Price Of Eggs Cracking Budgets

[Nutmegger]

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. — - The massive henhouses plopped into a cornfield in North Manchester resonate with the clucking of hundreds of thousands of birds. Across the U.S., cash registers beep, ringing up eggs for more than $2 a dozen.

To Bob Krouse, head of the company that owns the veritable chicken city, the hens are part of the soundtrack to a golden era of record egg industry profits.

For consumers, well, let's just say the Easter Bunny shelled out a lot more green this year: Retail egg prices have been increasing at rates not seen in at least 30 years.

Egg eaters are feeling the pain of soaring chicken feed prices, which egg producers are passing down to the grocery aisle. What's more, the egg industry's normal response to good times, which is to feverishly add capacity until prices drop like a rock, hasn't materialized. That could keep supplies tight and prices high well into 2009.

Full article: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-eggs0323.artmar23,0,6790441.story

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1. but isn't it great that those that produce eggs are finally...

getting some money for their efforts?

what's wrong with that?

[lonestarnot]

5. Ask me when bread, eggs and milk are a delicacy.

The fox will have nothing on me!

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6. ok...

i have only been a farmer for five years. and until recently the prices have been fixed to screw me to your benefit. that is changing now.

delicacy? we'll see, bud. eat 'um while you can...

[lonestarnot]

Hard boiled. And I don't like 'em.

Only with green beer. I like the green gas.

[Mojorabbit]

2. Feed has gone thru the roof

I have four chickens but they are pets. I give my extra eggs away as I don't normally eat more than maybe 8 a week and they lay 3-4 a day. At least I know what goes into my girls diet and that they are not in those miserable battery cages.

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4. exactly...

but i can not deny any farmer getting a fair price for their efforts.

sure, eggs and milk and meat and grains for pennies is a great thought. but it isn't that way in this business and it hasn't been for decades. y'all are going to have to get used to paying us for what it costs us to produce this food that y'all are so comfortable paying nothing for.

its costs to produce it. you are going to have to start paying to consume it.

[magellan]

7. It's not consumers who are responsible for farmers not getting a fair price. n/t

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9. no its not, and that is now changing...

so now consumers should have no problem paying us now for our efforts.

[magellan]

11. If I thought the extra money was actually going to real farmers

...and not subsidized corporate farms that are putting real farmers out of work, I wouldn't have a problem. As it is I'd rather pay someone local for fresh eggs.

The real reason for the increase in cost of food is the devalued dollar/inflation and fuel prices. In the case of eggs, add in the use of corn for the ethanol scam.

No, I don't think the inflated prices are going where they belong, not at all.

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13. but they are...

do you live in a big city?

if so it might be hard to differentiate, but my income is increasing.

my chickens do not eat corn. they wander, free range and eat (i don't want to tell you... bugs and such they find along their travels.) my cattle eat grass that grows in my fields.

where do you buy your food? maybe that is the bigger problem. drive a few miles. support local farmers instead of those you hate so much.

check out http://www.localharvest.org/ and support real farmers and not factory farms.

you know, if you are not part of the solution...

[shireen]

19. good link, thanks

Small family farms are the future. Fuel prices will increase steeply and it will become too expensive to import food from California and Florida, and from other countries. We will become increasingly dependent on our local farms.

Casualwatcher9, you are doing a good thing. The very best of luck to you!

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20. and you are so sweet...

i am what they call a dirt farmer here in the ozarks. this is cattle land, more rock than soil in this part of the country.

but if you do raised beds you can grow a little bit. not every farm is a factory. the chickens do just run about and the cattle do eat grass like in a "california cheese" commercial. i can drive for hundreds of miles in any direction and things looks the same.

and if you look not even that far from where you live there are all sorts of small producers like me.

you should see my heirloom tomatoes. to die for...

[shireen]

21. do you have a website with photos?

If I could live my life over, I'd be a small farmer. :)

Yes, we have small farmers near where I live. Because of time constraints, I don't get out to farmers' markets (they tend to happen during work hours), but my local grocery store (Whole Foods) buys from small farmers during the growing season. And my cafeteria at work buys almost all their supplies from local farmers and local vendors. So I buy indirectly from small farmers, and am very very fortunate to live in a place where I'm able to do it so conveniently.

Raised beds are wonderful! I fell in love with the idea after reading Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/). Simple, elegant, and effective! Plus you have a lot of control over what goes into your plants.

I live in an apartment so it's a bit hard to play with raised beds ... but I can't wait to own a home with a big yard someday so I can pretend to be a "dirt farmer" -- it's a very noble elemental profession, IMHO!!! :applause:

[magellan]

22. I'm glad things are better for you

The deck is stacked against consumers though. I have to drive quite a distance to get to our "local" farmer's market. I do it, but many others can't afford to fuel-wise or don't have the time because they're working long hours to make ends meet. Low income families especially are more or less tied to the cheapest prices in town, which are usually found at Walmart and the like. Principle vs dollars, dollars will win and the corporations know it. Sales are funneled to these huge conglomerates that sell cheap food and goods and that puts the competition out of business. Then the prices go up.

More and more people will be forced to buy locally as the situation worsens, and that's good for farmers like you. But don't cheer that it's off the back of consumers. That's what I take issue with. Like the idea of adding tax to the price of gas to force people to be more environmentally conscious, you're hurting a large and growing swath of low wage earners who have no alternative but to pay more for what they already can't afford.

[lonestarnot]

8. Get used to getting more that really isn't worth much sucka!

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14. you are disgusting...

[lonestarnot]

15. Yes I can be. And it smells in here for some reason. Did you eat some eggs?

[Mojorabbit]

10. I have no problem

with you getting a good price for them. I hope you treat the ladys well.

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12. very well...

i was not born to farm life. no disrespect to those who were. its just since i am so new to this i treat all animals more as pets more than producers.

mine is not a factory farm. organic. every animal here lives a wonderful life. death is part of that too. i am just starting to get my head around that.

we are a happy farm...

[lonestarnot]

16. Do you have a red barn?

[gateley]

17. I heard some "expert" (but a good one)

predict that in the future will be buying local food from local farmers. I'd love to see that happen.

[uppityperson]

18. I've started looking into mixing my own chicken food

pricing out grains and trying to figure how to crack them. We're doing more monitored grazing these days too. Often people can drive less but eating less is difficult. This yr I'm also planting chicken crops in the garden and giving them all the buckets of weeds too.

[eShirl]

3. eggs are still a good protein bargain

even paying extra for organically raised free range, vegetarian omega3-fed chickens' eggs