{"id":13686,"date":"2024-05-17T16:58:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T16:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=13686"},"modified":"2024-05-17T16:58:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T16:58:11","slug":"why-we-keep-seeing-egg-prices-spike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=13686","title":{"rendered":"Why we keep seeing egg prices spike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“The egg industry, like much of the agricultural sector, is commanded by a few heavyweights \u2014 the biggest, Cal-Maine Foods, controls 20 percent of the market<\/a> \u2014 that leave little slack in the system to absorb and isolate shocks like disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of thousands of animals are packed tightly together on a single farm, as my colleague Marina Bolotnikova has explained<\/a>, where disease can spread like wildfire. According to the government and corporate accountability group Food & Water Watch, three-quarters of the country\u2019s hundreds of millions of egg-laying hens are crammed into just 347 factory farms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system also uses genetically similar animals that farms believe will maximize egg production \u2014 but that lack of genetic diversity<\/a> means animal populations are less resistant to disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a hen gets infected, stopping the spread is an ugly, cruel business<\/a>; since 2022 it has led to the killing of 85 million poultry birds<\/a>. For the consumer, it often means paying a lot more than usual for a carton of eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preventing any outbreaks of disease from ever happening isn\u2019t realistic, but the model of modern industrial farming is making outbreaks more disruptive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just these disruptions driving price spikes. Egg producers also appear to be taking advantage of these moments and hiking prices<\/a> beyond what they\u2019d need to maintain their old profit margins.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Because our food system is so concentrated and intermingled, it also means any single supply chain hiccup \u2014 whether due to disease, wars, or any other reason \u2014 can have ripple effects on others, affecting prices in a vast number of essential consumer goods and services.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/money\/24144715\/egg-price-inflation-bird-flu-corporate-greed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The egg industry, like much of the agricultural sector, is commanded by a few heavyweights \u2014 the biggest, Cal-Maine Foods, controls 20 percent of the market \u2014 that leave little slack in the system to absorb and isolate shocks like disease.
\nHundreds of thousands of animals are packed tightly together on a single farm, as my colleague Marina Bolotnikova has explained, where disease can spread like wildfire. According to the government and corporate accountability group Food & Water Watch, three-quarters of the country\u2019s hundreds of millions of egg-laying hens are crammed into just 347 factory farms.<\/p>\n

The system also uses genetically similar animals that farms believe will maximize egg production \u2014 but that lack of genetic diversity means animal populations are less resistant to disease.<\/p>\n

When a hen gets infected, stopping the spread is an ugly, cruel business; since 2022 it has led to the killing of 85 million poultry birds. For the consumer, it often means paying a lot more than usual for a carton of eggs.<\/p>\n

Preventing any outbreaks of disease from ever happening isn\u2019t realistic, but the model of modern industrial farming is making outbreaks more disruptive.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just these disruptions driving price spikes. Egg producers also appear to be taking advantage of these moments and hiking prices beyond what they\u2019d need to maintain their old profit margins.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Because our food system is so concentrated and intermingled, it also means any single supply chain hiccup \u2014 whether due to disease, wars, or any other reason \u2014 can have ripple effects on others, affecting prices in a vast number of essential consumer goods and services.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/money\/24144715\/egg-price-inflation-bird-flu-corporate-greed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1808,1807,1316,1407],"class_list":["post-13686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-bird-flu","tag-eggs","tag-inflation","tag-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13687,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13686\/revisions\/13687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}