Eggs (cage free) (living in, costs, to move)

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Lampert

Well, 6.4% of household income spent on food you eat home would be honestly negligible. But then it says that even the top 20% spend between 6 and 10% of their income. Extrapolating from this and the number of the expenditure by the bottom 20% I guess that the average American spends about 20% of their household income on food they eat home.
That's not negligible at all and a considerable increase in price is going to have a massive impact on how we spend money in this country.

It's still a relatively low percentage comparing similar wealth levels to other countries. That 20% for us, say in the bottom quintile, very well be (and likely is) analogous to 60% in Peru or something similar. Food, as a percentage of spending, or wealth, or income, or whatever you want to look at is still very cheap here.

We also have a number of programs to subsidize food purchased for those at the lowest levels. If society deems that this is an animal welfare change (or for whatever reason) is desirable and a change to be made, its more than easy enough to give a few more dollars a week to SNAP (or whatever) benefit system to offset the increases to the most vulnerable. A dozen eggs say going from $2 to $4 a dozen is not going to have a massive impact on how we spend money as a country, $2-4 a week in added snap... "problem" gone.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Lampert

At the bottom of the graph it says:
Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households.

I don't know what the source for this is but if this is true it paints a very different picture.

This is my basic point. I don’t know if you guys actually grocery shop but prices are up considerably. This disproportionately impacts that bottom 20%. Generally, the bottom 20% is single mothers with dependent children. Eggs are an important protein source and this policy has doubled the price. It’s not like you’re going to get a Department of Agriculture special appropriation through the US senate to adjust food stamps to the big price rises we’ve seen in food. “Think of the chickens” is fine when you live in the leafy suburbs with the highest standard of living on the planet. “Let them raise their own chickens” to someone in high density housing is a 21st century version of “Let them eat cake”. Totally out of touch. The most recent data I see for Massachusetts is that 16% of households with children are food insecure. It was way worse than that when schools were shut.

[brk330]

Bought eggs last night and they did seem to be all cage free, can't say I checked every carton.
We do have backyard chickens but they aren't laying much right now and my child loves what she calls "White Egg!"

[495neighbor]

I am only seeing cage-free in my area stores. I only buy a few cartons a month. The price this week is 150% over what I paid 2 weeks ago. I wasn't certain if that was due to the new animal cruelty law only or shipping and stocking problems too. I see the occasional egg farm in my travels, but have assumed Massachusetts does not have many large egg farms and that we import from other states and countries. I do feel terrible for the families who rely on government aid for food. If someone only has $40/week to eat, 2 or 3 dollars means a lot. And before anyone judges, many people on food assistance, work full-time jobs or more than one job.

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by SUPbud

I'm a visitor from California, but the thread caught my eye. You guys are just catching up to where we were a few years ago. I have also raised backyard chickens, and I will do so again before I die.


I promise egg prices should stablize, once the bad old factory farms re-tool, retrofit, and setup a more humane kit.


Chickens which can move around and flap and see a variety of scenes and elevations, are happier, healthier chickens. it only takes 18 weeks (126 DAYS) to go from little yellow fuzzball to harvest as the "young fryer hen" in the bag on sale for Weds night din.


It's the way the industry is going, in California they've extended the minimum space/pen requirements to include veal and pigs. Even if you're not IN CA, you cant sell it here, and we are the largest market (most populous state in the Union) so you cut off your own nose to spite your face if you dont modernize.



If you have an open ear for the whole 'sustainable' thing, I recommend Polyface Farms in VA. They have lots of videos on Youtube + elsewhere. I too raged at $5.99/dz eggs when the law first passed, but now they are $1.99/dz like before the law.

https://www.polyfacefarms.com/

Only the "Anti-communist" big mouths complain about laws that support animal welfare. Most people with education and a normal human sensibilities would not mind paying a bit more for better animal treatment. Besides, like you said, technology will catch up and deliver cheaper food under better conditions so long as consumers accept the new regulations.

Nellie Free range eggs are what we get here in the Stop & Shop in Quincy.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by pennyone

Only the "Anti-communist" big mouths complain about laws that support animal welfare. Most people with education and a normal human sensibilities

<snip>

To enhance your “education”…. Joseph Stalin killed 6 million Russians. From 1958 to 1962, Mao killed 40 to 80 million between starvation, prison labor, and mass executions.

Anti-communist vs chickens. I’m having a tough time following this reasoning. Your saying chickens are more important than slaughtering 40 million Chinese people?

[chicagoliz]

Went to Aldi in Natick. Got Certified Humane eggs for $1.79 last week and $2.25 today. Organic Certified Humane was $2.75.

[BruinsGirl]

LOL. Thank you for a good laugh. What do communists have to do with “green”s?
They didn’t know anything about all this humane animal welfare.

We in USSR did have basically organic foods (except for some pesticides later on) , but that’s only because chemistry wasn’t not that advanced yet. Frankly humane treatment of animals wasn’t a priority due to scarcity of food.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

To enhance your “education”…. Joseph Stalin killed 6 million Russians. From 1958 to 1962, Mao killed 40 to 80 million between starvation, prison labor, and mass executions.

Anti-communist vs chickens. I’m having a tough time following this reasoning. Your saying chickens are more important than slaughtering 40 million Chinese people?

And to enhance your “education”…. it should be You're.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by chicagoliz

Went to Aldi in Natick. Got Certified Humane eggs for $1.79 last week and $2.25 today. Organic Certified Humane was $2.75.

I think the Market Basket brand cage free eggs are $2.50/doz for large. Organic are higher. Next time I am on an egg-spedition to Market Basket I'll do some reconnaissance.