JD Vance was roundly mocked online over a trip to the supermarket where he bemoaned the steep price of eggs — and botched the photo opp.
The Republican vice presidential nominee stopped by a supermarket in Reading, Pennsylvania, with his sons over the weekend to illustrate how grocery prices have been impacted by “Kamala Harris’s policies” when he claimed a dozen eggs cost $4.
The problem? When footage of the visit emerged, Vance was quickly called out by viewers who spotted the price tag of a dozen eggs behind him was actually $2.99.
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I mean, I think that he’s got a valid broader point that egg prices haven’t been great for a couple of years.
However…that’s not really due to anything that Biden has done, much less Harris.
A lot of it was due to major avian flu outbreaks:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-outbreak-egg-prices-2024/
April 24, 2024
A multi-state outbreak of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, is leading to a jump in the price of eggs around the U.S. — an unhappy reminder for consumers that a range of unforeseen developments can trigger inflation.
As of April 24, a dozen large grade A eggs cost an average of $2.99, up nearly 16% from $2.52 in January, according to federal labor data. The price increase comes as nearly 9 million chickens across Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas have been discovered to be infected with bird flu in recent weeks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That is crimping egg supplies, leading to higher prices.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/egg-prices-rise-bird-flu-farm/
September 9, 2024
LONG LAKE, Minn. — Minnesota shoppers may be experiencing some sticker shock as eggs again emerges as a hot commodity.
According to the USDA, the average wholesale price for a dozen large Grade A eggs reached $4.26 in the Midwest region. That’s up $0.09 since last week, but up roughly 20% compared to what was recorded in last summer’s consumer price index.
“I’m not surprised by the volatility,” Loree Kinney, store director at the Orono Market explained. “There’s volatility in milk, there’s volatility in dairy products, and in meat. There’s not much you can do about the supply and demand.”
Indeed, economists have for months pointed to a bird flu outbreak as a key reason for dwindling supplies of eggs across the U.S. coming from major producers.
You can’t really lay that much at Harris’s feet, though.
I do kind of wonder how practical it would be to have some company just store powdered eggs if the prices are going to be jerking around that much. Can’t do a sunny-side-up egg or anything like that, but for baking, it should be fine.
Exactly. Egg prices have gone up in large part because factory farming is unsustainable and we’re starting to see that with flu outbreaks. Who’da thunk.
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Yes, eggs should be from small farms with 12 chickens max each, that should solve everything, quality control, diseases and the high prices on eggs.
Same with everything else, factories make shitty products, you should rather order from a craftsman.
/sPS:
Oh yes BTW, AFAIK the flu outbreaks started in nature, not on farms.Edit:
The ignoratum around here is staggering.
I never argued that we shouldn’t improve the conditions for chickens, but to argue we can have production in mostly any kind of farming today that isn’t heavily mechanized and factory like is extremely ignorant. How else do you feed 300 million people in USA or 700 million in EU efficiently?I’m downvoted for speaking the truth, and seemingly most people here wants to live a fantasy denying reality.
I personally buy organic eggs, and never from cages, but even that is factories, they just have slightly better conditions.I know people who have their own chickens laying eggs, but even they can have diseases, so regulation for having your own has been increased a lot here (EU) lately for that too.
You do what you want, but to claim it’s feasible to get rid of the “factories” is wishful thinking.
We can however improve the factories, so the chicken get better conditions. And we’ve been doing that already since the 60’s.deleted by creator
You’re making a reducto ad absurdum argument by intentionally using absurd quantities and time periods that are not required to accomplish this goal.
OK, how many chickens are required before it becomes an industrial production, and not just hobby level?
Is it less safe to have a few hundred than a dozen? The answer is obviously yes. So the problem claimed in the post I responded to, exist with everything above hobby level production.
So I stand by the argument as valid. And the post I responded to as naive.
- Unlike the similarly awful 2014 outbreak, you correctly point out that these outbreaks are originating in the wild. And keeping chickens in awful, inhumane conditions where they live in their own filth jam-packed among thousands of other chickens is basically the perfect vector for a pathogen.
- Getting chickens out of factory farms is a good unto itself, but I doubt you’ve ever watched any footage or done any research to familiarize yourself with the sorts of horrors you pay for when you buy eggs from a factory farm. Let alone based on your callous attitude that you would actually care about those horrors.
- Weird strawman that the two kinds of farms that exist are late stage capitalist hellholes where billions of chickens go every year to live a life of unfathomable torture… and your Aunt Betty’s backyard chicken coop where every chicken gets a wacky name and their own posts on Facebook documenting their antics.
My mother raises hens and a dozen birds can actually make so many eggs that our entire family has trouble using them all. A bird lays on average one egg a day, and pasture-raised eggs are so rich as to be almost unpalatable to eat directly.
I don’t think every farm needs to have some strict limit like that, but more numerous, smaller, more localized farms would be better for everyone in almost every way. Better environmentally, more humane to the birds, people get fresher and higher quality eggs, and more people are employed. Also more limited damage from diseases, droughts, and so on.
Our current system isnt just bad because “factories bad.” It’s bad because it’s heavily centralized and top-down controlled. This is much cheaper to operate and funnels money towards the owner much better, but is so much worse in every way that local farms are better.
We’re making millions of birds suffer and getting shittier, more expensive product because of it so less than a dozen people (the real bad eggs) can stay filthy rich.
My mother raises hens and a dozen birds can actually make so many eggs that our entire family has trouble using them all.
And?
Do you really believe I don’t know that?pasture-raised eggs are so rich as to be almost unpalatable to eat directly.
WTF? That’s bullshit.
Maybe you are confusing them with eggs from free reigning ducks, which IMO taste awful. But from chicken they are really really good.more numerous, smaller, more localized farms would be better for everyone
Either those farmers would make a lot less money, like barely being able to make a living, or the price of their products would have to be way higher than what we pay today. Like not just a few percent, but a factors higher.
On the other hand, I can get free range eggs cheaper than your factory made ones in the most expensive parts of the EU, and our population is greater than that of the US, we are feeding more people, yet I can safely eat them raw without the risk of salmonella.
Free range are only marginally better than cages at best.Sorry, I was thinking of what in English apparently is called barn eggs, which is not really better than cages.
Free range is the best condition for chickens. And absolutely what we should buy.
But this production has problems, like chicken pecking each other way more than “good” cage conditions, because they are kept in larger groups. And is still a factory/industry when at a scale which is needed to fill demand.US free range and EU free range are not the same by far.
In the US, free range poultry must:
- have access to the outdoors for more than 51% of the animal’s life
In the EU:
- hens have continuous daytime access to open-air runs throughout their lives
- the open-air runs to which hens have access are mainly covered with vegetation and not used for other purposes
- the open-air runs must at least have 4 sqm per hen, with adequate shelter, drinking and feeding facilities
And that’s in addition to different food safety standards that make most US poultry non-importable to the EU.
In Canada there’s free range and free run. Free run are the indoor bullshit ones, I bought them a couple of times and the yolks are the same piss-yellow as the cheapest factory eggs. Proper free range are worth the $8 or so a dozen imo, the colour and taste is so much better which must at least mean there are some standards
Yes there’s a huge difference, free range are definitely better in every way, but also more expensive.
They are also more healthy to eat, because they contain essential fatty acids that occur naturally in eggs, but is lost in cheap production with lower quality feed. Stress and lack of exercise are probably factors too.
The more healthy eggs to eat also taste better.
Thing is, Biden has been paying farmers for their losses and ramping up inspections to detect and stop spread.
Egg prices would be even worse if Biden was sitting on his ass. We’d have even more of a supply and demand discrepancy.
But, maybe Trump wants to propose injecting chickens with bleach.
Not to mention the price spike on eggs specifically is also way less than he would like to make it appear. Yes, in 2020 dollars, a dozen eggs was $1.50. But adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars, that 1.50 is actually about 2 dollars today (inflation being a much broader issue and highly affected by covid). So the price didn’t jump from 1.50 to 4 dollars, an increase of 167%, nor even from 1.5 to 3 dollars, an increase of 100%. It only went up from 2 dollars to just under 3 dollars (given the signs), an increase of just under 50 percent. Considering all the avian flu outbreaks that is an entirely reasonable price hike on a high demand good.
I see the point you are trying to make, but inflation doesn’t quite when that way.
Comparing the prices of the same commodities at two different points in time is literally how inflation is calculated, the increase from $1.50 to $4 is real.
Now, what the inflation-adjusted dollars are telling you is that if eggs had only increased in price commensurate with general inflation, they would have gone from $1.50 to $2. The extra $2 increase is above what a consumer would expect given the general increase in the prices of everything else. If someone (magically) had a salary that increases with inflation, they would find eggs today to be a larger fraction of their spending if they kept the same level of consumption.
Eggs are more expensive both in absolute and relative to other products. The reasons for this are complex, but due in no small part to people continuing to buy large quantities of eggs even when they were heinously expensive in the early days of the pandemic. The market absorbed that information and came to the conclusion that eggs were previously undervalued.
First, you missed the part where the actual price now is not 4 dollars? He lied. It was 3 dollars, per the sign right behind him.
Second, national inflation is calculated off a broad spectrum of goods and services providing insight into the relative buying power of tthe dollar itself, so it is not missing the point to compare based on the adjusted buying power of the dollar. It is a more accurate reflection of the true rise in cost of this individual good comparing how its rise in price has outpaced the average rise in costs across the board. It reflects the extra pressures put on the egg market from the avian flu outbreaks and possible other factors rather than the general inflation of the entire economy.
Third, if Vance’s goal was to demonstrate that inflation in general had gone up tremendously and blame Harris specifically for that (despite how ridiculous that is), using eggs as a specific measure of the effect of their policies when the price hike on eggs have significantly outpaced other goods and is clearly due to non-policy related circumstances outside anyone’s control is obviously disingenuous. And that was before he lied and tried to add another 30+ percent on top of the already inflated price.
Intentionally did not talk about Vance, I was merely responding to the idea that using past prices adjusted for inflation compared to current prices isn’t that straightforward.
Thanks for the lecture, appreciate the tone.
Vance’s comments was the context in which my comment was made. Context matters
I know CA voted for more humane living conditions for egg farms years ago. That seemed to have a direct price impact that slowly came down a bit.
I think they know this but it won’t help their campaign. That’s the state of US politics. Just like the gas prices. Biden was blamed for increasing gas prices while all the gas companies showed record profits because they just increased their prices.
They haven’t done anything to better it, either. I can’t find numbers for this year, so we’ll probably have to wait until next. https://www.yahoo.com/news/profits-largest-u-egg-producer-180807947.html
He said his three kids—7,4 and 3 years old—eat “14 eggs every single morning”. Either he’s an idiot or the toddlers are training to fight Dolph Lundgren.
Pictured: one of Vance’s kids
I am sure the actual quote is even stupider than I can imagine but:
Three kids. Let’s assume 3 sunny side up eggs for him, 7, and 4. That gets 9. Then whatever his couch eats so let’s say 10-11. Then another 3 or 4 for a “big pile of scrambled eggs” for the 3 year old and for the 4 year old to actually eat because yucky runny eggs. And then whatever his servants are able to sneak off to feed themselves.
It is very reasonable for a household that doesn’t care about money or food waste.
I mean … Vance is an idiot, but I have three boys. Between me, my wife, and my three kids, we each eat 2-3 eggs worth of scrambled eggs some mornings. 5x2 is 10, 5x3 is 15. That’s right in line with his claims, if he counts himself and wife, which he probably is and just being an idiot again.
That said, I don’t have eggs EVERY DAY. FFS my cholesterol would be sky high. I do buy 10-15 dozen eggs at a time, though, because the local farmer’s market sells 15 dozen for $25-30 and eggs will keep for 6-10 weeks in the fridge that is consistently the same low, near freezing temp (perfect for the outdoor, secondary fridge).
FFS my cholesterol would be sky high.
Cholesterol intake is not directly correlated with blood cholesterol. Eat all the eggs you want. The bigger problem is saturated and trans fat.
Further, in the specific circumstances where eggs are the source of dietary cholesterol, an improvement in dyslipidemias is observed due to the formation of less atherogenic lipoproteins and changes in HDL associated with a more efficient reverse cholesterol transport. However, if the cholesterol sources are consumed with saturated and trans fats, as happens in the Western diet pattern, increases in plasma cholesterol may be observed.
One of those egg council creeps got to you too eh?
I assume that was a snide remark and not meant to be serious.D’oh!I’m just a person who has maintained a keto diet in the past and went down this rabbit hole before.
Well then, the egg is on my face!! Struck that out. Thanks.
The bigger problem is […] trans […].
Such a transphobic statement.
That’s still almost 3 dozen short of Gaston, they’ll never get large at this rate.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/bda1fe3b9784777fd550b776d1e89364/tumblr_inline_ow6sw7yn1j1spja7s_400.gif
(Hecc, not sure how to make that embed)
Either he’s an idiot or the toddlers are training to fight Dolph Lundgren.
¿Por qué no los dos?
I could totally have gone for a five-egg omelette or scrambled eggs every morning when I was a kid.
My mother was not going to do that every morning, though.
OMG. His kids must shit solid bricks.
They obviously each eat one egg per year of age.
I’m not Cool Hand Luke. I can’t eat fifty eggs.
Not with that attitude, you can’t.
Have you even seen the price of eggs? They’re either $2.99 or $4 and I can’t just ask my friends for all their chickens’ output
Did he just add their ages together? Does that mean he eats 40 eggs each morning? Fucking weirdo
That’s more than enough protein for three young children .
Why did Kamala Harris choose for there to be an avian flu epidemic that led to many bird deaths/culling? I can’t believe she’d write that into policy!
The lying about the price aside, fucking morons, I swear to god.
Do we know that’s actually the reason the prices doubled (and is jt still a valid reason)? Or is it mostly just unchecked gouging like almost all other groceries?
First one, then the other, and that’s why Kroger is getting their asses sued off by the FTC under Biden appointee Lina Khan. The avian flu issue was a legitimate supply/demand squeeze for a little while, until it wasn’t, and Kroger didn’t back down an inch, so the FTC is stepping in.
It’s probably both. You find an excuse to raise prices, you build in some extra margin so you only have to raise the price in one big go instead of smaller increments that better reflect market prices. Your competitors do the same, and you just tell everyone there’s nothing you can do, it’s just inflation.
Sounds reasonable, I was asking if we have actual data instead of Feels.
There’s been a couple studies. This NYT article summarizes some of them. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/15/business/economy/kamala-harris-inflation-price-gouging.html
The article says that the cause is complex. Corporate profits are part of it, but also increased wages across the supply chain, and strong demand (more people eating at home instead of eating out) vs lower supply (egg shortages, for example). I saw another article suggesting that climate change was also harshly impacting the supply chain, but it didn’t list a solid source.
I’ve never understood the “more people eating at home” argument for hight food prices. The same amount of food is being bought even if a restaurant is buying less. Like food magically doesn’t get eaten or needed more based on people eating at home or eating out. The food would just be going to the grocer instead the restaurant directly. Or am I misunderstanding this?
IIRC, one of the lessons from the pandemic is that restaurant and grocery store food chains are separate things. It isn’t easy to switch between them.
Logistics is boring, but really important.
That makes some sense but it sounds like a problem for the companies to solve logistically and not just burden on the household buyer as a bandage.
No they build in extra margin so they make more profit.
That’s a great point, I’m not sure.
Either way though, it has nothing to do with top level leadership. It’s either something the FTC needs to take care of (price gouging) or the USDA (avian flu).
Why not both?
OK, is it both?
I’m asking what data shows is actually true in this case.
I don’t know that anyone has traced that out but there were articles predicting this some months ago.
Why is this dude this bad at being a politician? I feel like if you pick a random person off the street and swapped places with Vance, they would have more charisma, and also more experience with groceries and donut shops.
His only job will be to do what Pence wouldn’t
Instructions unclear…JD runs toward the gallows
Yeah at the time he was picked it was purely a gesture of goodwill towards Vance’s techno-capitalist sponsors (Thiel and co). I am confident trump thought they had it in the bag against sleepy Joe and his team wasn’t thinking too hard about strategy at the time.
Now they’re scrambling but it doesn’t seem to be working. they’ll probably just try another coup after the election
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Why is this dude this bad at being a politician?
Because he’s literally an idiot.
I feel like if you pick a random person off the street and swapped places with Vance, they would have more charisma, and also more experience with groceries and donut shops.
Well, ANYONE would be better than Putin. Even most drunk alcoholic from streets.
Wait, you were talking not about Putin?
Well I mean you can get eggs for $4. You don’t have to, but you can. It depends on how well you want the chickens to be treated.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Vance is still a fucking tool. But the prices of premium products do not reflect the prices of what the average working class consumer can afford.
You can get eggs for $10,000 if someone is willing to charge that much and you’re willing to pay it.
I know someone like that. Special eggs from a small farm in Australia flown on a plane to where they will be eating breakfast.
Truly horrifying.
Even though I would never do anything like that, this makes me glad I’m not wealthy enough to afford doing that sort of stupid shit because I’d end up being around the sort of people who cater to the sort of people who do stupid shit. Like if I wanted to do something like buy a house or a car. “Oh, you’re worth $100 million? I have this vast McMansion just for you. What do you mean you don’t like that McMansion? How about this McMansion? What? A three bedroom house with a finished basement? No no, you don’t want that!”
It depends on how well you want the chickens to be treated.
Sounds like legislative skill isssue.
It’s only one banana, what could it cost. Ten Dollars?
Republican challenge impossible: Speak any sentance without lying.
Do they need Peskov? Volodin says he is so good, that he works for National Tresure(Putin). He can lie even when silent. He is kinda national treasure too, but Republicans(or anyone else) can have him for free if they choose self-pickup.
James “JD Vance” Bowman is either the dumbest man alive, or it’s a 7D plan to sabotage the Trump campaign
Either is possible
Hanlon’s Razor
that’s not applicable for fascists. they’re stupid and malicious.
Or not stupid and act stupid for plausible deniability should anything fall back into them.
The government in my country isn’t even fascist, just conservative and abused this mechanism for extreme corruption without any consequences. (A ministry “failed” and gave a company almost half a billion in contract-penalties for literally no work at all. Lots of other shady shit happened, like destroyed documents or missing documentation… a total mess on purpose)
Grey’s Law
Hanlon’s razor is stupid.
“Kamala Harris’s policies”? Well, I guess we don’t need an election is she’s already in office making these policies exist in reality.
This isn’t anything new, I’ve seen GOP defenders in comments say the same thing. For some reason she’s already doing things outside the VP job just because she’s running for President. They sure forgot Biden fast, as well as things put into place by their favored Trump when he was slashing and burning in office. It’s the old “look at the gas prices” ignorance.
I had a person talking at me the other day because of my retail job. They said, “I can’t understand why someone would vote for someone, if you’ve already seen them in power and you don’t like what you see.”
I said, “Exactly! Makes perfect sense.”
Then they went on to add, “I mean, she’s been in the White House 3 and a half years!”
Not just GOP defenders. She’s personally sending arms to Israel because she apparently sets that policy. She also, for some reason I just can’t imagine, refuses to call her boss a war criminal.
Oh well, at least we can call her “Holocaust Harris,” am I right? Because that’s not super fucking offensive to more than one group of people.
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Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner? He looks like a poor Tim Minchin impersonator.
I remember reading somewhere that it was likely something he picked up from his wife, as it is apparently not uncommon in India?
That could have been a lie, but honestly who cares how the guy chooses to dress or present? His views and words are toxic enough that we don’t need to resort to personal attacks on his appearance; calling him and his ilk ‘weird’ is more cutting to them than anything else.
I mean, he probably shouldn’t be talking about drag queens.
My problem with it, and this might be wrong so sorry if i am, is that he doesnt have a clue how the people he represents live. Politics have separated from the people and he doesnt recognize this. Instead of understanding his job or his land, he seem to care more for his looks. Its another little step in diverting from the people. I personally have no problem at all if someone just does what he/she likes as long as no boundaries are hurt. Im happy that this gets more common these days.
The best way to look at it is to ask “if he cared less about his appearance, and dressed more slovenly - would it excuse his abhorrent views and stances?”.
If the answer is no, then it should be a non-factor.
A cynical part of me thinks that some of the more outlandish politicians dress that way (Trump’s hair dye and fake tan, JD Vance’s guyliner, Boris Johnson’s unkempt hair, etc.) are done in part as an attempt to de-rail reporting by having us fall into the easy trap of ridiculing their appearance rather than criticising their views and actions.
While I do think this is an intended strategy for Boris Johnson (he’s admitted as much), I think the clown show which is Vance / Trump, and don’t forget Giuliani’s dripping hair dye, is not premeditated. That would be giving them too much credit.
I think they are just simply bumbling from one grift to the next, completely unaware of how ridiculous they look.
To me, it’s more about the fact that if any of his followers saw someone in makeup and decided they were a man in any other instance, they would treat that person like shit.
It’s to make them stand out, so you don’t confound them with other people.
Trump just looks like any old man without his ridiculous makeup.
The conservative folks I talk to always, always, always bring up the price of eggs and the price of gas when they are talking about how bad the economy is these days.
I’ve heard “Groceries have doubled in price.” many times. Obviously I can’t prove that’s not true for them, but then I ask what items that they buy regularly have doubled in price? The answer: “Eggs”.
Okay, so what else, I know that eggs alone do not make up your entire grocery bill? “Everything”. That’s pretty much all I get.
Even if they can tell me a few more things that have doubled in price, it’s basically going to be outliers or things I know for a fact they rarely/never buy. Like when it comes to the eggs, they’ll make claims like “eggs are $10 a dozen”, but when pressed about it, you find out they’re talking about the gourmet premium brand that’s always been way more expensive than the cheap ones and which they’ve never purchased in their entire lives.
Okay but groceries actually have doubled in price. Where they’re wrong is the blame. They blame Biden, who actually got the trust busting stick out. While giving a pass to GOP leaders who just keep blaming the poor while grocery chains gleefully price gouge us.
This. I actually drink water now beacuse soda is too fucking expensive
Good! Water is better for you and amazing. Get you one of those vacuum metal water bottles (hydroflask or knockoff) and fill that sucker with ice cubes and water and you’ll never need soda again (except as the occasional treat).
I consume a lot of cottage cheese. Pre-Covid the 48oz container I buy cost about $2.50. The price spiked to about $5.00 during quarantine and has since fallen down to about $3.00. There’s a lot of items that have followed similar trends and, while they’re more expensive than they were in early 2020, they’re not at their Covid spike prices which is what everyone seems to think.
I’m not a right winger and while I can’t give specifics exactly, I do basically buy the same things every week because I’m boring like that. All cheap stuff, no organic or gourmet anything. I can say that in the last say 18 months I went from spending $65-$80/week depending on whether I was restocking non food items, to spending $110-120/week. Not exactly double, but damn close.
To get it back to the 70ish I now just eat less and I don’t buy any extras like anything premade. :/
And are you stupid enough to blame this on the current Vice President? Or even the President?
The “gourmet premium eggs” (regular eggs laid by pastured chickens instead of life-in-a-tiny-cage chickens) also barely increased in price during the covid/bird flu/supply chain price gouge excuses.
Weird thing is, sometimes the “premium” eggs are cheaper than the standard eggs, because the prices don’t fluctuate nearly as much. I have a thing of cage free brown eggs in my fridge that was actually cheaper than the plain, white store brand eggs right now.
It’s one banana, Michael. How much can it cost?
Wow, not even in the Oval Office yet and Kamala is already fiddling with the “egg prices” dial on the Resolute desk.
Thanks to Kamala Harris’s inflationary policies
She’s VP. She doesn’t have to power to increase egg prices even if she wanted to. They really don’t know how to run against anyone but Biden, huh?
Find and Replace Biden with Kamala. That’s all they did lol.
