HCal wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 4:12 pm
babs wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 2:58 pm
Some states like Oregon, mandate cage free eggs. Really stupid law that just drives up prices.
But does it really? After California passed its cage free law, prices shot up because the industry wasn't ready (they were focused on fighting the law rather than preparing to follow it). However, over time, prices came back down to normal.
When cage free eggs are an option, they are more expensive simply because those who want them will be willing to pay extra for them. But when they are the norm, the price usually reverts to whatever everyone is willing to pay for eggs in general.
This study
https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A ... 7356&crl=c suggests that the cost increase is 25-73 cents a dozen, or about 2 to 6 cents per egg, which is quite trivial in the context of current grocery inflation.
Yes, it drives up prices, and all laws on cage free eggs should be repealed.
If a business wants to sell cage free eggs, the business can go ahead and do that. If a specific brand wants to come out and sell cage free eggs, let them do that.
The only "normal" on egg prices when cage free laws go into effect is a new "bloated" normal price.
When something is mandated, it enables the providers to take advantage of the retailers who in turn pass the price hike straight to the consumers. When all stores in state Z have to sell cage free eggs by January 1, 2020, there is a mad rush to get the logistics right and prices spike. The industry isn't ready to do the shift all at once. Politicians and activist groups do not understand how these industries work or understand how supply/demand work. The retailers and suppliers understand that, but when these laws are drawn up, the politicians who are completely captivated by these activist groups and "feeling good about something" will not even consider anything retailers and suppliers have to say.
If it is a different thing like Trader Joe's says we are going to sell all cage free eggs in our stores by January 1, 2022 then Trader Joe's can go out there and explore various supplier options and find suppliers who there is a mutual "want to work together" mindset and they can make it work on a mutually agreeable timeline at a mutually negotiated upon price. And eggs at Trader Joe's have been cage free for some time and at least in my area have never gone over 2.89 per dozen.
Then next Whole Foods comes along and says okay we want to sell all cage free eggs in our stores by January 1, 2023, then again they can work on it with the suppliers and everyone works together to mutually make it happen and at a price that is fair/negotiated.
Meanwhile if I am Kroger and I decide this thing of selling only cage free eggs by some arbitrary date is not important to my company or to my customers then I can again do what I want to do here. Kroger has MANY different cage free egg SKUs under the Simple Truth label sold chainwide (perhaps a larger variety than any other retailer in private label), they are again working with suppliers here and making it happen but not forcing it...
These mandates are never good- all mandates ever do is drive up prices for whatever the product in question is. Eggs are important and these cage free egg laws have driven up the cost of food significantly. As the current inflation problems on food are at the front of the mind of many consumers laws like this are not earning anyone any political points from the majority of the public.
It also appears the various chicken flu sicknesses that caused thousands of chickens to be killed in NorCal recently were caused by these cage free egg laws. Of course of the chickens with the flu roam around "cage free" then they will make many other chickens sick. If they are in a cage, they will only make the nearby chickens sick. That mess drove up prices in the past couple months significantly and in NorCal prices haven't come down yet. This poor political designed cage free egg law that forced so many states to go to cage free eggs all at once probably caused some oversight at the farms that caused the flu to spread a lot more than it should have.