Great Eggspectations

G'day,

New Zealanders, or as Australians call them, "our cousins across the ditch," have been left scrambling for eggs. See what we did there? We'll wait. Sometimes genius takes a while to register.

Kiwis eat an average of 237 eggs a year, but it's become increasingly expensive and difficult to hit that average over the course of the last few months.

The origins of today's shortage can be traced back ten years ago, when the government in New Zealand made it mandatory to start phasing out cage-bred chickens in a play for more ethically-produced huevos. Over time, a simple formula played out:More ethically raised chickens=less crowded farms=less efficient production=less egg-producing capacity=less eggs on the shelves=harder for the average person to eat 237 eggs a year. The story highlights the dilemma that many people and governments face in developed countries around the world. That is, how do we reconcile our growing awareness around the ills inherent in factory farming and our desire for cheap, abundant animal protein?

We vote for reducing the quantity and increasing the quality of the meat, fish, dairy, and eggs we put into our bodies. But that sounds reasonable...so forget we said anything. It was a stupid idea. Sorry.

Bird Flu puts hurt on US egg industry

Did you know there is a publication called Egg Price Current? No, of course you didn't. Who would know that? Well, apparently this publication also has an editor, and her name is Karyn Rispoli. She recently laid out some interesting stats on the US egg industry. In February 2022, the US layer flock sat at 322 million birds. By December the flock sat around 304 million. All this due to continued outbreaks of Avian Influenza across chicken farms in the United States. This drastic reduction in the flock coupled with inflationary pressures faced by producers, resulted in egg prices reaching record highs during Christmas. In a counter-point to the story coming from New Zealand, the scale and rapidity of these flu outbreaks has been attributed by some to the dense, over-crowded conditions that many of these chickens are raised in. Something to ponder. 🧐