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The state Farmer's Market is a place where people can buy elsewhere and resell. There are folks there who are growers, but honestly, I don't see the point of going to a farmer's market where you're just buying from middlemen. Why not go to the grocery store?
Small farmers charge more at market for a couple of reasons. First, they need and deserve to make a living. $5 eggs makes the farmer a profit. $3 eggs do not. I am not a farmer but I have chickens and if I were to sell their eggs $3/dozen when they're laying well would just about cover their feed for the whole year. Farmers aren't in business to cover their costs...they're in business to make money. Small farmers don't get subsidies like massive farm operations do - the subsidies the factory farms get allows us to buy stuff cheap at the grocery store.
Free range chickens, even those supplemented with feed, do not lay all year long. Chickens put under artifical light and not free ranging lay more. Totally different quality of eggs.
They are selling at market because they can get the price they're asking. If they specialized in mass production/cheap production/animal cruel production then they'd do the easy thing and sell wholesale.
I think the answer to this question really depends if you go to the market to get cheap food, good food, local food, to know your farmer, or to support a small local business.
The state Farmer's Market is a place where people can buy elsewhere and resell. There are folks there who are growers, but honestly, I don't see the point of going to a farmer's market where you're just buying from middlemen. Why not go to the grocery store?
Small farmers charge more at market for a couple of reasons. First, they need and deserve to make a living. $5 eggs makes the farmer a profit. $3 eggs do not. I am not a farmer but I have chickens and if I were to sell their eggs $3/dozen when they're laying well would just about cover their feed for the whole year. Farmers aren't in business to cover their costs...they're in business to make money. Small farmers don't get subsidies like massive farm operations do - the subsidies the factory farms get allows us to buy stuff cheap at the grocery store.
Free range chickens, even those supplemented with feed, do not lay all year long. Chickens put under artifical light and not free ranging lay more. Totally different quality of eggs.
They are selling at market because they can get the price they're asking. If they specialized in mass production/cheap production/animal cruel production then they'd do the easy thing and sell wholesale.
I think the answer to this question really depends if you go to the market to get cheap food, good food, local food, to know your farmer, or to support a small local business.
I regret that I have but one rep point to give for this post. I happily pay $4.50 per dozen to my local farmer, knowing that I'm not eating from a chicken that's been shot up full of hormones and antibiotics.
I regret that I have but one rep point to give for this post. I happily pay $4.50 per dozen to my local farmer, knowing that I'm not eating from a chicken that's been shot up full of hormones and antibiotics.
The FDA banned the use of hormones over 50 years ago.
Prices are high because people pay them. Those prices are nowhere near where they should be, though. Eggs bought locally vary and are between $2-3/dozen.
If prices are high because people pay them, doesn't that indicate they are in fact where they should be? I know the Durham farmers market is often sold out of eggs an hour before it closes. That suggests demand exceeds supply. If you don't like it food lion is there for you.
If prices are high because people pay them, doesn't that indicate they are in fact where they should be? I know the Durham farmers market is often sold out of eggs an hour before it closes. That suggests demand exceeds supply. If you don't like it food lion is there for you.
You are exactly right. People pay the high prices. I would gladly accept the higher revenue if I were the seller. But instead of paying the high prices at the market I simply go to their house where they sell me the same eggs for $2.50/doz.
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