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Eggs - a Livestock and Meat commodity

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UPDATE
Partner could not buy eggs anywhere here yesterday. None at Coles, Woolies, IGA. She even tried some of the out-of-the-way corner stores. Zip, zero, nil, nada.

Word on the grape vine is that the restaurants and takeaway food outlets (one in particular) appear to be buying up all available supply.
We're also hearing there's been a run on powdered eggs!

According to a local stock feeder, layers/pullets also not available and if any do come in, they are already pre-sold!
Partner's nephew has been looking for pullets, here's one source on the list. Means a trip away though.
Local FB buy/swap/sell poultry group gets some attention too.

This ABC report from a day ago doesn't help to allay egg supply concerns either.
Reads in part:

Egg prices likely to remain high as shortage tipped to last until 2028​

Shoppers are being warned that egg shortages could continue for at least another three years.

The ABC is aware of a report commissioned by Australian Eggs flagging an expected shortfall of up to 500 million eggs by 2025 — before the bird flu outbreak further disrupted supply.

On top of already existing demand pressures, 10 per cent of the laying flock has been destroyed in line with biosecurity requirements, due to bird flu outbreaks across eastern Australia last year and a current disease cluster in north-east Victoria.

(my bolds) Eggs have now been in short supply for months as demand has skyrocketed, and Woolworths, Coles and IGA have placed purchasing limits of two cartons in a number of states.

Boyd Carmody from Creswick Open Range Eggs, who runs about 160 birds per hectare, said not all of the proceeds from supermarket price rises were being filtered back to farmers, and consumers should brace for more disease outbreaks disrupting supply.

"I reckon the egg market will be tight up until at least spring 2028," he said.
"We haven't even gotten over the 2024 outbreak. Those farms aren't back in production.

"Some of them are still pushed up into a big pile and will need to be rebuilt — it's a problem that's going to be with us for a while."

The ABC has spoken to multiple industry sources who said that due to the nature of the market and the constant threat of disease outbreaks, low supply until 2028 was a strong possibility.
Click to expand...

So demand has skyrocketed, no doubt due to inflationary pressures especially on other food stuffs thus, those little bum nuts are starting to become worth their weight in gold.
Makes me think, will we start to see a rise in poultry and egg theft?
 
Craton said:
UPDATE
Partner could not buy eggs anywhere here yesterday. None at Coles, Woolies, IGA. She even tried some of the out-of-the-way corner stores. Zip, zero, nil, nada.

Word on the grape vine is that the restaurants and takeaway food outlets (one in particular) appear to be buying up all available supply.
We're also hearing there's been a run on powdered eggs!

According to a local stock feeder, layers/pullets also not available and if any do come in, they are already pre-sold!
Partner's nephew has been looking for pullets, here's one source on the list. Means a trip away though.
Local FB buy/swap/sell poultry group gets some attention too.

This ABC report from a day ago doesn't help to allay egg supply concerns either.
Reads in part:


So demand has skyrocketed, no doubt due to inflationary pressures especially on other food stuffs thus, those little bum nuts are starting to become worth their weight in gold.
Makes me think, will we start to see a rise in poultry and egg theft?
Click to expand...

I've been eating a ridiculous number of eggs recently. Today I decided to take a day away from them, but this post has me considering making one of my delicious six egg omelettes, or perhaps just some good old basic soft boiled eggs.

Australia used to be the best country in the world and one of the wealthiest. Now it has engineered a situation where it doesn't expect the common man can expect a reliable supply of eggs until 2028, or ever buy a home. But at least the crime rate is rapidly increasing and you're in legal trouble if you discuss the cause of it.
 
Sdajii said:
But at least the crime rate is rapidly increasing and you're in legal trouble if you discuss the cause of it.
Click to expand...
what crime rate ?

one rural property has been burgled 16 times in two years and the state police minister knew nothing about it ( despite numerous arrests ) , maybe it is ( low-level ) police getting into legal trouble for discussing it

then we go on about the the local shopping strips where i used to reside there are so many bollards ( to stop ram raiders ) they may as well put a rail across and call it a safety fence ( raising the pavement didn't work now they steal SUVs/4WDs to ram-raid )

and just in time for the coming Olympic Games as well
 
I'm currently in Laos, one of the world's poorest countries outside of Africa.

Even the people here can freely afford eggs, quail, duck and chicken. They're sold in markets, you see people selling trays of them by the side of the road and out front of non food related shops, and the popular local snack food of omelettes cooked inside their shells are sold abundantly everywhere, all at prices even the very poor here can afford. How fortunate they are not to be in Australia!
 

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Sdajii said:
I'm currently in Laos, one of the world's poorest countries outside of Africa.

Even the people here can freely afford eggs, quail, duck and chicken. They're sold in markets, you see people selling trays of them by the side of the road and out front of non food related shops, and the popular local snack food of omelettes cooked inside their shells are sold abundantly everywhere, all at prices even the very poor here can afford. How fortunate they are not to be in Australia!
Click to expand...
poor is relevant ,

some can never have enough , while others are have enough any time there is a roof over their head and a half-full stomach
 
divs4ever said:
poor is relevant ,

some can never have enough , while others are have enough any time there is a roof over their head and a half-full stomach
Click to expand...
I think you mean relative.

It's a luxury of the wealthy to have that view. Plenty of people here have to watch their children die for want of a trivial amount of money. Routinely only being able to half fill the stomach does very different things to people from routinely being able to fill it.

Once people have enough money to have a safe place to live, enough food to eat and the essentials covered, it's true that more money doesn't make people *happier* (though wealth relative to your neighbours does), but wealth is still an absolute quantifiable and relevant thing in many ways, directly correlating with life expectancy, education, etc etc.

The typical person here desperately wants to get to a place like Australia and would consider the workload of a typical full time Australian job with the income of a typical dole bludger to be a dream. I know plenty of people from Laos who have move to neighbouring countries for the opportunity of working like literal slaves (14 or so hours of hard work per day and a day off per month if they're lucky, sleeping on the floor at work in terrible conditions etc) for enough money to afford a diet of rice, bamboo and if they're lucky an occasional egg or some bones or something. Things are tough enough in Laos that they choose to live abroad away from family and friends for the privilege of that lifestyle.

Funnily enough though, the people here are much happier than the average person in Australia! This says a lot about how insane Australia has become.

Eggs are relatively stable. A lot of foods produced in this region, such as cashews, are about as expensive here as in Australia putting them completely out of economic reach the vast majority of people here even though they're easily grown locally, because they can be exported easily, so locals have to compete with the foreign market, which they can't. I'm a bit surprised something similar hasn't yet happened with eggs. They're not as easily transported as cashews, but they can be processed, powdered, etc.

Interestingly, the farming practices here are as squallid and unquarantined and unhygienic and crowded as they get anywhere. There are chickens absolute everywhere, from the streets in the middle of the capital city to everywhere you turn in the rural areas. Often when I'm travelling between towns people will have boxes of live chickens with them. Today I saw a random chicken tied up in the motorcycle park outside the main market in this town (I'll include a picture) which was stared at by some of the chickens which were wandering around scavenging through the garbage in the parking area, and there are often chickens walking around scavenging anything you drop when you eat outside pretty much literally anywhere... but there's zero issue with bird flu. Bird flu is an issue which causes commercial flocks to be wiped out resulting in a shortage of eggs and high prices only in Western countries, in multiple isolated parts of the world... sounds totally plausible and believable.
 

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UPDATE
Partner said the lastest doz. 700g purchased a couple of days ago cost $9.30 from Coles. Not sure of the brand though.
 
Sdajii said:
I think you mean relative.

It's a luxury of the wealthy to have that view. Plenty of people here have to watch their children die for want of a trivial amount of money. Routinely only being able to half fill the stomach does very different things to people from routinely being able to fill it.

Once people have enough money to have a safe place to live, enough food to eat and the essentials covered, it's true that more money doesn't make people *happier* (though wealth relative to your neighbours does), but wealth is still an absolute quantifiable and relevant thing in many ways, directly correlating with life expectancy, education, etc etc.

The typical person here desperately wants to get to a place like Australia and would consider the workload of a typical full time Australian job with the income of a typical dole bludger to be a dream. I know plenty of people from Laos who have move to neighbouring countries for the opportunity of working like literal slaves (14 or so hours of hard work per day and a day off per month if they're lucky, sleeping on the floor at work in terrible conditions etc) for enough money to afford a diet of rice, bamboo and if they're lucky an occasional egg or some bones or something. Things are tough enough in Laos that they choose to live abroad away from family and friends for the privilege of that lifestyle.

Funnily enough though, the people here are much happier than the average person in Australia! This says a lot about how insane Australia has become.

Eggs are relatively stable. A lot of foods produced in this region, such as cashews, are about as expensive here as in Australia putting them completely out of economic reach the vast majority of people here even though they're easily grown locally, because they can be exported easily, so locals have to compete with the foreign market, which they can't. I'm a bit surprised something similar hasn't yet happened with eggs. They're not as easily transported as cashews, but they can be processed, powdered, etc.

Interestingly, the farming practices here are as squallid and unquarantined and unhygienic and crowded as they get anywhere. There are chickens absolute everywhere, from the streets in the middle of the capital city to everywhere you turn in the rural areas. Often when I'm travelling between towns people will have boxes of live chickens with them. Today I saw a random chicken tied up in the motorcycle park outside the main market in this town (I'll include a picture) which was stared at by some of the chickens which were wandering around scavenging through the garbage in the parking area, and there are often chickens walking around scavenging anything you drop when you eat outside pretty much literally anywhere... but there's zero issue with bird flu. Bird flu is an issue which causes commercial flocks to be wiped out resulting in a shortage of eggs and high prices only in Western countries, in multiple isolated parts of the world... sounds totally plausible and believable.
Click to expand...
look where regularly filled stomachs have gotten us , also those unhygienic conditions cultivate a robust immunity in the survivors ( without a dependency on BIG Pharma )

think of the chickens as the council sanitation department ( better chickens than rodents in my opinion )

you are watching nature at it's very best coping with problems as it encounters them

BTW on this farm , i have noticed new ant species up here ( in competition or parallel to the farm hens )

remember New York is becoming the new third-world economy
 
divs4ever said:
look where regularly filled stomachs have gotten us , also those unhygienic conditions cultivate a robust immunity in the survivors ( without a dependency on BIG Pharma )

think of the chickens as the council sanitation department ( better chickens than rodents in my opinion )

you are watching nature at it's very best coping with problems as it encounters them

BTW on this farm , i have noticed new ant species up here ( in competition or parallel to the farm hens )

remember New York is becoming the new third-world economy
Click to expand...

Overfilled stomachs are an issue, but I'd rather that than a chronically unfilled stomach.

I question the intergenerational immunity concept. When I was in India (arguably the filthiest country in the world with the worst hygiene standards) I was fascinated to meet people who had grown up in the filth with no problem, travelled to Western countries for a few years, come back to India and been violently ill just as Western people are if they jump straight into that sort of environment, before readjusting. I had previously assumed that if you grew up in those conditions it would condition you for life. I was also quite chuffed that I travelled east to west, south to north in India, eating all the sketchiest foods in sight and drinking the water, and didn't get sick. I'm a multigeneration white Australian, but a diet of all sorts of ridiculous things and years in third world countries had prepared me for India, despite the fact that my parents or other relatives would have been violently ill if they tried to do the same thing. Actually, my biological brother went to India, stayed for a couple of months, did his best to avoid sketchy foods and had constant diarreoah the whole time and some of the time he was extremely ill/bedridden.

In all my experience in various countries observing various diets and ways of life, I've seen a pretty clear picture of human populations being much the same in terms of how well they can tolerate putrid foods, but it's somewhat like fitness/exercise. If you have never gone for a run, going for a run might give you a heart attack and kill you, but if you do it all the time you'll be really good at it and it's actually good for you. If you stop, you'll lose the ability (probably faster than the fitness analogy). I ate some chicken the other day which was fully dank green and positively stank. While cooking it smelled putrid and it had a strong sharp rotten flavour. I ate about half a kilogram of it, expected at least a mildly upset stomach or less firm bowel movement or something, but had zero symptoms and a perfectly healthy bowel movement the next day, from something which would literally kill a significant proportion of Australians and have the majority severely ill, myself included if I had no spent years conditioning myself.

As for Big Pharma, I entirely agree with you that it's incredibly bad, but here in Laos, medication is extremely cheap and used extensively by almost everyone. Same in all the neighbouring countries. Many of the drugs you need prescriptions for in Australia are freely available over the counter, drug stores are astonishingly common, you typically see one every hundred metres or so when walking through a town, and the prices are absurdly low (which tells you how much they cost to manufacture and how much big pharma profits in countries like Australia).

Rats are more common here than in Australia. In some areas you see less of them because the locals catch and eat them, but they're still more common here than in Australia. Until about 5 years ago I saw far fewer in Laos than Thailand and you'd notice the massive difference between huge numbers in Thailand then suddenly far, far fewer as soon as you crossed the border, which I assumed (possibly correctly) was because the locals in Laos ate them and Thais usually didn't, but around five years ago the numbers of rats suddenly crashed in Thailand to levels similar in Laos, so either things got so bad in Thailand during the covid years that struggling locals turned to eating rats (not surprising if that's the case - I know people who were not allowed to work for extended periods and families had to get by on a bag of rice and about 3 eggs per person per week... so some likely turned to the extremely abundant rats) or there's some other explanation. But while they're not in their dozens in front of you chewing on the food you're about to buy at the market or running over your feet while you eat at a restaurant like they used to be and I'm not exaggerating, they're still much more common than in Australia.
 
humans ( when allowed to be ) are an extremely adaptable creature , we are capable of living in inhospitable areas , whether we create a shelter or eliminate hostile wildlife or discover and cultivate suitable food sources

and by the way the rodents are fairly good at avoiding hostile humans over here and there isn't that many other predators of them either , i bet there are way more than we imagine


212,268 Pounds Of Egg Products Potentially Containing Bleach Recalled​


212,268 Pounds Of Egg Products Potentially Containing Bleach Recalled | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
 
divs4ever said:
humans ( when allowed to be ) are an extremely adaptable creature , we are capable of living in inhospitable areas , whether we create a shelter or eliminate hostile wildlife or discover and cultivate suitable food sources

and by the way the rodents are fairly good at avoiding hostile humans over here and there isn't that many other predators of them either , i bet there are way more than we imagine


212,268 Pounds Of Egg Products Potentially Containing Bleach Recalled​


212,268 Pounds Of Egg Products Potentially Containing Bleach Recalled | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
Click to expand...

Humans are indeed very strong and adaptable if we're conditioned, but can become pathetic and weak if not. Look at a gym junkie, they're big, strong and fit. Look at a couch potato, they'll have a heart attack and die if they do much more than waddle between the couch and fridge, and injure their back if they bend over to pick up a larger than average Uber Eats delivery - we literally have OH&S in Australia telling people not to lift more than 15kg even in physical work roles, when a human should for their own physical wellbeing deadlift multiples of that in the exact way OH&S says never to do! It's like the official advice is literally designed to make people weak and deliberate or not it has that effect.

Western stomachs are incredibly weak, but humans can naturally eat putrid rotten food and digest it perfectly - I'm living proof that it's not just people born into such situations etc, and humans can adapt from a typical weak, sensitive digestive system to a natural state fairly easily. It's not natural or healthy to eat food which keeps your stomach weak, and just like people who avoid deadlifts to protect their back are more prone to back injury because their backs get weak, and couch potatoes who never work their heart are more prone to heart attacks, Western people are more prone to food poisoning issues because they become so weak the tiniest little problem knocks them over.

For sure, there are more rodents around than most people realise, but when there are few enough that people don't see many if any, there are fewer than when there are so many that they are scurrying around everywhere in full view and large numbers.
 
UPDATE
At Coles today bought doz. Blewitt Springs brand 800g eggs costing $8.30.

Yay, 100g more and a buck less than the last 700g doz. Could this be the turnaround in egg prices?
Time will tell.
 
Sdajii said:
Humans are indeed very strong and adaptable if we're conditioned, but can become pathetic and weak if not. Look at a gym junkie, they're big, strong and fit. Look at a couch potato, they'll have a heart attack and die if they do much more than waddle between the couch and fridge, and injure their back if they bend over to pick up a larger than average Uber Eats delivery - we literally have OH&S in Australia telling people not to lift more than 15kg even in physical work roles, when a human should for their own physical wellbeing deadlift multiples of that in the exact way OH&S says never to do! It's like the official advice is literally designed to make people weak and deliberate or not it has that effect.

Western stomachs are incredibly weak, but humans can naturally eat putrid rotten food and digest it perfectly - I'm living proof that it's not just people born into such situations etc, and humans can adapt from a typical weak, sensitive digestive system to a natural state fairly easily. It's not natural or healthy to eat food which keeps your stomach weak, and just like people who avoid deadlifts to protect their back are more prone to back injury because their backs get weak, and couch potatoes who never work their heart are more prone to heart attacks, Western people are more prone to food poisoning issues because they become so weak the tiniest little problem knocks them over.

For sure, there are more rodents around than most people realise, but when there are few enough that people don't see many if any, there are fewer than when there are so many that they are scurrying around everywhere in full view and large numbers.
Click to expand...
Gym Junkies die early as well ( and not always from substance abuse ) for the opposite reason they consistently over-stress their body and their immune system is stretched

and yes it would have been nice to know i had permanent heart damage BEFORE i started body-building in my late forties , but at least i avoided the temptation of steroids .

and oh yes the magical new era of OH&S , i had fun questioning those guidelines , they really leave some gaps in the logic
 
divs4ever said:
Gym Junkies die early as well ( and not always from substance abuse ) for the opposite reason they consistently over-stress their body and their immune system is stretched

and yes it would have been nice to know i had permanent heart damage BEFORE i started body-building in my late forties , but at least i avoided the temptation of steroids .

and oh yes the magical new era of OH&S , i had fun questioning those guidelines , they really leave some gaps in the logic
Click to expand...

I was just looking at how well they can lift something without hurting their back when comparing gym junkies to couch potatoes. Obviously you can overdo physical training, but I think it's fair to say that being a fat, waddling, Maccas gobbling blob kills more people early than being overzealous with physical training. In terms of overall wellbeing and longevity, obviously a generous dose without going overboard is best, and that will include a significant amount of lower back exercise, as opposed to the zero often recommended! Much like for optimal health you want a healthy amount of sunlight as opposed to the zero typically recommended (which should be alarming!), and for optimal gut health and personal safety in any real world scenario you actually want some rotten food, though to most Australians that's pretty much an impossible sell.


Tempted to post more pictures of eggs for sale but everyone is probably sick of them by now. I saw a funny one today while out and about on the town. A street vendor with a folding table selling cigarettes, lighters, and trays of eggs. Funny how popular the trays of 30 eggs are here - they're not particularly easy to carry, but it's the standard way to buy them. In the town I'm in until tomorrow morning there's a 7-11 (there are very few 7-11s in Laos, they only fairly recently came to Laos and seeing one felt quite bizarre), and I was surprised to see that even in a convenience store like a typical 7-11 they sell eggs by the 30 in the cardboard trays. I guess they're just so cheap and good that people go through enough of them that it makes sense to sell them by the 30 in a convenience store. And yeah, you can just walk outside and wander in any direction and quickly you'll see people selling them on the street more cheaply, but if it's 11PM or 3AM and you want 30 eggs, 7-11 has you covered! Around AU$8 for 30 chicken eggs at 7-11. From a street vendor around $5-6 (less for smaller ones) for 30 chicken eggs. A bit less at the markets.
 
Sdajii said:
Tempted to post more pictures of eggs for sale but everyone is probably sick of them by now.
Click to expand...
more likely frustrated that they can't grab two ( out of the picture ) and cook them for breakfast

actually in my body-building saga i don't ever remember doing dead-lifts ,... squats , sure i was made to do front squats in a cage because i kept on over-balancing , and other back exercises that didn't involve sudden movements

but then in my late teens ( and then about ten years after ) i worked in warehouses and did plenty of lifting of over 40kg ( when my body weight was about 55 kg ) and often from awkward angles

but then the gym-owner's brother was an Aussie ranked power-lifter at the time so maybe they knew their stuff very well ( the owner's son was also a body-builder just way more developed than me )

they had concerns about steroid/hormone use in the gym , but it wasn't rampant
 
divs4ever said:
more likely frustrated that they can't grab two ( out of the picture ) and cook them for breakfast

actually in my body-building saga i don't ever remember doing dead-lifts ,... squats , sure i was made to do front squats in a cage because i kept on over-balancing , and other back exercises that didn't involve sudden movements

but then in my late teens ( and then about ten years after ) i worked in warehouses and did plenty of lifting of over 40kg ( when my body weight was about 55 kg ) and often from awkward angles

but then the gym-owner's brother was an Aussie ranked power-lifter at the time so maybe they knew their stuff very well ( the owner's son was also a body-builder just way more developed than me )

they had concerns about steroid/hormone use in the gym , but it wasn't rampant
Click to expand...

I did a stint in a warehouse driving forklifts (which was funny because I had no forklift driving experience and the job required high forklift skills so the first couple of weeks required a steep learning curve and a healthy dose of bluff!). Lots of lifting at weird, awkward angles. After a few days my back was in agony, when I came to my second weekend I could barely move and my back hurt so much I could barely sleep, it was just better by the Monday. By the end of that week I thought I should probably just quit before I broke my body, but I needed the money. The following Monday i was feeling okay, got through the week reasonably well and the week after that I was swinging beer kegs around at awkward angles etc like they were nothing, I'd developed the best core strength of my life in under a month, doing exactly what the official advice tells you never to do, and in that state I was absolutely resilient to all the back issues people talk about. Unfortunately my back went back to normal within about six months of leaving that job, and I often jokingly think about getting a beer keg and spending a few hours a week moving it around in silly, awkward ways. Typical gym workouts focus on keeping the muscles in very safe, stable positions. They grow big and look beautiful and are great at lifting weight in those specific ways, but aren't that great at keeping your body stable and safe in real world situations.

You know what's good for building muscle whether in the gym or working in a warehouse? Protein from eggs! They're also loaded with all sorts of micronutrients which are brilliant for keeping your tissues strong, healthy, and resilient, as well as your immune system etc etc.
 


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