Posted on 01/10/2023 10:57:58 AM PST by Red Badger
Eggs have been a pretty cheap, basic food across history.
Well, they were cheap anyway, until recently:
The rising cost of eggs in the U.S. is denting household budgets. Americans in recent years have increased the number of eggs they consume while reducing their intake of beef and venison, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ...
In California, for example, data shows the average price for a dozen eggs reached $7.37 last week, compared with $2.35 a year ago. The national average egg price per dozen wholesale is now $3.30, the USDA said last week. The average price for a dozen eggs by U.S. city grew to a record $3.58 in November, according to the most recent data available from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Those numbers, of course, don't capture the whole story. It's true that eggs are just obscenely expensive in California:
But they're increasingly not cheap anywhere else, either. Here's prices in one part of Texas — that's $8.70 for 18 eggs, or about $6 per dozen.
In some cases, meanwhile, there are simply no eggs available at any price:
So what's behind this spiraling situation? Two familiar factors: Supply and demand.
Egg consumption has grown in part because more families are eating them as their main protein substitute, Los Angeles Times reporter Sonja Sharp told CBS News. "Each of us eats about as many eggs as one hen can lay a year," she said.
As demand for eggs has risen, production in the U.S. has slumped because of the ongoing bird, or "avian," flu epidemic. Nearly 58 million birds have been infected with avian flu as of January 6, the USDA said, making it the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history. Infected birds must be slaughtered, causing egg supplies to fall and prices to surge.
So people have moved away from meat and towards eggs, sending demand up-up-up:
...while bird flu has culled millions of layers from U.S. flocks, driving supply to crater into the ground:
Prices will surely come down again, but it will probably be a while:
Sharp said prices will likely not fall again until after new chickens are born without the infection and grow to egg-laying age. More than 300 flocks of farm-raised poultry have been hit by the outbreak as of last Friday, according to USDA data.
The very modestly good news is that skyrocketing food prices have been offset by decreases in other consumer categories:
The Consumer Price Index — a closely watched inflation gauge — rose 7.1% in December from the previous year. Falling prices for energy, commodities and used cars offset increases in food and shelter.
Stay strong, folks, we're not out of the woods yet.
How about Scranton PA. After all, Joe says everything there causes cancer.
"Sharp said prices will likely not fall again until after new chickens are born"
Take your heart medicine with you. Wife sent me to get eggs from the local supermarket. $5.09 for a dozen large eggs, and these were store brand, not some fancy range free eggs.
Meant cage free eggs.
Place raw eggs in brine for about two weeks and hard boil them.
Range Rover Eggs...................
Lettuce prices are way up as well —
>>Last fall, California’s Salinas Valley, an area dubbed the “Salad Bowl” because it grows half the country’s supply of lettuce, was infested by an insect-borne virus — impatiens necrotic spot virus, a disease caused by sucking insects known as thrips — that destroyed more than 80% of the crop. That resulted in the price of lettuce surging nationwide. Though the cost varies depending on location, a box of romaine — usually costing $25-$30 on the East Coast — is now setting many wholesale buyers back by up to $100.
Just came from grocery store here in West Texas, prices up altogether, eggs not quite that pricey but up.
Normally, things like weather or disease make one item higher for awhile, but now almost everything is higher and/or in short supply.
Ah, yes, the price of gas is only up 50% instead of 100%, similar to the price of used cars. Some “good news.’’
Gas is up 50% from ridiculous temporary lows below the cost of production. It is near its average over last 3 years.
It’s expected to go about 30% in 2023.
It’s the Biden dividend
It’s the Biden dividend
It’s the Biden dividend
It’s the Biden dividend
All you posted is true. I’d like to know where a dozen eggs are 99 cents, and how long it has been since those folks have been grocery shopping.
Pete Buttigieg said, don’t worry about the price of gasoline you won’t need it in the future. Go by your electric car, because electric will go up twice as fast as gasoline.
Do the eggs taste the same?
My dad had around 80 to 100 hens when I was young. We sold the eggs. To this day, I can only eat eggs scrambled dry, and need meat and/or hot sauce. I don’t recall eating duck eggs.
I’m putting in a very large and extremely well filtered koi pond.
I fully expect it to be used to farm talapia or bass out of practicality in its lifespan.
“local businesses can’t hire enough workers to serve customers”
Raise the PPACA hour cap to 33 hours per week from 30.
That will increase the hourly worker supply.
The Democrats including Biden will have to go along since they don’t dare vote to keep workers needlessly poor.
Same here in West Texas. Only good thing is HEB buys a lot of local, so supplies and prices are a little better.
I live very close to a Natural Grocer store. They have nothing but pasture-raised eggs and always have one brand on sale for $1.99. I paid $3.99 two days ago for my favorite brand, Wilcox Family Farms. They are in Washington state, where I live, so I’m not paying a lot for freight. Plus there’s a good chance they were laid recently. NatGroc has stores all over the country, but not everywhere.
“I remember when a dozen was $1.08 and the 18-pack was about $1.49.”
Not that long ago.
That’s what they want you to believe.
Another plus of no more mean tweets.
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