8 ms·

USDA to investigate egg lobby as CEO resigns

84 points by coloneltcb 11y ago

kordless 11y ago
> the Egg Board is a “checkoff” organization into which egg farmers are required to pay > “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB Sounds like an Omeletized Crime Ring to me.
neom 11y ago
Hopefully they can crack the case.
- eranation 11y ago
  It will not be over easily though.
  - simonbyrne 11y ago
    I'm sure there's a sunny side to it though.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - mkoryak 11y ago
      can we please leave the pun threads on reddit?
      - nostromo 11y ago
        ... and Guardian headlines.
        corin_ 11y ago
        Just curious, why did you pick the Guardian to call out when it's not even one of the UK's worst offenders for headlines with puns in them (i.e. tabloids)?
        freehunter 11y ago
        Probably because the linked article is from The Guardian and contains a pun (scrambled eggs).
      - eranation 11y ago
        my bad, how do I delete a comment? :/
hbosch 11y ago
> They also joked about killing Tetrick himself: “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB member organization Hidden Villa Ranch. Mitch Kanter, executive vice president of the AEB, jokingly offered “to contact some of my old buddies in Brooklyn to pay Mr Tetrick a visit”. (AEB apologized for those statements when contacted by the Guardian.) Goodness. Good thing these guys are multi-millionaires appointed by the government, otherwise they might get in trouble for threatening to have someone murdered.
- corin_ 11y ago
  To be fair... I've made jokes like that, if you're saying it to somebody who knows you're joking then there's nothing threatening about it at all. They neither threatened the person with murder (I presume he was unaware) nor, as far as we know, made any plans to do it. Let's hate them for better reasons, that clearly exist, than making jokes about murder. (Also, IANAL but pretty sure under those circumstances there wouldn't be anything to successfully prosecute, nothing to do with them being government-appointed millionaires.)
  - moron4hire 11y ago
    To be fair, I don't think making jokes about killing someone is ever appropriate.
    - nicklaf 11y ago
      Agreed. It's the kind of thing where you can't ever completely write it off as a joke. Even if only for the sake of the person who made the joke: if anything terrible and mysterious were to happen to Tetrick, having previously joked about killing him unnecessarily makes him a suspect.
      - moron4hire 11y ago
        Wow, didn't think we'd be expressing a particularly controversial opinion. Learn something new about HN every day.
brendannee 11y ago
AEB leadership really has egg on their face after those FOIA'd emails.
senorprogrammer 11y ago
Wow, does that article ever bury the lead by not describing what Hampton Creek's product is until the very last paragraph. For those who didn't make it all the way down, Hampton Creek makes a vegetarian mayo alternative called 'Just Mayo' that is a threat to egg-based mayonnaise, and is evidently gaining popularity. As such, the American Egg Board has been attempting to destroy them.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 11y ago
  Lots of previous articles on this, if you want to read more: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=hampton%20creek&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=hampton%20creek&sort=byDate&pr...
- tveita 11y ago
  I'd be pretty surprised if I bought a product named "Just Mayo" that didn't contain actual mayonnaise, but I guess it fits into the same pattern as American "cheese".
  - dghughes 11y ago
    I'd be upset too as a consumer and an egg producer that a product was using the name of a popular product with eggs but no eggs are in it. Margarine with yellow dye trying to look like butter (also dyed yellow). "Milk" products such as almond milk and soy milk when both are just juice since neither almonds or soybeans have nipples. There must be some law to prevent such desception.
    - FreeFull 11y ago
      Almond milk has been called almond milk quite a bit before the US even existed. I don't think it would make sense to rename it now.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
nostromo 11y ago
I'm amazed that these "checkoff" organizations are still allowed to exist in the US. Do we really need to pay more for food to subsidize adverts for milk, eggs, pork, and beef? How is it fair to force producers to pay for marketing that they might not even support?
- mason55 11y ago
  The idea is to prevent free riders in a commodified market and allow for collective action. It's actually very similar to a union in that each individual member (or farm) is small and can't have much effect on their own. By organizing collectively you can become more powerful but there's no incentive for any individual member to join. Think about the "Pork, the other white meat" or all the milk mustache ads. A single farm could never put that together but by working together they can benefit the industry as a whole. So that's how you end up with these "checkoff" organizations and arguments against right-to-work laws.
  - bigtunacan 11y ago
    Or one of favorites. "Beef. It's what's for dinner."
- protomyth 11y ago
  A case involving raisins[1,2] might start and end to some of this foolishness, but some of these lobbies are pretty powerful. I direct the hemp lovers to look at the lobbying efforts of the cotton folks. 1) http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/supreme-court-raisin-farmer/28475623/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/supreme... 2) http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/horne-v-department-of-agriculture-2/ http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/horne-v-departmen...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
binarycrusader 11y ago
I have no doubt that the AEB is responsible for a variety of unethical things. But Hampton Creek's no "angel" either; consider this article as well: http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-2015-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-... You could argue that it's a hit piece, but there's some pretty interesting observations that seem factually correct.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
contingencies 11y ago
More informative background at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo
ksherlock 11y ago
Is this really a threat to egg usage? If you make mayonnaise at home, you need 1 egg yolk per half cup of oil. With industrial equipment and science, you can use 1 yolk to emulsify 1 or 2 dozen cups of oil. (By law, mayonnaise is 65% oil and must contain egg yolk, but not a specific amount of egg yolk). Egg is the third ingredient in Hellman's, after oil and water.
- shalmanese 11y ago
  Mayo is only the first product from HCF. The next planned product is cookie dough with further products planned where the egg is more and more obvious.

84 points by coloneltcb 11y ago

> the Egg Board is a “checkoff” organization into which egg farmers are required to pay > “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB Sounds like an Omeletized Crime Ring to me.

neom 11y ago

Hopefully they can crack the case.

eranation 11y ago
It will not be over easily though.
- simonbyrne 11y ago
  I'm sure there's a sunny side to it though.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - mkoryak 11y ago
    can we please leave the pun threads on reddit?
    - nostromo 11y ago
      ... and Guardian headlines.
      - corin_ 11y ago
        Just curious, why did you pick the Guardian to call out when it's not even one of the UK's worst offenders for headlines with puns in them (i.e. tabloids)?
        freehunter 11y ago
        Probably because the linked article is from The Guardian and contains a pun (scrambled eggs).
    - eranation 11y ago
      my bad, how do I delete a comment? :/

hbosch 11y ago

> They also joked about killing Tetrick himself: “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB member organization Hidden Villa Ranch. Mitch Kanter, executive vice president of the AEB, jokingly offered “to contact some of my old buddies in Brooklyn to pay Mr Tetrick a visit”. (AEB apologized for those statements when contacted by the Guardian.) Goodness. Good thing these guys are multi-millionaires appointed by the government, otherwise they might get in trouble for threatening to have someone murdered.

corin_ 11y ago
To be fair... I've made jokes like that, if you're saying it to somebody who knows you're joking then there's nothing threatening about it at all. They neither threatened the person with murder (I presume he was unaware) nor, as far as we know, made any plans to do it. Let's hate them for better reasons, that clearly exist, than making jokes about murder. (Also, IANAL but pretty sure under those circumstances there wouldn't be anything to successfully prosecute, nothing to do with them being government-appointed millionaires.)
- moron4hire 11y ago
  To be fair, I don't think making jokes about killing someone is ever appropriate.
  - nicklaf 11y ago
    Agreed. It's the kind of thing where you can't ever completely write it off as a joke. Even if only for the sake of the person who made the joke: if anything terrible and mysterious were to happen to Tetrick, having previously joked about killing him unnecessarily makes him a suspect.
    - moron4hire 11y ago
      Wow, didn't think we'd be expressing a particularly controversial opinion. Learn something new about HN every day.

brendannee 11y ago

AEB leadership really has egg on their face after those FOIA'd emails.

senorprogrammer 11y ago

Wow, does that article ever bury the lead by not describing what Hampton Creek's product is until the very last paragraph. For those who didn't make it all the way down, Hampton Creek makes a vegetarian mayo alternative called 'Just Mayo' that is a threat to egg-based mayonnaise, and is evidently gaining popularity. As such, the American Egg Board has been attempting to destroy them.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
dang 11y ago
Lots of previous articles on this, if you want to read more: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=hampton%20creek&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=hampton%20creek&sort=byDate&pr...
tveita 11y ago
I'd be pretty surprised if I bought a product named "Just Mayo" that didn't contain actual mayonnaise, but I guess it fits into the same pattern as American "cheese".
- dghughes 11y ago
  I'd be upset too as a consumer and an egg producer that a product was using the name of a popular product with eggs but no eggs are in it. Margarine with yellow dye trying to look like butter (also dyed yellow). "Milk" products such as almond milk and soy milk when both are just juice since neither almonds or soybeans have nipples. There must be some law to prevent such desception.
  - FreeFull 11y ago
    Almond milk has been called almond milk quite a bit before the US even existed. I don't think it would make sense to rename it now.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

nostromo 11y ago

I'm amazed that these "checkoff" organizations are still allowed to exist in the US. Do we really need to pay more for food to subsidize adverts for milk, eggs, pork, and beef? How is it fair to force producers to pay for marketing that they might not even support?

mason55 11y ago
The idea is to prevent free riders in a commodified market and allow for collective action. It's actually very similar to a union in that each individual member (or farm) is small and can't have much effect on their own. By organizing collectively you can become more powerful but there's no incentive for any individual member to join. Think about the "Pork, the other white meat" or all the milk mustache ads. A single farm could never put that together but by working together they can benefit the industry as a whole. So that's how you end up with these "checkoff" organizations and arguments against right-to-work laws.
- bigtunacan 11y ago
  Or one of favorites. "Beef. It's what's for dinner."
protomyth 11y ago
A case involving raisins[1,2] might start and end to some of this foolishness, but some of these lobbies are pretty powerful. I direct the hemp lovers to look at the lobbying efforts of the cotton folks. 1) http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/supreme-court-raisin-farmer/28475623/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/supreme... 2) http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/horne-v-department-of-agriculture-2/ http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/horne-v-departmen...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

binarycrusader 11y ago

I have no doubt that the AEB is responsible for a variety of unethical things. But Hampton Creek's no "angel" either; consider this article as well: http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-2015-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/hampton-creek-ceo-complaints-... You could argue that it's a hit piece, but there's some pretty interesting observations that seem factually correct.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

contingencies 11y ago

More informative background at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo

ksherlock 11y ago

Is this really a threat to egg usage? If you make mayonnaise at home, you need 1 egg yolk per half cup of oil. With industrial equipment and science, you can use 1 yolk to emulsify 1 or 2 dozen cups of oil. (By law, mayonnaise is 65% oil and must contain egg yolk, but not a specific amount of egg yolk). Egg is the third ingredient in Hellman's, after oil and water.

shalmanese 11y ago
Mayo is only the first product from HCF. The next planned product is cookie dough with further products planned where the egg is more and more obvious.