It’s been dumb for a while. During the Norwegian butter crisis (a shortage of butter in Norway), people would smuggle butter.

Edit: fixed factual errors in my comment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_butter_crisis

i mean we live in capitalism…

Narco subs filled with eggs any day now…

Honestly that’s a better strategy than whatever Bush was doing

A local grocery store is selling, I kid you not, single eggs for a dollar.

No bulk pricing. One loose egg. $1

As a vegetarian, eggs are actually a significant component of my protein intake. They are (were) cheap, they’re extremely versatile, they can be fried, scrambled, poached, hard-boiled, made into egg salad, used in sauces, used in baked goods, their taste is neutral enough to combine with an endless variety of other flavors…

One thing I’ve noticed is that the price of the free-range pasture-fed eggs I’ve always purchased has only slightly increased, while the price of the factory-farmed eggs has skyrocketed. Hmm, it’s almost like chickens have more resistance to communicable diseases like avian flu when we prioritize their health and don’t pack them into an extremely cramped barn or cages…

Of course, I would sooner go without eggs altogether than buy the factory-farmed eggs. When the free-range eggs were sold out a few weeks ago I bought a plant-based egg scramble substitute. It wasn’t very good, but it’s always worth it to try something new.

I have a lot of respect for those who have the self-discipline to be vegan. I’ve tried to reduce my dairy and egg intake and it turned out to be a lot more difficult than quitting meat.

It’s not breakfast without an egg.

Cultural thing, sure.

But the pancakes/waffles/cake/bread of any fluffy sort take eggs to make, and in the morning the best thing to tie your leftovers across the starch is an egg. Fried, poached, what have you.

And sure, there’s substitutes. But I didn’t grow up with those, and it ain’t breakfast without an egg.

Basically tons of baked goods like bread are going up. Breakfast in general is mostly based on eggs here, is it a requirement? Nah, but it is a staple.

People are freaking out over eggs like they did with toilet paper

I’m not vegan, and I agree. I’m the cook in my household, and a dozen eggs feels like it lasts forever. In my experience, they’re largely optional outside of baking, which is admittedly probably only because I haven’t experimented enough with applesauce/auquafaba/flax/etc. to get consistent results. Sure, some recipes like carbonara or shakshuka need eggs, but by optional I mean you can plan to make something else where they’re less essential.

The funny thing is I’ve only noticed dramatic price increases with shittier quality eggs. My local co-op’s prices have held steady throughout the bird flu pandemic, and they sell fairly local cage free dozens for like half the price of the big chain grocery’s store brand.

I get that many folks relied on eggs as a cheap protein source that’s quick and easy to prepare. I hope people that have poor food security are able to pivot to other cheap proteins like lentils and beans. There’s a little learning curve, and they’re not as quick, but they’re not hard to dress up with aromatics and stock to make a tasty source of protein and fiber.

Eggs are were one of the cheapest sources of sustainable protein for many low-income families in the US.

Not only are they completely unnecessary, theyre also causing climate change. We need to shift away from eggs and meat just as much as coal and oil