So Doctorow has some words about egg prices

[intrepidity]

As if we needed even more sources for outrage.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/#keep-cal-maine-and-carry-on

Egg prices are at record highs, and we're told that this is the fault of bird flu. but a closer look demonstrates that eggflation is excuseflation. The egg industry is a vertical stack of monopolies, duopolies, and cartels, controlling everything from the genomes of egg-laying chickens to the raising and processing of chickens, to the distribution and retailing of eggs. These monopolists have conspired in the open to use the excuse of bird flu to restrict production and raise prices, over and over, every time bird flu strikes, posting record profits while poormouthing about their rising costs – costs that don't actually show up on their balance sheets.

In "Hatching a Conspiracy," an investigative series for Matt Stoller's BIG newsletter, antitrust lawyer Basel Musharbash lays out the history, mechanics, and fantastical profits of Big Egg, whose price-fixing and price-gouging are every bit as shameless as their excusemaking over bird flu:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/hatching-a-conspiracy-a-big-investigation

Here's the take-home message, although the whole piece is worth reading if you have any doubts whatsoever:

Since the start of the bird flu epidemic, Cal-Maine's profits have averaged between 300% and 600% of their pre-bird flu levels.

Extreme profits mean only one thing.

[Baron2024]

1. So A Question

Who or what is Doctorow? Otherwise, an interesting post.

[scipan]

3. Google enshittification.

Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is the term used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

He nailed it and changed my worldview.

[Baron2024]

4. That Is Funny

I thought that it was a reference to the writer Cory Doctorow but I was not sure.

[flvegan]

2. So stop buying them.

I fail to see the disconnect here. Starve the beast and stop buying eggs.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. "Shut up about egg prices!"

Link to tweet

[MagickMuffin]

6. They also control what sizes

I don’t think they have small eggs anymore, however, medium eggs is what I’d call small, large eggs I’d call medium, and then you have the extra large and jumbo and I’ve noticed they are also smaller.

Growing up my mom raised chickens and they produce really large jumbo eggs. Sometimes you could get 2 yolks in one egg.

I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes that use egg substitutes, apple sauce, banana, tofu. Also the liquid from garbanzo beans can be substituted for egg whites. I have whipped them up and it really looks like beaten egg whites.

Plus we can raise them ourselves and choose what kind of chickens and eggs we’d like to consume.

[elocs]

7. Nothing is a substitute for the protein & nutrition that you get in an egg.

At the moment, I eat a mostly carnivore diet although the time is soon coming when I will likely need to eat whatever I can but eggs are an important part of my dietary lifestyle.
I once ate 4 eggs every morning for breakfast but when the prices raised I dropped that to 3 and now I am at 2/day. I can still get regular eggs for $6/dozen or a little less.

[MagickMuffin]

8. Well in all fairness, the substitutions are mostly for baking

If enough people could start a chicken coop co-op, we could cut out the price gougers!
It would be a great investment to serve our communities. The same could be established for our produce as well. We should know what we consume and how it was processed and produced.

Back to the chickens. They aren’t hard to raise, nice coop (perhaps on wheels) a cover for protection against cooper hawks, and let them eat what they can find with an additional food source.

My mom started with a few hens, the coop was a metal storage shed. Then she upscaled to more chickens. She made us sell them door to door, which was embarrassing considering the kids that lived there were my school mates.

[elocs]

9. Alas, chickens are not allowed where I live but it would be a different story if

cats laid eggs.

[MagickMuffin]

10. Apparently everyone can raise chickens for eggs per the FDA

We can just get ourselves some chickens and have all the eggs we can stand.

https://morningchores.com/egg-laying-chickens/

My mom chose leghorns. They produce some really good eggs, even double yolked ones 😋

And yeah, if cats COULD lay eggs I’d have plenty to keep and sell.