this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Summary

Canada has avoided the severe egg shortages and soaring prices seen in the U.S. due to differences in farming practices and regulations.

While avian flu has devastated large American egg farms, Canada’s smaller farms and tightly sealed barns have limited the impact.

The U.S.’s industrialized egg industry, driven by cost efficiency, is vulnerable to supply shocks when outbreaks occur.

Canada’s supply management system ensures stable production and restricts imports, keeping farms smaller. Meanwhile, U.S. consumers face continued egg price surcharges and supply pressures.

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 132 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Despite the trade war, the U.S. government has one potential solution to help meet demand and keep egg prices from climbing even higher: temporarily increasing egg imports.

I think the world should tacitly embargo the USA for eggs, since Trump doesn't care to treat any trading partner well.

I don't think it should be tacit. It should be explicit - no eggs, no meat, no fish, no natural resource produced within the USA should be imported or exported. And if the US government won't do that, let the rest of the world manage it.

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 19 points 1 week ago

I think it would be more fun if they did it explicitly instead of tacitly.

[–] ReanuKeeves@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I think we should get Elon to attach rockets to America and launch the whole place into space

[–] MajorSauce@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

I was thinking of building those border walls they want so much, and then put an airtight lid on it. That should calm them down.

[–] raptir@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

Nah just the white house.

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 98 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

It's worth noting that supply management is a type of central planning where we centrally determine how much we'll produce and what the price of production will be.

Individual, often small, farmers then produce those eggs and get paid this price. The price and quantities are set so that it's sustainable for farmers to produce. Farmers have the certainty they'll sell their product at a decent price. They aren't at the mercy of the market putting them underwater after they've spent large amounts of capital to produce.

Consumers pay a generally higher price for eggs than the absolute minimum possible, but we also avoid paying much higher prices during shocks and shortages. Our farming sector isn't consolidated by necessity of achieving the lowest price.

We do this with more than eggs.

[–] Brokkr@lemmy.world 56 points 1 week ago

That sounds like socialism which is bad because it's bad. Look what happened in Canada, they didn't pay animal and worker abusingly low prices and now they don't have insanely high prices. Without causing these situations they are denying large parts of their population high sustained cortisol levels.

This is why we need to maintain our threats of annexation. We must provide them the stress that their government denies them.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Broiler chickens, dairy, and other poultry industries have this.

We should bring it back for crops (return of CWB)?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think Harper sold it to the Saudis. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some provisions that bind Canada to not create a new board. With that said we should absolutely create a new board. Use the crisis. I guess we'll see how much of a Keynesian Carney is. Assuming we elect him of course.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Harper did more damage to Canada than almost any other PM (selling CWB, signing the FIPPA with China, etc). The fact that he's back here (secretly?) advising PP makes me sick to my stomach.

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 79 points 1 week ago (3 children)

But perhaps the biggest difference is that egg farms in Canada are much smaller, so when one farm does suffer a flu outbreak, the effects are less far-reaching. The typical egg farm in Canada has about 25,000 laying hens, whereas many farms in the U.S. have well over a million. In effect, American farmers have put a lot more of their eggs in a relatively small number of baskets.

About what you would expect.

[–] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A million. Christ. Probably all caged living awful lives, poor things.

I have 2 backyard chickens and they are really happy. Fresh eggs every day.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Don't worry 50% get shredded instantly because they are riosters.

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

"Them that die'll be the lucky ones"

[–] Fishamatician@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

The US has frequent salmonella outbreaks as well, most countries vaccinate the hens but the US poultry industry said that 14 cents per bird would harm profits....

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In other words - taking capitalism to the extreme to cut costs.

“What if we just pay chicken farmers for their eggs and sell them?”

“But it will be much more cost effective if we cram these million chickens into a warehouse and drive the small guys out of business!”

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This is not a capitalist-specific issue. This is an anti-competitive-specific issue.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (7 children)

driven by cost efficiency,

It's not so cost efficient now is it?
Poor safety standards is a short term strategy.

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Have you seen egg producer profits lately? It's great for them to have an opportunity to find out exactly how much consumers are willing to pay for their precious eggs. Super cost efficient, for them.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Profits <> cost efficiency.
Obviously those that have eggs good enough to sell, like small producers, make more money. But those that had to put down all their chickens are more likely to go bankrupt.

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[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i'm kind of surprised us hasnt just been disregarding the avian flu and used the diseased chickens as if there was nothing wrong, that would fit with everything else going on

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

RFK Jr seems to be leaning that way right now, suggesting they should just let it spread.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

TL;DR version: Late Stage Capitalism

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

Yuuuuuuup. Too many business went vertical and tried to claim majority of the market but that just doesn’t work long term. It’s all about small and medium size company’s growing horizontal and employing people. You can say these capitalist corporations put too many eggs and one basket and they’re showing in plain sight how they’re failing. Good example how other countries are doing is similar to Trader Joe’s and “hipster”(is there a better name for this?) restaurants working with small local farms. Medium scale is In n out/chipotle/chicfila & Costco. There shouldn’t be anything large scale except supply and employment.

[–] redwattlebird 30 points 1 week ago

So, to summarise, don't put all your eggs into one basket.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 29 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Another major factor is that Canada raises more of their chickens indoors due to how cold it gets, significantly decreasing their risk of exposure to avian flu.

The US has way more free-range chickens, and free-range chickens are most at risk.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Yes and no. Free range in America means "raised in a huge building and never seeing sunlight." Basically what separates them from cage free is that thousands of birds all share one giant cage instead of four birds to a cage inside the larger cage.

Pasture raised are the ones that get to go outside and eat bugs in the sunshine.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Free range vs pasture raised in America

Canada is a bit different in its designations. 'Free run' means they're in the barn and 'free range' means they have access outside the barn (weather permitting ofc).

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[–] protist@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The chickens that are outside eating bugs in the sunshine are the most likely to catch avian flu due to exposure to wild birds 😕

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

But if they do catch it, they're way less likely to spread it to a literal million other chickens, so there's that

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[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

actually its overcrowding in farms too, they have indoor farms where its considered free range, but enough chickens to become crowded and you see dead chickens that are discovered til later.

[–] dnick@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Not sure if it's still this way, but a documentary years ago described the ridiculous technicality that allowed a farm to call themselves free range. It was like a door that led outside to a 4 foot cube area shared by thousands and thousands of chicken. Basically enough room for like three chickens to spread their wings... If they happened to find the door, and it wasn't already crowded... And they were actually able to walk.

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[–] CouFou@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago

Eggs are now the most common thing being seized at the Mexican border too atm.

[–] Aliktren@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In the annals of future history, ww3 was started because of eggs.

[–] blakenong 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No, Civil War 2 is eggs, WW3 is because the US tried to take over Greenland, Canada, and Panama… perhaps to get more eggs.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

"These invasions, collectively called the Egg Wars..."

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Maybe because Canada isn't a shithole country?

[–] hikuro93@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The US in this is the spitting stereotypical image of a man building something, and going "What's this? Don't need manuals. (Throws manual away)", and then wondering why nothing fits, why some parts don't seem to have a place to go, and some other parts are missing.

Why regulations? They serve no purpose. Why does no one import US hormone-riddled meat and heavily synthesized food products? I really wonder.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

It would be nice if that was the process. Instead it's the extraction of ever increasing profit that drives this. The big factory farms didn't occur out of not knowing how to farm. They were created as the well established way to decrease costs per unit produced, at least initially. Then large factory farms allow consolidation of production, since they can only be built and operated by large capital, and small farmers don't have it. Then the few owners of these farms are free to set the prices of whatever they produce as high as the market will bear. The owners now also have the leverage to get less regulation, since regulations generally increase costs.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s one egg, Michael. How much could it cost? Ten dollars?

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[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wonder if that’s also the reason pasture raised eggs are cheaper and more available than the other types of eggs where I live. I kid you not, the pasture raised eggs are $3-$4 less than the other types. Free range eggs are $2-$3 cheaper. There are also backyard eggs available for even cheaper.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That is also the reason why the US has to wash the eggs and chlorinate the chicken.

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[–] Punchshark@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Eggs are so cheap here in Canada that I'm just buying them to throw them away!

[–] funkajunk@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Help our neighbours to the south and hurl them at American owned businesses

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