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    La.M.Hamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:34am

    My eggs already cost me $5.00-6.00/dz. I want my eggs to look like the one on the right, not the one on the left.

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      Paleo SpeedwagonLa.M.
      12/29/14 9:44am

      I raised some hens in the back yard for years, for the very same reason. Most store-bought eggs are of shit quality anyway, I mean unless you go grass-fed free range types...at which point, yes, $5-6 is totally standard, and completely reasonable considering the value, as well as the fact that it took a hen a full 24 hours to make that egg.

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      ThidrekrLa.M.
      12/29/14 9:44am

      I can't even eat regular eggs; they taste like cardboard and I have trouble digesting them if I eat them consistently, which sure as hell makes me wonder what they're feeding those chickens to make eggs that terrible. I'm used to paying $5-6/dz. for free range/organic as well—and, yes, they're bright orange like the yolk on the right.

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    HypnoCatHamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:30am

    As an Agricultural Science Major in college (I lasted one year before switching), I had to visit a number of factory farms. The layer "facilities" were by far the worst, most depressing place I'd ever been. It was Auschwitz for chickens.

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      Misteaks were madeHypnoCat
      12/29/14 9:54am

      Do the chickens wake up in ovens in their PJ's or get gassed in the showers?

      No? then it's not really comparable.

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      goldwHypnoCat
      12/29/14 10:09am

      As a dairy farmer I never understood why some people eat chicken/eggs yet won't touch red meat. Chickens lives suck, all the meat birds do is live 6 weeks hope they don't die of a heart attack or break their legs because they are too heavy and layers are in cages without much room. Plus Chickens stink, walking by an exhaust fan is not pleasant.

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    Dude In ColoradoHamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:26am

    Likewise wages for low paid restaurant workers - I don't mind paying a little extra to eat if it means the people making and serving the food will earn more and have a better life - it helps the economy when any worker has more money to spend ...

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      NewNameSameOldGameDude In Colorado
      12/29/14 10:19am

      Whatever, people are people, chicken are chickens. Fuck chickens. If you want your eggs laid by happy chicken, by free range eggs. Stop making my food more expensive.

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      HorribleNewNameSameOldGame
      12/29/14 10:31am

      Stop populating my country with cheap assholes.

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    Dan SeitzHamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:50am

    I was going to say... 10% to 40%? So, like, what? A dime to fifty cents at the outside? Admittedly, that's not great for the people for whom eggs are their sole protein source, but it's not jacking them up by any real cost.

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      FerminaDazaDan Seitz
      12/29/14 3:08pm

      If a person's sole source of protein, they'll die of myriad heart diseases prior to any serious impact on their wallet.

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      Dan SeitzFerminaDaza
      12/29/14 3:23pm

      If you're so broke all you can eat is eggs, you're probably not eating them daily.

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    ospreyguyHamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:34am

    I am all for this after working on a chicken farm for 2 days in high school. My job was to walk the 3 or so miles of houses and pull out the dead birds. I saw things.

    But my problem with the argument of "it's still cheap!" is that the down stream effect on food prices will be pretty obvious. How many products contain eggs? How many restaurants serve them? What about vaccines (the flu shot contains egg protein)? All of those costs are going to increase and for some reason I don't see companies just eating that cost due to niceness.

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      Dan Seitzospreyguy
      12/29/14 9:59am

      Eh, for wholesale you can halve those percentages or even further. Also, this price increase is probably temporary.

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      SparklingLemonDan Seitz
      12/29/14 2:28pm

      It will be temporary unless eggs prove to be price inelastic. If egg producers find that despite the increase in cost, consumers are still demanding the good — which is likely to be the case when we consider what all we use eggs for —, what incentive is there to decrease the price once they've recouped their loss?

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    $kaycogHamilton Nolan
    12/29/14 9:25am
    GIF

    So worth it!

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      AFSHamilton Nolan
      12/29/14 10:01am

      I'm completely uneducated here. Are egg-laying-chicken-looker-afterers (farmers???) making mad dope profit off eggs as it is? Is it possible that the price of eggs could rise by say just 5-10% if they improved chicken conditions and, oh I don't know, were content with making slightly less money?

      Or are egg farmers not making much money off them in the first place and thus these upgrades would mean taking quite a hit?

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        carrieAFS
        12/29/14 11:02am

        Is it possible that the price of eggs could rise by say just 5-10% if they improved chicken conditions and, oh I don't know, were content with making slightly less money?

        What the hell kind of communist-ass question is that? In the United States of America we don't willingly lower our profit margin if the market will bear a cost increase.

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        Happy_ChefAFS
        12/29/14 12:05pm

        the margin on any livestock standard product is not very high, you have to sell a lot to break even. You can specialize and sell niche stuff (like Kobe-style beef) that has a better margin, but also less demand.

        Now, regardless of what the hsus might want you to "know" there are a lot of places that take good care of their animals. Happy animals mean healthy animals and less problems. These places will take a hit and see their margins go even lower. These operations will have to either reduce the quantity they produce, or will have to invest in more infraestructure in order to meet the break-even quota. These are the eggs that will go up for 40%.

        True, there are places where margins are king. And they're the ones that will afford to raise just 10% on an egg, while marginally improving chickens conditions of living.

        Now, the issue won't be how much an egg is "worth". The issue is how many people will be willing to pay for it. Simple economics that seem to escape HamNo's financial degree.

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      bewilderHamilton Nolan
      12/29/14 9:27am

      I'm already paying $4 for a dozen eggs. But I'd pay a lot more if it guarantees decent living conditions for the chickens laying them.

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        Lucifer and Avocadoesbewilder
        12/29/14 9:37am

        Where the hell are you buying your eggs? I get pasture-raised, organic eggs from a local farmer here for $3.50 a dozen. What sort of gimmick gets the price past $4?

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        LooseSEALLucifer and Avocadoes
        12/29/14 10:02am

        You know, transportation costs money. The closer you are to fresh, organic eggs, the cheaper they are. Not everyone is close. Its not a gimmick.

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      carrieHamilton Nolan
      12/29/14 9:24am

      I don't disagree with you, but the real value of this discussion is the throwback to "How Much Should Breakfast Cost," which is arguably one of the top 500 posts of 2014.

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        twomittenscarrie
        12/29/14 10:10am

        Coffee- this should be provided free to all citizens free as a natural right

        I sometimes miss this place near my hometown, where I used to hide and down caffeine and nicotine when visiting the parents over school breaks. Not free, but close enough. It used to be 39 cents; dammit, inflation.

        The coffee is actually perfect diner coffee. Strong, not bitter, always fresh brewed out of necessity. And last visit, they were still using real cream. Good times.

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      The66thDopefishHamilton Nolan
      12/29/14 11:17am

      Probably a better idea: raise your own chickens! My wife and I live in suburban Springfield, MA and one of the best decisions we've made was to get a trio of Rhode Island Reds. Sadly, one of them (which we named Peggy) ended up being a rooster (which I then started calling Don), and in consideration of his constant crowing and the inevitable egg fertilization, we had to kill him. The other two, Betty and Joan, (presently) have unfettered access to our backyard and pump out an egg each every 26 hours or so. Aside from keeping their coop and drinking water clean and their food filled every week or so, they maintain themselves and our garden beds (which has been pretty easy for them with the warm weather we've had). Plus, they have given life to what would be an otherwise boring yard.

      It won't be for everyone, but we live on about a quarter-of-an-acre and our neighbors don't mind, so it's worked out well!

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        Smoky BarnableThe66thDopefish
        12/29/14 11:46am

        Sadly, one of them (which we named Peggy) ended up being a rooster (which I then started calling Don), and in consideration of his constant crowing and the inevitable egg fertilization, we had to kill him. The other two, Betty and Joan, (presently)

        You must spend a fortune in chicken cigarettes for that bunch!

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