Will eggs become the new toilet paper???

"Much of the sound and fury of how much we are paying for eggs is just that - sound and fury. For something to eat which is that good for you, paying fifty cents to a buck an egg is not bad at all."

Heard something interesting on the news yesterday. A store in LA is selling eggs for almost $18/dozen. That is up from the $12/dozen it had been charging. Say what? An egg going for a buck or more? That is highway robbery! Or is it? After seeing that news article, my wife and I went grocery shopping. We found eggs for about $7/dozen. After seeing that news article, I felt we got a bargain at $7.

By now most of us have heard what the cause of this price hike (and sometimes shortage) is. Avian flu. I know - avian flu has been around for years. But this time it has teeth. And it has spread from birds to some dairy farm cows. And to a small degree - humans. What is the solution we have been using? Cull the egg layers. Millions of them - gone. And then repopulate the coops with fresh heathy hens. But then the flu comes back. Somehow, it comes back. So, it is wash, rinse, repeat all over again. 

One of my friends had gone into Costco recently and not an egg was to be found. Sound familiar? Going into Costco to buy toilet paper and not a roll to be found. For eggs, this is like Covid without the Covid. After hearing the Costco story, I told my wife, "If we can find eggs, we are buying them." Kind of like the same thing I said during Covid. "If we can find toilet paper, we are buying it - no matter the cost."

But here is something interesting about eggs. Most doctors will tell you that an egg is one of the most nutritious things we can eat. If you end up paying a buck an egg, and have two eggs for breakfast, that is only a two-dollar meal. If you can find eggs for $6/dozen and have breakfast with two eggs, that is only a dollar meal. What am I saying? Much of the sound and fury of how much we are paying for eggs is just that - sound and fury. For something to eat which is that good for you, paying fifty cents to a buck an egg is not bad at all.

This brings me to a bigger issue - the food available to most Americans. Many of us have had the chance to visit other lands which are not as blessed as ours. Gone into their markets where only a handful of items are sold. Price is not as big of an issue as just finding something to eat. While visiting South America and Central America, many places we visited had only beans and rice to eat, with an occasional chicken. Beans and rice for every meal, with maybe some fruit if you could find it. And for special occasions - a chicken in the pot.

Eggs are due to increase another 20% before this is all said and done. The scientists are working overtime to figure out how chicken farms keep getting infected over and over again. Now they are thinking it might be from migratory birds like crows. No doubt they will find the cause and come up with a solution. Until then, I will continue to have eggs for breakfast at a cost of one to two dollars a meal. That is, if I can find them at the store.