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Egg cartels aren't pleasant for an already struggling working class. A lot of families rely on cheap protein, and with the other substantial dairy and food pric

Egg cartels aren't pleasant for an already struggling working class. A lot of families rely on cheap protein, and with the other substantial dairy and food price hikes this decade, it's clear someone is pushing industries from cost-plus to a "$/person/day" target. If you're concerned about the chickens, you should support small and independent farm subsidies and eschew factory farms that don't even have to do anything wrong to be dangerous.

Arnt 2y ago
Not sure what you're trying to say here... maybe that hens in factory farms already suffer, so a disease doesn't matter? Or that letting a disease into the country is okay because it won't reach any hens in the nice kind of farm? (I get my eggs from an organic farm just outside the city where I live, btw.)
- washadjeffmad 2y ago
  Sorry, my lens is that I was an ag research at the USDA through he Farm Bill. A healthy nation does not put all its eggs in one basket, so to speak. The person you replied to said, "I think GP is saying, the point is that the biosecurity controls are to protect local agriculture in the sense of ensuring availability. If there's no availability due to cartel practices anyway then spending effort enforcing biosecurity controls is pointless." I generally agree with this. People don't import eggs when they have access to affordable eggs, implying that importers of unlikely diseased eggs or no are not likely to be proximal to farms. (And more importantly, why take imported eggs to a farm? Are producers importing? Doubtful.) So, how'd we get here? The recent consolidation and prevalence of factory farms, in addition to introducing food supply fragility by forcing smaller producers to exit the market, has created the most adversarial conditions for hens. Shrinking factory farms and bolstering more and smaller producers will reduce the incidence of outbreaks and limit the amount of culling needed. I'm also contending that humans also suffer because of this, and while it's noble to consider the chickens, doing so in our current state does not decrease either their vulnerability or the harm to vulnerable human populations. When you play with food prices and availability, there are real effects to development and educational performance in children that are not quick or simple to quantify. I think both deserve to be healthy.
- nothercastle 2y ago
  Mostly that it won’t meaningfully affect the factory farm and that it’s a small price to pay for increasing competition. Bird flu was a minor blip for factory farms they just used it as an opportunity to cut production and use monopoly power to increase profits

Arnt 2y ago

Not sure what you're trying to say here... maybe that hens in factory farms already suffer, so a disease doesn't matter? Or that letting a disease into the country is okay because it won't reach any hens in the nice kind of farm? (I get my eggs from an organic farm just outside the city where I live, btw.)

washadjeffmad 2y ago
Sorry, my lens is that I was an ag research at the USDA through he Farm Bill. A healthy nation does not put all its eggs in one basket, so to speak. The person you replied to said, "I think GP is saying, the point is that the biosecurity controls are to protect local agriculture in the sense of ensuring availability. If there's no availability due to cartel practices anyway then spending effort enforcing biosecurity controls is pointless." I generally agree with this. People don't import eggs when they have access to affordable eggs, implying that importers of unlikely diseased eggs or no are not likely to be proximal to farms. (And more importantly, why take imported eggs to a farm? Are producers importing? Doubtful.) So, how'd we get here? The recent consolidation and prevalence of factory farms, in addition to introducing food supply fragility by forcing smaller producers to exit the market, has created the most adversarial conditions for hens. Shrinking factory farms and bolstering more and smaller producers will reduce the incidence of outbreaks and limit the amount of culling needed. I'm also contending that humans also suffer because of this, and while it's noble to consider the chickens, doing so in our current state does not decrease either their vulnerability or the harm to vulnerable human populations. When you play with food prices and availability, there are real effects to development and educational performance in children that are not quick or simple to quantify. I think both deserve to be healthy.
nothercastle 2y ago
Mostly that it won’t meaningfully affect the factory farm and that it’s a small price to pay for increasing competition. Bird flu was a minor blip for factory farms they just used it as an opportunity to cut production and use monopoly power to increase profits