January 22, 2025- Whilst shopping for other breakfast items yesterday, at Trader Joe’s, I encountered two store employees explaining to another shopper that they were out of eggs. It seems that the wholesale distributors have put grocery stores and some restaurants in a pool. Every establishment gets an allotment, usually on a daily or semi-weekly basis. TJ’s would have received their allotment this morning, and probably again on Friday.
Like toilet paper before it, the egg has become in short supply due to a virus. This time, it’s avian flu that is the villain. As poultry, and, for the most part, not people, are the direct victims, all we can do is wait. https://www.abc15.com/news/national/america-is-in-the-middle-of-an-egg-shortage-causing-prices-to-rise
I am not an eggs for breakfast, every morning, sort of soul. I like a plate of scrambled eggs, meat and home-fried potatoes, once or twice a week. I like an occasional omelet. Otherwise, I am not an egg aficionado. I do, however, feel for those who can’t be without the food. We are, simply put, reaping the benefits of industrialized agriculture. Viruses and bacteria thrive in environments where animals, (including humans), are crammed too close together; where hygiene is second fiddle to moving product; where hormones and chemicals are administered to the “producers” (hens), to increase output. The same disease risk faces cattle, swine and sheep. Farmed fish have their own hygiene risk factor.
The egg crisis will pass, though it may, like the TP crisis before it, force people to look at alternatives, in the event of a worst case scenario. It is not, on its face, the government’s fault, though pulling out of WHO was probably not a good idea. It is not the fault of the distributors, who are at least for now, trying to be as fair as they can to retailers and to the public. It is not the fault of the retailers, who at least for now, are tempering the law of supply and demand with the need to stay on the good side of their customers.
Let’s see what the large producers can do, on their own, to safeguard their animals-and take the long view of the matter. People will still want eggs for breakfast, 10, 20, 50 years from now. Going back to smaller flocks, with more actual free-roaming space, would seem to be one answer. Removing hormones, chemicals and antibiotics from the regimen is definitely another practice worth considering.
A Sagittarian Seeker 
Before we left on vacation the price of a dozen eggs was $1.19 when we got back and went shopping the price was $5.39! I understand there is a problem but I’m not paying that for eggs. I can get ground beef for less!!
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That is exactly the gist of the matter. Whether it is avian flu or residual greed, the average Joe and Jane are taking it on the chin-again.
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Gary I looked at Sparky and said – we need to get some chickens. Of course he said no (and I’m pretty sure the neighbors would have a fit) but I’m very tempted!
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Are you in an HOA? Sparky aside, the fuddie duddies would have a collective aneurysm.
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Yes it is an HOA but very relaxed about most things – chickens not so much. So far the only thing that has gotten the committee in a twist is the new trash pickup service with their humongous trash receptacles. We have been informed that we can petition them in writing for a smaller version. Currently the HOA says we have to put them in the garage after pickup but the garages are small and some folks can’t have both car/truck and the trash bins inside at the same time…
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If that happened around here, the trash bins would take priority. That is one of many reasons why I would never again live in an HOA.
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The trash bins are 3 times the size of the other ones. With 2 of them it is like having another car! We have called and will be getting the smaller ones (hopefully by March). There has been such a demand that they said it might not happen until July!! Of course the HOA is very aware and is helping facilitate the switch to the smaller bins. And they aren’t being mean about the bins being out.
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Amen! Your HOA sounds like it is halfway sane.
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Yes, thankfully it is!
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Eggs and toilet peper. In te 1970′, I lived in Hawaii, where much of what is consumed must be imported by ship. There was a shipping strike, which required a shift to air shipping. On the first or second night of the strike, Johnny Carson quipped that the Japanese tourists were all taking home cases of toilet paper. The very next day, it was impossible to buy TP in the entire state of Hawaii!
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Johnny Carson may have been right, though back then, at least, Japanese people used water as a means of “self-cleaning”.
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