buying it.
I'd prefer oats + (soy) yoghurt (skyr) + fruits
Cottage cheese is a delicious replacement. Tons of fat and protein. It takes seasonings very well, and/or you can add just about anything to it.
I was just briefly fact checking myself and apparently it can even replace eggs in some kind of baking! That's cool.
I like it many ways but with nuts added, a bit of hot sauce, and whatever seasoning is a great go to. I forgot how much I loved it until a couple months ago.
Oatmeal, but I guess some kids are picky about eating goo 😅
Oatmeal has far less protein and vitamins, more calories, hundreds of times more carbs, etc.
They are correct. Oatmeal is not a replacement in terms of nutrition at that price point.
Half a cup of dry oats has 5g of protein and 1 egg has 6.3g of protein. The difference isn't huge, and since we're talking about price then it should be noted $5 will get you only a dozen eggs but can also get you 30 servings of Quaker oats.
No argument that it has carbs, but it also has fiber and kids rarely get enough of that.
It isn't a bad substitute. Plus you can add fruit and nuts! You're just being picky.
You're talking just about breakfast and for some reason kids. Eggs are simply used for much more than that.
They are used in custards, quiches, enriched breads, pasta, pastries, fried rice, egg salads, mayonnaise, etc. The list goes on. There is no real substitute for it.
Maybe the world should embrace plant based alternatives so we are not so reliant on maintaining hundreds of millions chickens?
I don't know if you realize this but when you say "you're being picky" about food in contexts such as this it can be considered ableist, and also dismissive and inconsiderate in my opinion. I prefer oatmeal to eggs but if someone told me I was "being picky" because of a choice I made because of price, sensory experience, and energy cost, I would be offended. I wouldn't say this every time the word is used but the context and your username make me think it is appropriate and you might be receptive to the feedback.
I mentioned "picky eaters" because I used to consider myself one, but that was before I was medicated for my anxiety. Now that I think about it I myself had a lot of AFRID symptoms as a child and still experience some anxiety if certain foods touch on my plate or if I bite something and experience the "wrong" texture, but since being medicated my palette of acceptable foods has expanded a lot? I guess I never really made the connection to that maybe being connected to neurodivergence.
I guess I had blinders on about this. Thanks for pointing this out.
And I think my nephew is the same way and I'm going to stop teasing him about it. It's not okay even if I was the same.
I feel very heard and understood from reading this response. I'm glad it was received how I intended it to be. My first reaction was to be a bit harsher and speak from an emotional place nd I'm glad I thought twice and wrote a comment that was more accurate and effective. It means a lot that you took what I said seriously and even had some self reflection that may make a difference in another's life. Thank you.
Great job at the end there commenting on something that isn't what I said. I should have known better than to bother replying to you.
Considering where egg prices were, and that being the root of the discussion, the cost comparison is irrelevant and worthless.
You should also be comparing a cooked cup of oatmeal to two eggs.
And I'll go ahead and stop there.
I thought we were talking about oats being a substitute for eggs under the current price regime, where prices were didn't seem relevant? Also, I just compared 1 serving to 1 serving. Why not compare 1 cup of dry oats to two eggs if you're just going to freestyle your breakfast? I only mentioned fruit and nuts because those are things you don't really add to eggs, and can help picky eaters.
I batch cook steel cut oats in a rice cooker every weekend, 50/50 water/milk. The kids previously rejected instant rolled oats, but actually like steel cut!
Food too expensive? Just don't eat.
Housing too expensive? Just don't sleep.
Haven't bought eggs all year. Not over $4. Of course, for me, they're just a nice treat...shoyu eggs make a great snack; egg baked on khachapuri; fried over rice. Some people, they're a key protein, or essential to cakes & cookies. I figure, if the price is high, then leaving them on the shelf makes more available where they're irreplaceable, but I can still feel bad for people who have to pay that price.
Who is forced to pay it? Eggs aren't irreplacable
It's important to remember that we can't dictate or predict other people's dietary restrictions. We can still feel empathy for people in a predicament due to prices
Dietary restriction? What disease mandates eating eggs?
Empathy for people for eating expensive eggs? Usually people want empathy for the animals because eating them is cruel.
One example I can think of is that it could be a safe food for someone with an eating disorder or sensory considerations.
And people have to understand that Marie Antoinette said the same line and it started the french revolution.
They did last time.
Yeah people act like this hasn't been going on for years at this point.
Remember 2023? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Egg Producers Accused of Price Gouging After 718% Profit Revealed
I'm sure if you offered to buy an entire field of pumpkins they would work with you on the price. It's sort of how trade works.
A 1000% markup is pretty fucked though. That's the world we're dealing with.
The possibility of losing their entire flock of chickens is a pretty reasonable concern right now.
What's a "pun'kin"?
I'm guessing it's a quantity of eggs, but Google isn't helping.
A pumpkin.
Yes
Got 6 chickens last year, the wife said we probably spent too much decking out their living space. I say probably, but they're more pets for me to have, the 6 eggs a day is just a nice bonus.
Smash cut to this year: suddenly my "investment" is going to be paid off much sooner 😅
How much human food can you feed a chicken before they get sick?
They can eat lots of things! Certain seeds (cherry apple) can kill them. Just like us practice moderation.
What amount is moderate though? I throw out more leftovers than I wish, it would be nice to have some chickens eat that. Can I replace 50% of its diet with leftovers?
I used this as a basic guide https://www.backyardchickenchatter.com/what-can-chickens-eat/
What is a cherry apple? Asking for a friend, who is a chicken.
100% they are.
I don’t know truth as I one saw YouTube Videos of grocery stores
Egg prices for a dozen… in Canada are around $4.75 (Canadian) In Mexico $53-$70 pesos… or around $2.50-$3.50 US
Edit: after quick search looks like Mexico avoided bird flu because they vaccinate their chickens… didn’t realize we are that strong against vaccination we won’t even vax the chix
The vaccination effort would increase man hour costs and the cost of the vaccines. Can’t do anything that might affect profits.
Yeah because all farm hands are American citizens that make reasonable wages right?
They voted to make sure that they all are.
Hmmm… https://youtu.be/PIe0MWVxTVM
yes
They were told they are supposed to do it. Anyone who complains should be shown MAGAs support for it all the way through.
If true, Republicans also voted for it.
That is what zero regulations and zero enforcement gets you which is exactly what Trump embodies when gutting regulations and federal funding and jobs for enforcement agencies.
In Trump's America, that's entirely plausible.
Nah, it's the chickens holding the eggs hostage while they demand equal rights and better pay.
I mean, the article keeps mentioning "egg producers" which can only mean the chickens themselves. No human can actually produce the kind of eggs you want in your omelettes.
If people keep buying, the prices will also never go back to what they were as sellers will decide that the market supports it (though probably reducing what farmers actually get so of course the middlemen get all the profit -- buy direct and local wherever possible!)
Narrator: "they are"
I live in Alaska, and if nobody was talking about the eggs thing I wouldn't have had more of a thought about it than "huh, eggs are a little expensive right now. Or are they? Have they always been this expensive?"
For reference, eggs here are $10-$11 a dozen. And for extra reference, a regular sized container of strawberries fluctuates between $5 and $12, and a carton of ice cream (e.g. Dreyer's) is generally around $12 if it's not on sale.
The thing is, around here people just... shift what they buy mostly. Strawberries are expensive? Time to buy apples. Ice cream is expensive? Wait to buy until it's on sale, then buy 8. Bread is only $4.50 a loaf? HOLY SHIT, FILL HALF THE FREEZER.
I'm not trying to minimize the issue. There are lots of people who specifically need eggs (e.g. bakers), but for the most part, I feel like this is some weird hyper-fixation. This feels like toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic.
To egg distributors: sell more 6-packs. Outside of baking, I just don't think normal people need that many eggs.
Some people have been having one or three eggs every day for the past 60 years. For me, I just stopped eating eggs, for these people it's harder. It's dumb but what isn't?
It comes down to upbringing. I rarely had eggs for breakfast growing up but my partner had eggs every morning. They strongly prefer 2-3 eggs every morning so we go through a dozen a week. I maintain 2 dozen in the fridge at all times to cover spikes for lunch/diner uses.
We also have no kids. Some people with 2 or 3 kids also grew up on eggs so that's a dozen gone in a day or two. That's several dozen a week.
Just a reminder that a scant couple years ago, egg prices skyrocketed under claims of inflation..and were cut in half almost overnight when Harris threatened RICO investigations.
Which also had supermarkets like Kroger coming forward to admit to gouging (to prevent investigations into other shit they were doing)
My big question is that if a whole flock is killed when bird flu is discovered, why are JUST egg prices going up? My local grocery store recently had a sale on chicken but the eggs are in short supply and cost nearly 10 times what they used to a few months ago? Shouldn't chicken meat be expensive too? Or do I not know anything about poultry farming and bird flu?
My understanding is that there are different breeds of chickens used for eggs and meat.
This came up earlier in the outbreak for two reasons:
Egg-laying chickens apparently take longer to age to the point where they produce eggs than meat chickens do before they are killed, so it takes longer to replace the producing stock of chickens.
Meat chickens are apparently more resistant to the present strain than egg chickens, and are not impacted as badly.
That did make me hope that one could try to produce a hybrid egg chicken that could maybe also be more resistant.
kagis
Ah, this mentions both factors. Thought I'd need to dig up an article for each.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/egg-prices-shortage-chicken-question-everything/
EDIT: Hmm. I take back the bit about meat chickens being more genetically-vulnerable. It sounds from this article like it's just that the need to keep them alive longer to reach egg production makes them more vulnerable, and other articles I dig up say the same thing. I probably just misunderstood some earlier article that said that egg chickens were more vulnerable to mean that they were more genetically-vulnerable.
Where the fuck does this editor live? Cuz where I am, they went from $2 to $12.
A few states, like California, have minimum cage size mandates, so people in the state are banned from using eggs in the general pool, and so the shortage is worse there.
EDIT: Though it does mean more eggs for people in the no-minimum-cage-size restriction states, so it brings prices down a bit for them.
If you want to tell, look at the stock on the shelves.
If the shelves are full of eggs they've inflated the prices.
There should be a supply and demand problem for prices to raise organically.
They most probably are. Whenever there is high uncertainty in prices, producers will maximise profit by selling everything at the upper limit and use something like "safety buffer" or "restocking at a more expensive rate" bla as a bullshit excuse. Has been happening in Turkey for the last five years basically across every daily household product range and hospitality sector.
President Felon in in charge, they are totally going to rob consumers. No one will stop them. I don't eat eggs so I am rooting for the prices to go up. Are they $20/a dozen yet?
Why can't I find half dozen eggs? I don't each many eggs so a dozen would have a significant number wasted. They used to be self half dozen quantities?
They last so much longer than the best before date.
Yes but not nearly long enough. I like occasional 2 egg omelette but not more than once a week.
You can't eat 12 eggs in 4 weeks?
I might only want one omelet in a month but I'd force myself to have a 2nd I order to use up the eggs.
Again? Probably.
Absolutely.
Every person I've ever talked to who's done this has said they regretted it.
Chickens are notoriously delicate.
Most people who think on doing this and succeed really love chickens and have a good way with understanding animals and the value of a life. It's not for everyone
I have experience with backyard chickens. Its a wonderful experience, chickens are surprisingly cool critters. And you will get the best eggs you've ever had. But you won't be saving any money lol. Still worth it.
It entirely depends on your infrastructure. I was house sitting a large estate once that basically had 0 upkeep costs for their chicken as they'd go and find most of their own food and there were no natural predators nearby. It was literally free eggs sort of deal.
People who have rice fields for example have 0 upkeep ducks that just go to the field and eat all of the critters there so not only you get free eggs and duck your rice maintenance is easier!
a counterexample to betteridge's law of headlines!
There is absolutely no real proof of this.
But the answer is yes.
Are (insert here) inflating prices?
Answer is always yes.
Only exception is the Costco hot dog.
Rotisserie Chicken ;)
Nooo they wouldn't fleece us at the first opportunity, not a chance /s
Eggs are really hard to steal. Not impossible, just difficult.
Yes. Next question.
Of course not, Trump specifically banned that!
Simply don't eat eggs smh my head
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00251-5/fulltext
Meat's a lot more expensive than plants lmao
They wouldn't!!
This article dances around profiteering claims but doesn’t dig deep enough into corporate practices.
🐱🐱
Oh no, when supply dwindles and the demand keeps up or increases, prices increase as well
As economic and market analysis predict it!
Color me surprised
This site is worse than reddit for hive mind
Its called supply and demand. There are less eggs… so they cost more. Lol.