this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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What's the thing with eggs in the US ?
My understanding is mostly a bird flu but also inflation.
It's ok, though. Trump has installed a loyalist who will scrub all mention of bird flu from the USDA website. Problem solved!
Look how well it worked out at the FAA!
"SLOW THE TEATING DOWN, PLEASE."
Actual inflation or inflation mixed with greedy price increases?
Like most things, it's a mix of factors. If there's a culling there will be less supply which will result in higher prices temporarily. But the few companies that control production are kinda just taking their time in lowering the prices once the supply issues are resolved. So there's a real issue, but there's also greed making it worse than it should be.
What if I told you that the 3-4 corporations that control our food supply increased prices to punish voters for not voting for a Republican in 2020? It's been in the playbook for well over 30 years. Some musicians have even written songs with lyrics that discuss this technique.
Do you have any sources for this? Also the songs that mention it? I'd like to read more about this
Sources for my claim?
That's asking for a lot of sources and a compilation of research as to how I came to my inference on an internet comment. I don't have the time to accommodate all of that, but this article touches on the corporate greed aspect somewhat concisely: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/price-of-food
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/revenue - is a good way to look at profits at a high level for the 4 major grocers (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons) - https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IB_2111_FoodMonoSeries1-SUPERMARKETS-V2FINAL.pdf. This touches more on the aspect of food monopolies specifically: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/jul/14/food-monopoly-meals-profits-data-investigation - the monopolies go beyond just food.
Songs regarding what I'm talking about... off the top of my head the one I think of first is Propaghandi - "A People’s History of the World." The last lyrics:
*"Yeah, you can vote however the fuck you want But power still calls all the shots And believe it or not
Even if democracy broke loose They'll just make the economy scream Until we vote responsibly"*
I also think of Fugazi - "Merchandise" * "Merchandise, it keeps us in line Common sense says it's by design What could a businessman ever want more Than to have us sucking in his store"*
So I agree that food in the US is 100% run by monopolies. Just look at Tyson. What I'd like a source for though personally, is your claim that these monopolies have "had it in the playbook for thirty years" to punish voters for not voting Republican. That specific part is the aspect that I think you actually need to source. It's quite a claim.
Well you're a different person than who I initially replied to, but that's ok. I don't have a source for my claim that this has been in the playbook for 30 years (really I meant since Reagan, so 40 would have been more accurate), similar to how I don't have a source for the claim that media paid for and created by and for capitalistic interest is not likely to accurately or fairly paint truly leftist viewpoints. Things will always be painted to say "see, look how great capitalism is; and look how bad socialism is!" It's one of those logical conclusions one should arrive at when considering an oligarchy bordering on feudalism. Just like the media propaganda of "see how great capitalism is" refuses to acknowledge any counter-point, the same tactic has been used over and over again on questions of the economy and executive branch with who's in power at the time of the question being asked.
One can easily arrive at the conclusion that companies standing to earn higher profits by cutting regulations, busting unions, and squeezing people for basic necessities (all things the Republicans love doing), would make decisions that try to sway or influence voters based on swings in the left or right wing of our right-wing government. You want people to vote for the candidate that will de-regulate and make things easier for your business four years from now... blame the rising cost of goods on the party that's trying to regulate you and make things more difficult for your business interests; bonus if you can collect more money while doing so.
Capitalism is fucking disgusting.
Thanks for all that. I would not bother responding to these guys after an initial comment because I sense they are just being disingenuous.
I was being completely sincere actually. Not sure what is so offensive about asking for someone to back up a claim like that.
I get where you're coming from, but idk man, it's not that hard to buy a democratic senator to vote the way you want. I think simply assuming that every corporation is pushing for Republicans, and is targeting Democrat voters is probably a slippery slope, but that said I get that in the US corpos tend to suck regardless of which side of the isle they have decided to purchase. It's a shame you didn't have any more concrete sources though, that kind of claim you made earlier would be fun to throw around if I were able to back it up lol. As it is, personally I doubt that the rising prices are due to anything beyond corporate greed alongside several external factors like bird flu and eggs in CO being required by law now to be cage free.
No one is targeting democratic voters specifically. It’s all voters.
When you say “buying a democrat” it leads me to believe that you’re interpreting the Democratic Party as the option on the left; it’s really just another right wing option. Leftism is not represented in the US at all.
Most corporations absolutely do prefer Republican policy; it allows them to get away with more bullshit.
What kind of “concrete” evidence do you need? There’s a history of everything I am saying. I don’t need to beat up Nick Siriani and steal a copy of the Eagles playbook to know the tush-push is in there. I see them run the play in most games they play.
Also, and on a different note, the “eggs in Denver” story is also kinda dumb and misleading, like a lot of the national news regarding things that happen in Colorado (let’s talk about the Venezuelan gangs in Aurora) and more specifically the Denver area. I live about 45 minutes north of Denver. When I go to the grocery store, there’s like 10 different egg options and the “cheap” eggs were like $6.50 about a month ago. The expensive eggs were $12 IIRC. 🤷♂️
At first my brain started assuming you were just memeing a monologue from Deus Ex, then I realized this was ~~an original comment~~ all original text. How sad is that? Lol
...just without the neat cyberpunk stuff.
And this was the game written on the unbelievable, edgy premise "...where every conspiracy theory is real." Lol
Edit: lol weird ratio. Okay maybe I was a clumsy communicator there, I meant "How sad is it that my first thought was a Deus Ex monologue perfectly fitting with our current times, but we don't even have sweet nanotech".
Also, that game's premise was trying to be just a little bit dystopianly-ridiculous, and it's now considered prophetic.
Ah, you got me. 😂
Okay my turn, since I mentioned it. Hahaha
Definitely some greed. One grocery store here charges 50% more than the other just because (imagine: it's a Kroger owned store). Neither store is a discount or lower-end store either. Ridiculous.
And coincidentally (or no really coincidentally at all), OP's pic looks like a Kroger owned store too based on the price tag and the inconvenience sticker. Shocker that they'd charge that price 🙄
Why not both?
Indeed!
Yes.
In this case it's a commodity so that's actually hard to do.
It's just inflation. Corporate greed is a poor excuse for price increases
It's actually just corporate greed. The "inflation" is the excuse.
So it's your opinion that corporations were not greedy before 2020?
Ok thanks.
I don’t think corporate greed is a poor excuse though.
All prices in the UK have gone up by substantial amounts over the last 5 years. While at the same time these massive corporations have recorded record profits.
If the price increases were purely inflation then it would stand to reason that profits wouldn’t have gone up so much. Clearly they’ve used inflation as an excuse to squeeze consumers as much as possible.
I am talking generally here and not specifically about eggs.
Is it truly your belief that corporations were not greedy over the last 15 years, but somehow got really greedy at the same time that there were major supply chain shocks across the planet? Or is it more likely that "corporate greed" is a more enticing answer to a complex economic problem?
During inflation, the value of EVERYTHING goes up. Companies pull in more money because money is not worth as much as it was
Oh you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not saying corporations started being greedy over the last 5 years. I’m saying that they turned up the dial as far as they could. They’ve always been greedy.
By greedy I mean they have to extra t value for shareholders. Then you have pensions, UK at least, tied to the stock market making it almost impossible to change the system due to the fact we need to account for the elderly and we refuse to increase taxes by a substantial amount on obscene wealth.
The prices are caused by inflation, massive cullings of infected hens with bird flu, and just the area you live in. Where I'm at, eggs are $4.50 USD/dozen at the moment. They've been higher though.
Those eggs specifically look to be "cage-free", which increases their price by a little bit.
In Germany, you can't even buy eggs from cage farming anymore.
Not necessarily better. My uni did experiments to see how far a chicken moved after being put in a free range pen, and they hardly move. Such pens are large and contain hundreds if not 1000s of chickens. (We tend to imagine free range as 15 hens in a flock, but that is miles away from the truth) Hypothesis was that since Chicken are flock animals they get stressed in these pens and the weaker ones now are on the outside of multiple flocks leading to more stress and feather picking as dominance never really are settled. Roomy cages with proper perches and such paradoxically might be "better" for industrially farmed chicken.
The terminology on the various bird conditions is frustrating and confusing. Cage free can effectively be exactly what you described - entirely indoors, crammed in and miserable, but not in cages. Free Range birds must have "access to the outdoors" but that can be as small as a hole they can stick their head out of but not go through. It's honestly ridiculous.
If you buy grocery store eggs, I would recommend looking for the Certified Humane stamp on eggs and other farm products and meats. While the conditions they require are still far from idyllic, they are better than the general standards most livestock exist in. For chickens, pasture raised certified humane is a good option as birds must be let fully outside into the pasture, must have a minimum of 10 square meters per bird when out there, and must be allowed out for a minimum of 6 hours per day. At least in these conditions, they can reasonably be birds and touch grass. There are a lot of other requirements as well, including perches and dust baths. Ideally if you can afford the extra couple of dollars, these are good companies to support. (There are also other 3rd party companies that certify pasture raised eggs, the Certified Humane one is just most common in my area).
English is not my first language so sorry for being unclear. I don't think we have that option in Norway. I just pick ecological as that is sort of similar. But it that is just being able to look outside or actually walk outside I don't know.
Edit: checked with my veterinarian wife. The eggs we buy are certified like that humane option
Your English is fantastic and you have no reason to apologize! I should apologize for assuming you were from the USA and not even bothering to state that my comments were. So sorry for that and the confusion caused! Sounds like both of our countries have confusing chicken standards though!
We got cage free organic at 6.19/dozen here in Ohio. This seems a localized high
Colorado law only allows for cage free eggs as of January 1st of this year and had mostly already been all that's available here prior to this bird flu epidemic for maybe 6ish months and prices were not increased significantly as a result.
Regardless, this picture represents an extreme and not the least expensive eggs available at this particular store.
~~ Upstate NY and a dozen is between 8-9 dollars last I looked. ~~
I apologize, that's the 18 pack. I was reminded we got charged the 18 pack price but only had a 12. That was a four hour later going over the receipt find. This was a Price Chopper outside of Albany.
Where in upstate? They're $4 everywhere Ive seen them.
Updated.
Yep I'm near Delaware so we have all the chicken farms at least near us. And our eggs are $4.5 for a dozen.